Biharean Biologist (2010) Vol. 4, No.2, Pp.: 161-167 P-ISSN: 1843-5637, E-ISSN: 2065-1155 Article No.: 041121 ©Biharean Biologist, Oradea, Romania, 2010 Biharean Biol. 4, 2010 http://biologie-oradea.xhost.ro/BihBiol/index.html Oradea, Romania Production of virus free commercial potato mini-tuber by meristem culture Taha ROODBAR-SHOJAEI 1 *, Mansoor OMIDI 2 , Niaz Ali SEPAHVAND 3 , Abdollah MOHAMMADI 1 , Arash FAZELI 4 , Roya MOTALLEBI-CHALESHTORI 5 and Abbas ABBASI-SAHEBI 6 1. Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Islamic Azad University, Karaj Branch, Karaj, Iran. 2. Department of Agronomy and Crop Breeding, College of Agriculture, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran. 3. Seed and Plant Improvement Institute, Karaj, Iran. 4. Faculty of Agriculture, Ilam University, Ilam, Iran. 5. Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran. 6. Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran. * Corresponding author, T.R. Shojaei, Email: tahashojaee2000@yahoo.com, Tel: +989161112856. Abstract. Potatoes are one of the major vegetable crops that are grown world –wide. Therefore, evaluation of varieties in production of virus free mini-tubers is critical. In this study the effects of different growth regulators were evaluated on meristem culture and sub culture of four potato cultivars. The best medium for primary establishment of meristem for Burren was MS medium containing 2 mgl -1 GA3, for Agria was MS containing 2.5 mgl -1 , for Marfona and Sante was MS containing 0.5 mgl -1 KIN + 3 mgl -1 GA3. The best media for subculture of virus free plantlets of Burren, Agria and Marfona was semi-solid MS medium containing 1.5 mgl -1 IBA + 0.5 mgl -1 BA + 2 mgl -1 GA3 and for Sante 0.5 mgl -1 IBA + 1.5 mgl -1 GA3. The DAS-ELISA test was conducted on the grown plantlet. The effects of substrate combination including four planting bed in mini-tuber production were evaluated. Keywords: potato, plant growth regulators, meristem culture, sub culture media, substrate combination, mini-tuber. Abbreviations: MS (Murashige and Skoog), BA (Butyric Acid), IBA (Indol Butyric Acid), NAA (Naphthalene Acetic Acid), GA3 (Gibberlic Acid), BAP (6-Benzyl-Amino Purine), KIN (6-Furfuryl amino purine), DAS- ELISA (double antibody sandwich ELISA), Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Introduction The potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) originates from the western hemisphere and the Andes mountain range in South America (Woolf 1986). Potatoes are one of the most important crops in the world today. It is considered to be the most important vegetable crop and is ranked fourth after rice, wheat and maize in terms of total production of fresh weight (Tadesse 2000). It had 20 million hectares planting area in the world in 2005 and 324.49 million tons (FAO 2007) were produced. The area under potato production in Iran is 189670 hectares and produces 25763 kilograms per hectare (Anonymous 2005). In the common environment conditions the potato is infected with 25 viruses and one viroid which X, Y, A and S viruses have a large effect in potato infection (Salazar 1996). Frequency of PVY and PLRV are higher than PVS and PVX (Bostan & Haliloglu 2004). Researchers reported that some viruses can decrease the yield by 40% lonely and in combination with other viruses the loss is 90% (Siddiqui et al. 1996). In Iran many of the used tubers have virus infection, and a virus free field is rarely found. The meristem in the virus infection plants have a minimum concentration of virus or are virus free and the best control method for potato viruses is production of healthy plants from meristem culture (Espinoza et al. 1992). The numerous and different tissue culture methods were done in potato as one of the first nutritional products (Wersuhn & Dathe 1998). These methods allow rapid multiplication of potato clones (Ahloowalia 1994). White (1943) reported the first production of virus free plantlets with tissue culture method. He showed that mosaic virus concentration in the old region of tomato roots is less than in the younger region. Producing mini-tubers from in vitro plantlets allows a faster multiplication rate in seed tuber pro- duction programs and reduces the number of field