Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2017) 6(10): 1633-1637 1633 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2017.610.196 Effect of Media pH on Shoot Proliferation of Papaya (Carica papaya L.) Neeharika Kanth * , Anil K. Singh and M.M. Syamal Department of Horticulture, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221 005, (U.P.), India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Papaya is an important fruit crop of tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It is regarded as the “wonder fruit” of tropics and subtropics. It is a fruit of high nutritive value and commercial significance. Scientifically, it is named Carica papaya L. Papaya belongs to family Caricaceae which includes 35 species, placed in six genera (Ming et al., 2007). Commercially, Carica papaya is the most important species in the genus Carica, being cultivated widely for consumption as fresh fruit and for use in drinks, jam, jellies, ice- creams, pies and as dried and crystallized fruit. It is highly popular crop because of its high demand as a multi-purpose fruit, not only as dessert fruits but also as a source for chemical compounds for medicinal use like papain, chymopapain and carpaine. Even though grafting and budding techniques have been successful, they are not commercially practised, since the number of plants produced per mother plant is limited. Thus, the use of micro propagation techniques, which can be used to produce a large number of true to type high quality planting material is an essential requirement in papaya cultivation. Furthermore, tissue culture techniques can be used as an important tool in crop improvement programmes since they help to overcome the problems experienced in conventional International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 10 (2017) pp. 1633-1637 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com An experiment was conducted to study the effect of media pH on shoot proliferation of papaya using shoot tip and axillary bud as explant. The experiment was conducted in Completely Randomized Design with ten treatments and three replications. The aim of the experiment was to study the effect of media sucrose concentration on shoot proliferation while using shoot tip and axillary bud as explant. The different parameters taken for study were number of shoots per explant, length of shoot (cm) and culture response (%). The data stated that increasing the pH had a positive effect on these parameters upto some extent, but when pH was increased from 5.7, the different parameters showed a decreasing trend. The most suitable pH for shoot proliferation can be registered to be 5.7. Keywords pH, shoot tip, Axillary bud, Shoot proliferation, Culture response. Accepted: 14 September 2017 Available Online: 10 October 2017 Article Info