NUSANTARA BIOSCIENCE ISSN: 2087-3948 Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 316-320 E-ISSN: 2087-3956 November 2016 DOI: 10.13057/nusbiosci/n080130 Proliferation of embryogenic callus of Satoimo taro (Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum) in culture media with various levels of sucrose and gelling agent HANI FITRIANI, PRAMESTI DWI ARYANINGRUM, N. SRI HARTATI Research Center for Biotechnology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences. Jl. Raya Bogor Km 46, Cibinong, Bogor 16911, West Java, Indonesia. Tel.: +62-21- 8754587, Fax.: +62-21-8754588, ♥ email: hfitriani76@yahoo.com Manuscript received: 5 October 2016. Revision accepted: 25 November 2016. Abstract. Fitriani H, Aryaningrum PD, Hartati NS. 2016. Proliferation of embryogenic callus of Satoimo taro (Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum) in culture media with various levels of sucrose and gelling agent. Nusantara Bioscience 8: 316-320. Satoimo taro (Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum) is one of the promising varieties of taro which have potentially high value to cultivated. Tissue culture or in vitro culture considers an economically useful technique to mass propagate this variety of taro. The research was conducted to find out the optimum media for proliferation success of embryogenic callus of Satoimo. The explants used embryogenic callus of 12- months-old storage materials were obtained from the previous study. Proliferation media include a basal half-strength MS salt (Murashige and Skoog) enriched with of 0.1 mg/L TDZ, 0.05 mg/L 2.4 D, and 100 mg/L L-glutamine. Adding to the basal media, we set the treatments by combining two factors i.e. Sucrose with three level of concentration i.e. 3, 4, and 5% which cross-tabulated with three gelling agents, i.e., Agarose, Phytagel, and Gerlite. The research parameters included the percentage of callus diameter growth, the color and callus discoloration, and the structure of callus. The data recorded periodically every 7 days in one month. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance and followed by Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) to determined the significant difference (p<0.05) among the treatments. The result revealed that the callus diameter growth has the greatest percentage at medium with a combination of Micro agar and sucrose 3%. The Micro-agar enhanced the presence of callus with yellow color. Phytagel combined with a high percentage of sucrose (5%) indicated a browning properties of callus. Gelrite cause the callus with discoloration appearance (white). Keywords: Embryogenic callus, in vitro culture, proliferation, Satoimo taro INTRODUCTION Satoimo taro, known as root crop, is herbaceous plant of Araceae family which commonly refers to the plant Colocasia esculenta. Other species of taro include Alocasia, Cyrtosperma, and Xanthosoma. Taro is cultivated all over the tropics and subtropics regions and planted in height around 0 - 1400 asl. It becomes a staple root crop for all over communities worldwide, particularly in majority of Asia, Pasific Island, West Africa, and Amazonian regions of south America. Indonesia is one of the important centre of taro domestication. The demand for Satoimo increases, which can be seen from the high increase of Satoimo utilization in food industry and also the high demand of this roots overseas especially in Japan. In vitro somatic embryogenesis is an important prerequisite for the use of many biotechnological tools for genetic improvement. The technique could have a great impact on high economically important plant and horticulture such as the guava, A. malaccensis Lam. (Akhtar 2013; Saikia et al. 2012; Lambardi et al. 2013). In modern breeding, somatic embryogenesis is an important system for vegetative propagation. It can be used to generate new plants from single cells. Recently, somatic embryos has attracted attention in plant biotechnology, because it provides useful systems to produce transgenic plants, as well as material for the production of artificial seeds (Jafarzadeh-Bajestani et al. 2011; Aswathi 2012). The technique has become an effective tool for genetic transformation purposes. Furthermore, embryogenic tissues have been proved as the best cell source for transgenic plant regeneration and also germplasm preservation through somatic cryopresevation in plant breeding program (Martinelli 1997). In this regard, embryonic structure becomes a preferred material for plant genetic improvement, because it has been known as a single cell, thus; somatic embryo derived-plant is easier to be controlled. Moreover, the regeneration of somatic embryogenesis may reduce the formation of chimeras (Suprasana et al. 2012). Based on the totipotency theory, the capability of the single plant cell to regenerate become intact plant can widely open opportunities to mass propagation, rapid proliferation, high quality of regeneration, the shorten waiting of the following reproductive season, resistance to diseases, nursery saving and germplasm conservation (Devi et al. 2014). Bajaj (1995) stated that somatic embryos are ideal materials for both short-term and long-term storage of plant germplasm due to their bipolar structure, which enable to be germinated as new plant seedling anytime. Several factors are affecting the success of somatic embryogenesis. These factors, including the genotype of