A STUDY ON THE PROPAGATION OF FIGS BY THE TISSUE CULTURE TECHNIQUES

This research was carried out to investigate the possibilities of propagating Bursa Siyahi fig cultivar, which is one of the most important table figs in Turkey, by the meristem culture. Meristems have several advantages, including their greater genetic stability, the possibility of producing virus-free plants and the relative ease of in vitro propagation of many species. Meristematic cells are small, thin walled, highly cytoplasmic and non-vacuolated. In this study, excised meristems from 10-year-old trees were kept on Murashige-Skoog (MS) medium containing 7 g agar, 30 g sucrose, 100 mg myoinositol, 1.5 mg thiamine, 2 mg pyridoxine, 0.5 mg nicotinic acid and 2 mg glycine per litre for one week in the dark to avoid oxidation. The hormone added to the basic medium (mg/l) included benzyladenine (BA) 1 mg and naphthylacetic acid (NAA) 1 mg. The medium pH was adjusted to 5.8.

After 6 weeks of culture, 3 mg/l gibberellic acid (GA) was added in the nutrient medium. Meristems grew, but shoots did not, except one.