Abstract

The experiment was carried out in the Tissue Culture Laboratory of the College of Agriculture, University of Karbala to investigate the effect of growth regulators in micropropagation of the blue honeysuckle in vitro. The branches were cultivated by shoot tips in MS medium with five concentrations of each BA and Kin @ 0, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 mg/l and each concentration was mixed with IAA @ 0.2 mg/l at multiplication stage. At rooting stage, independent experiments were conducted using four concentrations of each IBA and NAA @ 0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 mg/l and each concentration was mixed with steady concentration of 0.2 mg/l of BA. The results indicated that marked differences were observed in plant growth characters under different concentrations of cytokines used. The cytokine concentration of 2.5 mg/l produced significantly higher number of branches, length of branch, and wet and dry weight of vegetative parts compared to control. As for the effect of cytokines type, the BA showed its ’superiority over other cytokines in terms of production of higher number of branches, length of branch, and wet and dry weight of vegetative parts. It was also observed that the auxin types and their concentrations significantly affected the number and length of roots and their wet and dry weights. The IBA concentration of 1.5 mg/l achieved significantly higher number of branches, length of branch, and wet and dry weight of vegetative parts of blue honeysuckle compared to control where no auxin was applied.