Automation in micropropagation through temporary immersion techniques

Several research activities have been carried out on automation in micropropagation recently and many liquid media systems for tissue culture have been used. In this work the method of temporary immersion has been tested for in vitro propagation of strawberry, pear, apple and an aquatic plant (Hygrophila corymbosa subsp. stricta). The stationary liquid, agarized substrate and temporary immersion were compared. The temporary immersion in strawberry doubled shoot number compared to agar or stationary liquid culture. In pear, the result changes according to the genotype, the temporary immersion technique revealed to be highly efficient to prevent the apices necrosis. For all the species, with the exception of some pear cultivars, the best results were obtained with temporary immersion at 60 min per daily cycle.