In vitro propagation of Aronia melanocarpa (Michx.) Elliott

Aronia melanocarpa is a culinary, medicinal and cosmetic plant species, native to North America, cultivated also in Europe. The principal aim of this research was to elaborate an efficient protocol for the in vitro propagation of this species and establish a modern technology for the production of valuable planting material. Shoot tips and nodal stem pieces taken from one-year-old shoots were used as initial explants for the establishment of an in-vitro culture on Murashige and Skoog (1962) medium (MS) supplemented with 0.5 mg L-1 6-Benzyladenine (BA). Initiation percentage was 47%. For the multiplication stage, the following basal media were used: MS medium, Driver and Kuniyuki Walnut medium (DKW) and Woody Plant Medium (WPM) containing different concentrations of plant growth regulators. Microplants were successfully acclimatized (90%) in peat-perlite (1:1; v:v) substrate. With the aim to determine the highest possible number of subcultures, sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) analysis was carried out to check the genetic fidelity of in vitro plantlets and detect possible somaclonal variation.