Effective Techniques for Explant Sterilization to Reduce Contamination in Gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii Bolus ex Hooker f.)

The use of green house grown gerbera explants for the production of contamination free in vitro plantlets is a major challenge due to presence of surface hairy growth at the emerging stage of flower bud and leaf. In the present experiment different sterilizing agents with different concentration and time were used to treat the excised flower bud and emerging leaf of gerbera. About 66% of flower buds explants remained free of contamination and of which 30% retained callus while the survival percentage was 50% in case of leaf explants sowing no sign of callus after 28 days of inoculation when cultured in MS media, each with different hormonal combination. Therefore, in the present work different sterilization treatment and explants excised techniques were tried to increase in the percentage of successfully established proliferating cultures.