Influence of lightculture on obtaining planting material of Ipomoea batatas (L.) in vitro

The current article presents the results of the influence of lighting conditions on the morphogenetic potential of Ipomoea batatas (L.) microcuttings in vitro. The studied objects were 4 sweet potato cultivars - Jewel, Purple, Porto Rico, Vinnitsa pink. Microcuttings of I. batatas were cultivated in vitro. We used nutrient medium with mineral salts (according to the prescription of Murashige and Skoog (MS)) and medium only with distilled water (without mineral salts). All nutrient media contained sucrose 2% and agar 0.7%. Hormones were not added to the nutrient media. We studied the influence of the different red (R) and far red (FR) ratios, as well as the red and blue light spectrum on the formation of microshoots and the root system. It was shown that the lighting regimes (R and FR ratio) had a stimulating effect on the roots and shoots growth regardless of the medium composition. Moreover, significant results were obtained under conditions of complete nutrition (mineral salts according to MS) in contrast to the control treatment (fluorescent lamps) and the treatment without salts. The best results were obtained at the R=FR treatment. This light treatment can be recommended for inclusion in the technology of clonal micropropagation of sweet potato. When red and blue spectra were added to normal illumination in different proportions, it did not lead to an increase in the morphogenetic potential of cultivated explants. The growth rate (μ) of the main shoot from axillary buds was about 2 times less than in the control treatment.