Murashige-Skoog (MS)
[62] and Woody Plant Medium (WPM)
[63] are the most frequently used basic media for in vitro shoot culture, supplements such as PGRs can affect significantly the survival of explants. Very low rate of shoot initiation (5.4–21.6% depending on genotypes) could be achieved from sweet potato (
Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) meristems on medium without PGRs
[57], while Kaushal et al.
[45] did not observe any organogenesis on gentian (
Gentiana kurroo Royle) explants cultured on medium lacking PGRs. Similarly, Anisuzzaman et al.
[46] could not detect any development on okra (
Abelmoschus esculentus L. (Moench.)) meristems cultured on medium without any PGR. Application of NAA and GA
3 alone failed to induce shoot development from meristem explants of ‘Brondal’ sweet potato (
I. batatas (L.) Lam.) cultivar, while addition of 1 mg/L BA alone to medium induced the shoot regeneration at about a 1% rate. The presence of BA either alone or combined with NAA or GA
3 was proven to be necessary for shoot initiation
[64]. BA level was crucial to increase the shoot initiation percentage of other cultivars of sweet potato (
I. batatas (L.) Lam.), which increased as BA level increased from 0.1 to 2.0 mg/L (‘Lo-323’ and ‘Zapallo’) or to 5.0 mg/L (‘Belella’ and ‘Temesgen’). Although 100% regeneration rate were observed in ‘Belella’ and ‘Temesgen’ cultured on medium with 5.0 mg/L BA, the shoots were dwarf and highly multiplied. In the case of ‘Lo-323’ and ‘Zapallo’ genotypes, application of 2.0 mg/L BA resulted in the best shoot initiation rates (90% and 80%, respectively) and shoots were of good quality
[44]. Lower level of BA (1.0 mg/L) was found to be optimum for ‘Awassa-83’, ‘Guntute’, and ‘Awassa local’ sweet potato (
I. batatas (L.) Lam.) cultivars, which resulted in shoot induction at more than 60.0% of the rate of isolated meristems
[57]. High regeneration rate (83%) could be achieved by using 1.0 mg/L BA and 0.5 mg/L IAA for culture of gentian (
G. kurroo Royle) meristems
[45]. The same level of BA applied alone as PGR resulted in the best survival rates (72% and 67%) in meristem cultures of both okra (
A. esculentus L. (Moench.)) genotypes ‘Parbhani Kranti’ and ‘SL-44’
[46]. In meristem cultures of grapevine (
Vitis vinifera L.) with increase of both cytokinins (BA and KIN) level (from 0.0 to 1.0 mg/L), the amount of formed callus increased, especially in the case of BA
[65]. Combination of 0.1 mg/L BA with 0.015 mg/L KIN was the best in the shoot induction medium also for sugarcane (
Saccharum spp. L., ‘NCo376’) meristems, resulting in a 100% regeneration rate and high shoot number per meristem (13.7), while those meristems cultured on medium without KIN (0.5 and 2.0 mg/L BA) yielded less than five shoots per meristem, although their regeneration rates were different: 55% and 100%, respectively. However, the lowest regeneration response (50%) and quite a few shoots (six per explant) were detected on meristems grown on medium with a combination of 2.0 mg/L BA and 1.0 mg/L KIN, supplemented with 0.5 mg/L NAA
[52]. Sweet potatoes (
I. batatas (L.) Lam) tended to respond to unfavorable cytokinin content of the medium with undesirable callus formation: use of thidiazuron (TDZ) or BA led to callus formation and failed in shoot induction
[52]. When cultivars responded to BA with abundant callus development, the KIN also could be used efficiently for meristem cultures in several sweet potato (
I. batatas (L.) Lam) genotypes; when 2.0 mg/L KIN was added to medium with 0.5 mg/L GA
3, the survival rates of explants varied between 62.5% and 79.2% depending on genotypes
[47]. The best shoot initiation responses (75% survival rate of isolated meristems with high vigor) were obtained by application of liquid Murashige–Skoog medium (MS)
[62] with 2.0 mg/L KIN and 0.5 mg/L GA
3 without any kind of callus development
[52]. The same PGR combination (2.0 mg/L KIN and 0.5 mg/L GA
3) was the most effective for summer squash (
Cucurbita pepo L.) regeneration (75.5% and 69.27% regeneration rates) from meristem in the case of ‘Bulum’ and ‘Rumbo’, respectively
[48]. Addition of 0.5 mg/L GA
3 to meristem culture medium containing 2.0 mg/L KIN increased the survival rate by about 14% in average of seven sweet potato (
I. batatas (L.) Lam.) genotypes, compared those cultured on the medium without GA
3 [47]. GA
3 level had to be increased from 1.0 to 2.0 mg/L to achieve the best regeneration rate (63.3%) in ‘Awassa local’ sweet potato (
I. batatas (L.) Lam.) cultivar
[57]. Even a much higher level GA
3 (up to 20 mg/L) also enhanced the shoot regeneration in the case of ‘Brondal’ sweet potato (
I. batatas (L.) Lam.) cultivar; regardless, there were no significant differences between shoot regeneration capability of meristems cultured on media with 5.0, 10.0, and 20.0 mg/L GA
3 content. However, the most shoots were obtained on the medium containing 10.0 mg/L GA
3 due to multiplied shoots developed on meristems
[64].
Application of more than 0.05 mg/L of NAA in the medium of sweet potato (
I. batatas (L.) Lam) meristem culture led to formation of abundant calli without the ability of shoot regeneration
[57]. Addition of 0.1 mg/L isopentyl adenosine (IPA) to the culture initiation medium containing 0.2 mg/L BA and 0.1 mg/L NAA also resulted in significantly higher rate of fig (
Ficus carica L.) explants (58.3–81.3%), showing callus development on three of the four varieties tested, compared to the medium without IPA (20.4–62.2%). However, no callus development was observed in ‘Soltani’ cultivar on medium with IPA, this variety was also characterized by poor callus development (0–8.75%) on other media
[55]. Excised sweet potato (
I. batatas (L.) Lam.) meristems preferred the culture on the liquid medium instead of the semi-solid medium, where the majority of explants were not responsive enough, maybe due to the higher accessibility of the nutrients and water in the liquid medium compared to the semi-solid medium
[52]. Application of the liquid medium was also preferred for species that suffered from polyphenolic browning, because the toxic molecules (quinone compounds) are less able to accumulate around the explants
[40]. Inhibition of production of phenolic molecules by addition of 2-aminoindane-2-phosphonic acid (AIP) into the medium can reduce the rate of browning as was reported in
Artemisia annua L.,
Ulmus americana L., and
Acer saccharinum L. in vitro cultures
[66]. Addition of antioxidants to the medium or as pre-treatment for mother plants, such as phloroglucinol (PG), ascorbic acid (AA), citric acid (CA), etc., can prevent the browning of meristem cultures
[55][67][68]. Adsorption of toxic materials by application of activated charcoal (AC) in the medium also frequently used solution in tissue cultures
[69]. Application of 2.0 g/L AC in culture initiation medium can also enhance the regeneration ability of meristems isolated from several grapevine (
V. vinifera L.) cultivars
[70].
Shoot length of sweet potato (
I. batatas L. Lam) cultivars varied depending on the genotypes and BA level added to the shoot initiation medium. After three months of culture period, the longest shoots (8.8 cm) developed on ‘LO-323’ explants on medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/L BA, while similar growth was observed in ‘Belella’ (8.2 cm) on the medium with 1.0 mg/L BA. The shortest shoots developed on ‘Zapallo’ explants, where the best results (2.9 cm) were obtained by application of 1.0 mg/L BA
[44]. Although significantly more shoots developed on the meristems of grapevine (
V. vinifera L.) cultured on media supplemented with BA (0.2–1.0 mg/L) compared to those induced by media with the same levels of KIN, the shoot elongation was greatly inhibited
[65]. In the case of different sized grapevine (
V. vinifera L., ‘Flame Seedless’) meristems explants (0.5 and 1.0 mm), the number of shoots were almost the same (0.9–1.0 shoots per explant) when meristems were cultured on cytokinin-free medium. However, when they were grown on media containing BA (0.5–1.5 mg/L), significantly more shoots developed on the larger explant. Increasing the BA concentration from 0.5 to 1.0 mg/L in media also significantly increased the number of shoots, while a further increase to 1.5 mg/L no longer resulted in a further significant change. In any case, the higher number of shoots was accompanied by a decrease in the length of the shoots
[58]. In the case of ‘Brondal’ sweet potato (
I. batatas L. Lam) cultivar, the significantly longest shoots (up to 20 mm) developed on medium supplemented with 10.0 mg/L GA
3, compared to those shoots (<14 mm) grown on media with 0.0 and 5.0 mg/L GA
3, each medium contained also 1.0 mg/L BA, while the length of shoots regenerated on the medium with 20.0 mg/L GA
3 did not differ from either
[64]. The PGR content in the medium can be supposed to be the most determining factor affecting the rate of shoot growth from the isolated meristem.