Plant In vitro culture goes nano: Nanosilver-mediated decontamination of Ex vitro explants

Abstract

Plant tissue culture is a basic and fundamental component of plant biotechnology, and progress in different fields of biotechnology greatly depends on the improvement of this technique. Nowadays, nanomaterials especially Nanosilver [NS], are regularly being used as an antimicrobial agent in medical and environmental fields. In order to assay the efficiency of NS in sterilizing plant seeds and fragile tissues, such as leaf and cotyledon, two important model plants, Arabidopsis and tomato, as well as potato as an important cultivated crop, were used as explants in this study. Briefly, samples soaked in different concentrations of NS with various exposure times, and then transferred onto the MS medium. Results showed that at lower concentrations, NS could function as an antimicrobial agent with no side effect on the explant viability, and consequently, all decontaminated seeds germinated, and leaf and cotyledon explants survived. © 2013 Mahna N, et al.