Efficacy and utilization of fungicides and other antibiotics for aseptic plant cultures

In vitro plant culture which encompasses cell, ti ssue, organ and also embryo culture has been a vital technique for mass multiplication of plants (propagules), elimination of plant diseases thorough meristematic tissue culture technique, plant conservation (through cryopreservation) and crop im provement through gene transf er (Pierik, 1987; George, 1993; Singh & Chand, 2003; Sarasan et al., 2011). In vitro culture techniques have been used to shorten breeding cycles of plants and to achi eve genetic transformation (Singh & Chand, 2003). Despite the several merits of in vitro culture techniques to the modern world where plant diseases, flower/fruit abortions and low plant regeneration capacity are major challenges, many developing countries, especially in Africa do not utilize them to address the numerous challenges in crop production and improvements. This is mainly due to the high investment costs in equipment, chemic als and intensive and skilled labor demands (Sarasan et al., 2011). The high costs for equipment, water, chemicals (such as plant growth hormones or regulators, surface sterilants, disinfectants etc.) and culture losses due to in vitro culture contamination among many others can cripple several in vitro plant culture techniques in many developing countries, especially in Africa. Possibly, this is the main reason we have limited or no interest to invest in tissue cu lture laboratories in Africa, except for the academic institutions for the sole purpose of learning the technique.

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