Micropropagation of Agave Species

Abstract

The genus Agave originates from the American continent and grows in arid and semiarid places, being México the center of origin. Many species of the genus are a source of diverse products for human needs, such as food, medicines, fibers, and beverages, and a good source of biomass for the production of biofuels, among many others. These plants are gaining importance as climate change becomes more evident as heat is reaching temperatures above 40 °C worldwide and rains are scarce. Many species of the genus grow in places where other plant species do not survive under severe field conditions, due to their CAM pathway for fixing CO where gas exchange occurs at night when stomata are open, allowing them to avoid excess loss of water. Most of the important species and varieties are usually propagated by offshoots that develop from rhizomes around the mother plant and by bulbils that develop up in the inflorescence, which are produced by the plant mostly when there is a failure in the production of seeds.Areas for commercial plantations are growing worldwide and therefore in the need of big amounts of healthy and good quality plantlets. Although many Agave species produce seeds, it takes longer for the plants to reach appropriate maturity and size for diverse purposes. Micropropagation techniques for the genus Agave offer the opportunity to produce relatively high amounts of plants year around in relatively small spaces in a laboratory. Here, a protocol for micropropagation that has proven good for several Agave species (including species from both subgenera) is presented in detail with two different kinds of explants to initiate the process: rescued zygotic embryos and small offshoots that grow around a mother plant.

In Vitro-Propagation of Agave tequilana Weber cv. azul in a Temporary Immersion System

“…1). This axillary shooting response, given this type of explant and the effects of phytohormones, up to our knowledge, has not been previously reported in Agave [3,4,10,11,16]. Nonetheless, Silos-Espino et al [16] reported that stem discs obtained by transversal segmentation of A. salmiana Gentry explants, produced less than two shoots per explant when placed on MS medium containing IAA 0.25 mg L −1 .…”

“…Each treatment consisted of six repetitions, where each one was represented by an explant (stem disk) divided Authors ensure 3-6 shoots using composed explants (2-3 shoots)/4 weeks; according to the species and/or variety. [3] into four segments in each culture container. The evaluation was carried out after 12 weeks of cultivation.…”

“…The growth of this crop in the origin denomination area (DOT, Spanish acronym) has generated the need to develop more efficient ways for multiplying the Agave tequilana plantlets, which must comply with the conditions of agro-industrial production. The in vitro-culture technique is an alternative that allows the annual production of large numbers of plants in small laboratory spaces, maintaining their genetic stability [1][2][3]. There are several reports on micropropagation of various Agave species, through distinctive systems of plant regeneration [4].…”

“…There are several reports on micropropagation of various Agave species, through distinctive systems of plant regeneration [4]. Plants were obtained by direct organogenesis from callus tissue [3,[5][6][7][8][9][10]. Multiple shoots were induced through basal meristems; and embryogenesis and indirect organogenesis were also used [11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

Agave: a natural renewable resource with multiple applications

“…On the other hand, agaves possess a crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), which allows them to thrive in dry areas. The need to increase the number of plantlets to grow agave in these arid zones or for commercial production should depend on micropropagation techniques 7,15–18 …”