Investigation of ZnO Nanoparticles on In ‎Vitro Cultures of Coffee (Coffea Arabica ‎L.) ‎

Tissue culture is a promising technique to produce a large number of true to type plants in coffee. One of the major obstacles encountered in in-vitro propagation is the high percentage of contamination of explants which is mainly observed when field grown plants are used as the source of explants. Several research studies were carried out to reduce the percentage of microbial contamination either using disinfectants during explant preparation or antifungal and anti-bacterial chemicals in media. The present paper elucidates the effect of ZnO Nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) in reducing contamination and enhancing recovery of in vitro cultured leaf explants of arabica coffee (Coffea arabica). MS media containing ZnO-NP at three different concentrations were tested in an improved hybrid line of Coffea arabica (S.4595). Among the various concentrations tested, media containing 25mg/L of ZnO-NPs showed maximum recovery of explants. ZnO-NPs also positively influenced the induction of callus and somatic embryos which was significantly higher than the control. Keywords