PLANT CELL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

The study was carried out in the laboratory of Plant Tissue Culture at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Basra. Tubers of three certified Dutch cultivars of potato plant (Lizita, Arnova and Safari) were brought from the Horticulture Station for Potato Seed Production Project, Babel city, Iraq. The aim was to produce salinity- tolerant cells from the callus of three cultivars of potato Lizita, Arnova and Safari cultured on MS medium containing different concentrations of sodium chloride. The results of the study showed that callus of Lizita cultivar grew when cultured on MS media supplemented with 0, 80 and 100 mmol.L^-1 NaCl and did not grow at 120, 140 and 160 mmol.L^-1 NaCl after four weeks of culture. The Lizita and Arnova cultivars gave the highest fresh weight of callus compared with Safari cultivar after four weeks of culture. The control and 0.250 mmol.L^-1 salicylic acid + 120 mmol.L^-1 NaCl treatments improved the callus growth of Lizita cultivar after six weeks from culturing. However, when the callus of Lizita cultivar was subjected to NaCl at a concentration of 80 mmol.L^-1, only one additional protein band appeared on the gel. This treatment also indicated the appearance of four proteins with high molecular weight in the callus of Lizita cultivar, reached 225.000, 150.000, 100.000 and 75.000 kDa.