Enhancing In Vitro Multiplication of some Olive Cultivars Using Silver, Selenium And Chitosan Nanoparticles

Abstract Olive trees are commercially propagated by cuttings or grafting on clonal or seedling rootstocks; recently, olive micropropagation has emerged as a powerful technique for mass production of true to type and pathogen free plants. The current study was carried out to evaluate the effect of silver, chitosan and selenium nanoparticles as microbial decontamination agents, as well as evaluate its possible effects on in vitro shoot growth and multiplication of three olive cultivars namely Koroneiki, Picual and Manzanillo. Validation and characterization of the biosynthesized nanoparticles was carried out by Transmission Electron Microscopy. The produced nanoparticles were added to the olive culture medium, and the growth parameters were determined. The tested nanoparticles showed varied degree of antimicrobial activity, silver nanoparticles were highly effective to inhibit in vitro microbial contamination. The effect of genotypes on shoot growth and multiplication was significant; Koroneiki and Picual cultivars showed better growth measurements compared with Manzanillo. The addition of nanoparticles to the culture medium had a significant outcome on growth and multiplication rate of in vitro growing olive shoots. Silver nanoparticles produced higher values of number of shoots, shoots length, leaf number and multiplication rate compared with the other treatments. In conclusion; the current results showed that nanoparticles were efficient as in vitro disinfectant agent and the nanoparticles addition to culture medium especially silver NPs had a positive effect on growth and multiplication rate of in vitro growing olive shoots.