Agriculture & Food, Volume 3, 2015

Rezumat: This work was done to explain the high genetic variation resulted from seed propagation of dioecious jojoba plant; and how a shrub with desirable characteristics can be selected and multiplied using in vitro techniques. Since the studied shrubs were obtained from seed propagation, they showed variations in seed characters, yield, shrub height, diameter of shrub canopy, stem contour, leaf area, nodal distance, number of flowers, flower density, and seed germination under NaCl stress. Some of these characters including leaf area, nodal distance, flower density, and seed weight and size were in correlation with yield. The shrub with high elite characters could be selected and efficiently multiplied using in vitro culture technique; it ensured availability of the plant materials throughout the year without negative effect on the vegetative growth of the mother plant. Effective protocol for in vitro multiplication was established on MS medium supplemented with 3 mg/l BAP, 0.01 mg/l NAA and 2 gm/l NaCl where one nodal segment resulted in182 shoots in 6.5 months. Fifty percent of these shoots formed roots on MS medium supplemented with 2 mg/l IBA, 1.3 mg/l NAA and 1.25 mg/l BAP.