<![CDATA[Availability of inexpensive and efficient tissue culture methods is needed in the development of mass propagation methods. The efficiency can be obtained through the use of low cost media components such as granulated sugar. The study aimed to determine the efficiency of cacao somatic embryo development medium using granulated sugar and its effect on somatic embryo formation. The study was conducted at Tissue Culture Laboratory for Superior Seed Development, IAARD, Bogor, from March to October 2016. Formation and maturation of somatic embryos was conducted using DKW medium without growth regulators. The treatments tested were carbon sources in the media (laboratory grade sucrose; a mixture of sucrose and granulated sugar with a ratio of 3:1, 2:2 and 1:3; granulated sugar) and cacao genotypes (Sca 6 and ICCRI 4). The study used in a randomized complete block design in factorial 2 favtors with 8 replications, which consisted of 10 explants per experimental unit. The results showed that carbon sources and genotypes significantly affected somatic embryos formation, whereas the interaction effect was not significant. The use of granulated sugar 30 g/l produced approximately 35.3% of somatic embryo formation and 3.5 somatic embryos per explant, which is not significantly different from sucrose 30 g/l (31.1% and 4.1), whereas the mixture of sucrose and granulated sugar produced the lowest average percentage of somatic embryo formation and the number of somatic embryos per explant (20.3%, 18.8%, 17.8% and 1.5; 2.2; 2.8 respectively). The low-cost somatic embryogenesis method was successfully developed with an efficiency of 98.8% per liter of media.]]>
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