Clones of Ananas comosus cultivar Smooth Cayenne were obtained from etiolated stem. The isolated nodes were cultivated for 90 days in macronutrient dilutions of Murashige & Skoog (1962) (MS): 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/60, 1/100 and the complete MS medium. After this period, from the 1/10 dilution the fresh and dry masses greatly reducing in the shoot. The same effect was observed in roots only at dilution 1/60. The highest endogenous nitrate content was observed in plants cultivated in MS. However the concentration of pigments remained constant until the 1/5 dilution, reducing significantly at higher dilutions. Our results suggested that plants of Ananas comosus variety Smooth Cayenne could be cultivated in vitro in an MS/5 dilution, without showing any significant difference in relation to the development of these plants cultivated in a complete MS medium.
Ananas comosus; bromeliad; chlorophyll; nitrate
