Review ArticleIn vitropropagation of kiwifruit

SummaryKiwifriut has gained enormous popularity in the past two decades in many countries of the world and is in great demand due to its nutritional and medicinal value. For commercialization of this crop and to meet the growing demand for planting material, tissue and organ culture techniques are being used as alternative methods for propagation in many countries. Until now, most of the work has been on plant regeneration by adventitious organogenesis from callus which may result in phenotypic variation in plants. Only a few reports are available using explants from mature vines, which is desirable to maintain uniformity and genetic purity. Hardening and acclimatization of this fruit requires more attention as hairless thin roots produced in vitro die shortly after transplanting to soil. This makes the establishment of small plants a difficult proposition. From the literature cited, it is evident that kiwifruit is highly amenable for in vitro studies as various explants have been favourably found to respond to different culture media with different types and concentrations of growth regulators.