Computer-based tools provide new insight into the key factors that cause physiological disorders of pistachio rootstocks cultured in vitro.

During the in vitro culture of plants some physiological disorders caused major problems that have been associated with culture media composition. The objective of this study was to better understand the abnormal physiological response of two pistachio rootstocks to changes in culture media ingredients. On this purpose, two computer-based tools were employed: design of experiment (DOE) and neurofuzzy logic. DOE was employed to generate a five-dimensional IV-design spaces allowing to reduce the number of treatments from 6,250 to 61. The second one, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool, neurofuzzy logic, was used to understand the cause-effect relationships between the factors studied (25) and seven physiological disorders including shoot-tip necrosis (STN), leaf necrosis (LN), leaf color (LC), basal callus (BC) formation, shoot fasciation (SF), hyperhydricity and epinasty, typically described during pistachio in vitro culture. Four out of the seven disorders were successfully modeled, being significantly affected by a limited number of factors. STN and BC were significantly affected by the concentration of EDTA. However, while a low concentration of EDTA reduces the STN, promotes BC. LN and LC were strongly alleviated by high amounts of thiamine-HCl. Undoubtedly, the results demonstrate the importance of recording and using data related to physiological disorders along with growth parameters when developing suitable culture media for plant tissues. The computer-based tools have been useful to: i) well sample experimental design; ii) reduce the final number of treatments and the experimental work; iii) identify the key factors affecting each disorder; iv) get insight about the causes that promote the appearance of physiological disorders. Our findings demonstrate that the recently AI designed POM media, although not optimal, is the most suitable (favouring growth and limiting physiological abnormalities) media for in vitro culture of pistachio compared to those media, currently used.