Jornal de Bioquímica e Fisiologia Vegetal
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Inverse Oriented Stem Cuttings Generate Tuberous Stems in Cassava Manihot esculenta Crantz; An Alternative Sink Site

Judy Rouse- Miller, Valerie Bowrin, Grace Sirju- Charran and Fedora Sutton

Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is normally propagated by stem cuttings planted in a slanted, vertical or horizontal orientation. Axillary buds produce aerial shoot and adventitious roots are produced at the base (proximal end) of the cutting, some of which develop into tuberous roots. However, when cuttings are planted in an inverse, slanted or inverse straight orientation, the buried bases of the shoots which arise from underground buds swell. In this study, we determined that the stem swelling accumulates and store starch as do the tuberous root tubers. This phenomenon designated as inversion-induced stem tuberization, first detailed here, provides a system which could be used to study the roles of phytohormones and light.