Abstract
<jats:p>Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is an important food security crop in developing countries, but production is constrained by virus-infected planting material from vegetative propagation. This study evaluated selected combinations of plant growth regulators (PGRs) for in vitro propagation of orange-fleshed sweet potato cv. 'Kulfo'. Nodal and apical shoot explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with different combinations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and gibberellic acid (GA₃) for shoot initiation, BAP and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) for multiplication, and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and NAA for rooting. Among the treatments tested, MS medium with 0.5 mg L⁻¹ BAP and 0.1 mg L⁻¹ GA₃ gave the highest shoot regeneration (62% from nodal and 59% from apical explants). For multiplication, 1.0 mg L⁻¹ BAP with 0.1 mg L⁻¹ NAA produced the highest shoot number (7.2 shoots per explant). Half-strength MS medium with 0.1 mg L⁻¹ IBA and 0.1 mg L⁻¹ NAA resulted in the best rooting response (13.3 roots per shoot). Plantlets from the best-performing treatment achieved 98.0% survival during acclimatization. However, the limited PGR concentrations tested mean that these results should be considered preliminary. Further optimization using broader concentration gradients is needed to establish a truly optimized protocol. This study provides a foundation for developing cultivar-specific micropropagation protocols for sweet potato in Ethiopia.</jats:p>