Contamination by microrganism is known as one of the most serious problems in plant tissue cultures, especially, of tropical species. Most of the time, this contamination is derived from endophytic bacteria. With the objective of eliminating the endophytic bacteria Acetobacter diazotrophicus and Herbaspirillum spp., propagules of the cultivars Co 997, SP 70-1143 and shoot tips of sugarcane plants, from botanical biparental seed (RB 818004 x SP 71-6949) were cultivated in vitro in culture media with antibiotic. In the first experiment, propagules of the cultivars Co 997 and SP 70-1143 were cultivated in culture media with 200 and 300 mg.L-1 of amoxicilin and sodic cephatoxin for 30 days. In the second experiment, plants from the first one were transferred to culture media containing amoxicilin in concentrations of 300, 600 and 1000 mg.L-1 for more 30 days. In the third experiment, shoot tips were cultivated in culture media with 1000 mg.L-1 of amoxicilin during 120 days. After these cultivation periods, infection tests and histological observations revealed that bacteria were not eliminated from sugarcane tissues.
Contamination; bacteria; Saccharum sp
