Aronia (Aronia melanocarpa) is a black, small-fruited, bush-formed, deciduous, perennial berry type of fruit originating from North America in the Maloideae sub-family of the Rosaceae family, the Aronia genus. Its green leaves turn red in autumn. A. melanocarpa plant is a species that can be sizeable to 90–180 cm, has a fruit diameter of 6–13 mm, and a fruit weight ranging from 0.5-2 g. Its fruits are in the form of clusters and there are 8 to 14 fruits in each cluster. Its mature plants yield 10–15 kg of fruit per plant (Kokotkiewicz et al. 2010; Engin, 2020). When the fruits are ripe, they can be harvested by hand or with a mechanical harvesting machine (Engin 2020). It is reported that it consists of three species: A. melanocarpa Elliot (black aronia), A. butifolia (red aronia) and A. prunifolia (purple aronia) (Hardin 1973). A. prunifolia is considered by many to be an inter species hybrid between A. arbutifolia and A. melanocarpa (Brand 2010). Recently, A. mitschurinii has been identified as a fourth Aronia species, a large-fruited species cultivated in orchards (Leonard et al. 2013; Brand 2016).
Aronia is a type of fruit that has a high tolerance to various environmental conditions and can be grown in a wide variety of climates (Rusea et al. 2019). Aronia is not drought tolerant. On the other hand, it can withstand temperatures below − 30°C (Engin 2020).
Aronia, besides being an ornamental plant, with preventive and curative properties diseases an important plant species with great potential as a new fruit species. Aronia, besides being an ornamental plant, with preventive and curative properties diseases, an important plant species with great potential as a new fruit species. as well as evaluating as an ornamental shrub, Aronia melanocarpa is the decorative fall coloration that makes it very popular (Hirvi and Honkanen 1985). They are also plants that require very little landscape maintenance (Brand 2016; Pırlak and Almokar 2018). It is a valuable landscape plant and small-grained fruit species that is becoming increasingly popular due to its high nutritional value and medicinal properties (Valcheva-Kuzmanova and Belcheva 2006; Kulling and Rawel 2008; Walther and Schnell 2009; Kokotkiewicz et al. 2010). There are aronia varieties with superior yield and fruit quality, and its cultivation is spreading all over the world (Rusea et al. 2019).
Aronia berries have higher anthocyanin content and antioxidant capacity compared to other fruits. The antioxidant effect of its berries is much greater than that of cranberries, elder-berries and blackberries, or even blackcurrants (Litwińczuk 2012). Its fruits are rich in vitamin, mineral and folic acid. Aronia has a healing effect on metabolic diseases due to its rich bioactive compounds. Its positive effects on diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, urinary tract infections, eye inflammation and diseases, and various viral diseases have been revealed as a result of studies conducted for many years. In addition, it has an antiproliferative effect on some cancer cells (Engin 2020).
Its black colored fruits are consumed fresh when fully ripe. In addition to its fresh consumption, it is widely used in the production of fruit juice, dried fruit, sauce, jam, sherbet, ice cream, cake and as a food supplement in the food industry (Engin 2020). Black aronia berries are used in the food industry and pharmaceutics (Litwińczuk 2012). Commercially, aronia is mainly used for juice. Apart from this, there are also uses such as food coloring, tea, syrup and fruit colorant. In Russia, apple and aronia juices are combined-mixed and fermented to produce red wine. In Europe the fruit juice, often by mixing with apple juice, gives a blush to the juice (Smith and Ringenberg 2003; Pırlak and Almokar 2018).
Aronia is a relatively new type of fruit in Turkey, but the growing demand for the fruit is encouraging many farmers to grow aronia. A fast and reliable clonal propagation protocol is needed to obtain sufficient seedlings from commercially important aronia cultivars to meet the demands of growers (Rusea et al. 2019).
Aronia can be easily propagated by seed. However, this method is not recommended due to genetic variation, late maturation of plants, vigorous and non-homogeneous growth, and plants not suitable for mechanical harvesting (Litwińczuk 2012). Except this traditionally, aronia plants can also be propagated by rooting green cuttings and wood cuttings (Rusea et al. 2019). The use of biotechnological methods such as micropropagation, other than traditional methods, provides high quality, disease-free and homogeneous growing plants. Thanks to modern and advanced developments in biotechnology, it has a great importance in the production of commercial plants, especially in the propagation of economically important plants. Biotechnology tools such as micropropagation and in vitro culture offer a valuable alternative in combating viruses and managing genetic resources. In vitro micropropagation often represents a fast, economical and safe technique for propagating valuable species and varieties of trees and shrubs (Şuţan et al. 2017). The easiest way to propagate is to use in vitro techniques, following micropropagation technology (Pırlak and Almokar 2018).
Plants obtained by micropropagation are mostly free of disease factors. Apart from that, micropropagation is the fastest clonal propagation method, the demands of the market can be met year-round with micro propagation, it is possible to produce continuously because it is independent of environmental conditions, and high number of plants can be obtained in a short time thanks to its high propagation coefficient (Nas 2021).
Black aronia is a relatively new crop and only a few cultivars or propagation clones are known and bred. Because micropropagation is much more efficient than other traditional cloning methods, rapid reproduction of new, valuable species of aronia must be developed. Few studies have so far been conducted on the in vitro propagation of aronia (Litwińczuk 2012; Rusea et al. 2019).
Being can done Aronia cultivation easily, being a very productive species, being can grown in different soil types, not to be damaged by late spring frosts due to late blooming, besides having many advantages such as resistance to diseases and pests, considering the importance of the its fruits in human nutrition, its positive effect on metabolic diseases and its features such as having a wide usage network and having a wide usage network, it is seen that aronia is one step ahead of many other fruit types (Engin 2020).
A fast and reliable clonal propagation protocol is needed to obtain sufficient seedlings from the commercially important the 'Viking' aronia variety to meet the growing demands of growers for aronia fruit. The main purpose of this study is to develop an in vitro clonal propagation protocol for the 'Viking' aronia variety.