Chromosome stability in culture derived plants of Holarrhena antidysenterica Wall. and study of differentiating tissues using SEM

Abstract

High frequency in vitro regeneration in Holarrhena antidysenterica had been previously achieved successfully using Murashige and Skoog’s medium(MS) fortified with 15μM BA. Stability in culture regenerated plants have been observed by studying the changes in chromosome numbers as well as changes in DNA content using cytophotometric data. Somatic chromosomes from regenerated plants revealed a diploid chromosome complement of 2n=22 and confirms the same chromosome number of in vivo plants. No changes in ploidy level were observed which confirm previously reported finding that culture regenerated plants were clonally uniform and lacked somaclonal variation. Stability among regenerants of different stages has also been confirmed using 4C nuclear DNA estimates. Variation in callus morphology and somatic embryo has been observed in culture conditions using various sets of growth regulators. Such changes in morphological patterns have been studied using Scanning Electron Microscopic techniques.

Key words:

• MS - Holarrhena antidysenterica
• in vitro regeneration
• callus morphology
• scanning electron microscopy