MICROPROPAGATION OF ADULT TREE OF PTEROCARPUS MARSUPIUM ROXB. USING NODAL EXPLANTS

Abstract

Attempts were made for in vitro propagation of Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb., belonging to family Fabaceae, an economically important multipurpose tree. The tree is scared with noval antidiabetic properties. The tree shows poor seed germination capacity (30%) due to hard seed coat and conventional vegetative regeneration methods are a complete failure. Therefore, the propagation of this tree by tissue culture techniques is an urgent need and well justified. Nodal segments containing axillary bud from 10 years old tree of P. marsupium were evaluated for axillary shoot proliferation on Murashige and Skoog’s (MS) basal medium fortified with BAP (6–benzylaminopurine) and kinetin (Kn) singly or in combinations with auxins at different concentrations. The best shoot proliferation was obtained with 13.95 µM Kn + additives (568 µM Ascorbic acid, 260 µM Citric acid, 605 µM Ammonium sulphate and 217 µM Adenine sulphate) in MS medium where 64.44% of the axillary buds responded with development of (2.51±0.10) shoots. Multiplication of in vitro shoots were achieved on MS Medium supplemented with Kn (9.30 µM) + NAA (0.54 µM) and additives. Half strength MS medium supplemented with 4.92 µM IBA induced in vitro rooting of in vitro shoots. In vitro regenerated plantlets with well developed roots were successfully hardened in a greenhouse.

Keywords

• acclimatization
• Fabaceae
• in vitro
• recalcitrant
• tissue culture