Screening and Evaluation of Agronomically useful Somaclonal Variation in Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.)

Abstract

As a prerequisite to induce somaclonal variation, methods and techniques for optimizing the condition for meristem culture, callus induction and subsequent plant regeneration from the callus tissue and somatic embryogenesis were evaluated. The meristems were inoculated with different concentration of plant growth regulators. Various concentrations and combinations of plant growth regulators remarkably influenced in resuming growth of meristem. Among the various concentrations of hormonal formulation in MS medium GA3 + BA were found effective in growth, rejuvenation and subsequent shoot development. Among the different treatments, MS medium fortified with 0.5 mg/1 each of GA3 and BA was found to be the most effective in increasing the growth of meristems. For callus induction, leaf explants from in vitro grown plants were cultured on to MS medium supplemented with different concentrations and combinations of plant growth regulators (2,4-D, NAA and BA) and the culture were incubated in dark at 25±1 °c. Among the different PGR formulations 2.0 mg/1 NAA with 0.5 mg/1 BA was found to be the most effective media formulation in terms of% of explants induced to develop callus and the degree of callus growth. In present study, indirect shoot regeneration was obtained by subculturing the calli onto regeneration medium and incubating the culture at 25±1 °c in 16h/8h light/dark environment. -------------