Comparative Studies on in Vitro Regeneration, Cell Culture and Artificial Seed Production in Eggplant (Solanum Melongena L.)

Abstract

Protocol establishment for cell culture and artificial seed production for improvement of agricultural crops is a new venture in Bangladesh. Both the research avenues are equally important to afford opportunities for the application of advance biotechnological tools. Towards the improvement of eggplant in Bangladesh, meristem culture, somatic embryogenesis and artificial seed production were the prime objectives of the present investigation. Widely cultivated two local cultivars namely cv. China and cv. Loda were taken for the present study. Different medium compositions were tested for sorting out efficient combinations for the better establishment of apical meristem culture, vital footstep towards developing virus-free cultivars. Shoot tips of 20-25 days old in vitro grown plants of the two cultivars were used for meristem isolation. For primary establishment of isolated meristems, 2.0 mgr1 BAP in MS liquid medium was found to be the most effective. MS semisolid medium having 0.50 mgr1 GA3 alone was found to be the best and 0.50 mgr1 GA3 + 2.0 mgr1 BAP appeared moderate formulation for shoot elongation from the primary established meristem. MS semisolid medium fortified with 3.0 mgr1 IBA was found to be the most effective for root induction. Embryogenic callus induction is the precondition for successful accomplishment of embryogenesis and cotyledon and midrib of the two cultivars were used for this purpose. Auxin-cytokinin combinations were proved more potent for embryogenic callus induction as well as callus growth than that of auxin tried singly in the media. MS medium supplemented with 2.0 mgr1 NM + 0.05 mgr1 BAP was proved to be the best media formulation for induction of embryonic cam in eggplant, when cotyledon showed 85.43% and 82.50% and midrib showed 83.30% and 84.50%, respectively for cv. China and cv. Loda. The embryonic Calli were harvested from the experiment and cultured in agarified MS media supplemented with different hormonal treatments to test their regeneration potentialities. Among the different treatments, 2.0 mgr1 Zeatin + 1.0 mgr1 BAP performed the best for regeneration. In this case, cotyledon showed highest regeneration frequency 87.33% and 86.50%, whereas midrib showed 82.15% and 79.75%, respectively for cv. China and cv. Loda.