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In vitro propagation via organogenesis and synthetic seeds of Urginea altissima (L.f.) Baker: a threatened medicinal plant

3 Biotech volume 8, Article number: 18 (2018) Cite this article

Abstract

Efficient in vitro propagation systems via organogenesis and synthetic seeds were developed for the first time for conservation and commercial propagation from leaf or longitudinal thin cell layer (lTCL) leaf or shoot-tip explants of Urginea altissima. Various plant growth regulators and phloroglucinol were used in semi-solid and liquid Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium to establish multiplication of shoots and roots for in vitro regeneration. Of the various treatments, the highest number of shoots (17.4 per lTCL leaf explant) was obtained on liquid MS medium supplemented with 10 µM meta-Topolin (mT) and 2 µM benzyladenine followed by transferal to semi-solid MS media. The shoot tips were encapsulated with liquid MS medium plus 3% (w/v) sodium alginate and 100 mM calcium chloride. Adventitious shoot regeneration (91.0%; 12.6 shoots per synthetic seed) of synthetic seeds was achieved on semi-solid MS medium supplemented with 10 µM mT and 2 µM naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) after 15 days of storage in darkness at 25 ± 2 °C. Regenerated shoots rooted (9.8 roots per shoot; 6.5 cm long) efficiently when transferred to 5 µM indole-3-butyric acid and 2.5 µM NAA. All the plantlets were successfully acclimatized (100%) in a vermiculite:soil (1:1 v/v) mixture in the greenhouse.

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Acknowledgements

The financial support by the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg is gratefully acknowledged.

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  1. Research Centre for Plant Growth and Development, School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg, Private Bag X01, Scottsville, 3209, South Africa

    Ponnusamy Baskaran, Aloka Kumari & Johannes Van Staden

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  1. Ponnusamy Baskaran
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  2. Aloka Kumari
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  3. Johannes Van Staden
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Correspondence to Johannes Van Staden.

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Baskaran, P., Kumari, A. & Van Staden, J. In vitro propagation via organogenesis and synthetic seeds of Urginea altissima (L.f.) Baker: a threatened medicinal plant. 3 Biotech 8, 18 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-017-1028-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-017-1028-7

Keywords

  • Ex situ conservation
  • In vitro regeneration
  • Liquid culture
  • Medicinal plant
  • Synthetic seeds