Poster Presentation International Plant Molecular Biology Conference 2024

In-vitro propagation, conservation and genetic fidelity evaluation in Salacia chinensis : An endemic threatened ayurvedic medicinal plant of Western Ghats of India (#36)

Raviraja G Shetty 1
  1. University of Agricultural & Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga, India, Mangalore, KARNATAKA, India

The medicinal plant wealth of Western Ghats in India is becoming globally significant to newfound curative properties. Among the various plant species, Salacia chinensis L. is one having high medicinal strength. Overharvesting S chinensis for its proven medicinal uses has been one of the main reasons for their dwindling population. Tissue culture is an option for ex-siu conservation. On similar lines this study was initiated. Tissue culture was carried out to develop a multiplication protocol using matured nodal segment as explant cultured on MS medium supplemented with various combinations of hormones. Among different combinations, satisfactory results were obtained in terms of shoot length, number of shoots and number of leaves by using a combination of BAP (2.0mg/l) + NAA (0.80 mg/l).In-vitro conservation was achieved by providing reduced light intensity (2.9 µm-2s-1) and maintaining a temperature of 100 C to reduce the growth and other growth related traits in order to conserve it for six months. Genetic fidelity assessment of in-vitro raised plants of S. chinensis was done to know the genetic stability of micro propagated plants. A total of 15 RAPD markers were employed to assess the genetic stability. All banding profiles from micro propagated plants were monomorphic and similar to those of the mother plant indicating that there was no genetic variation in in-vitro raised plants. The results obtained in this experiment suggest that in-vitro shoot multiplication using nodal segment as explant can be used for rapid clonal propagation and conservation with a low risk of generating somaclonal variation