STANDARDIZATION OF PUNICA GRANATUM EXPLANT AND CALLUS INDUCTION THROUGH MICROPROPAGATION - INDIRECT ORGANOGENESIS

Abstract

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) and variety name ‘Bhagwa’ is an ancient, important fruit crop in India and in subtropical countries of the world as it possess various pharmaceutical and therapeutic properties. This is subjected to bacterial blight caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv causing a huge loss of about 50-100% in production. In order to develop a disease resistant pomegranate variety, micro propagation is necessary. The different explants such as leaves, nodes, apical shoot and petals were selected. The explants were passed through surface sterilization process and found that the mortality rate was least with the apical shoots as explants when compared to other explants. Callus Initiation was done with several treatments and the percentage of callus growth was identified using one way ANOVA by which variance was tested using Fischer’s F test and LS (Least Squares) means by Duncan’s multiple range test which proved that the LS means was higher for all the explants those undergone MS + Sucrose (30g/l) + Adenine sulfate – 40mg/l + 6BAP – 5 mg/l treatment, specifically apical shoot explants showed 92% callus growth than other explants. The elimination of polyphenol exudation was successful with silver nitrate of 5 mg/l which eradicated the browning of the tissues and paved way for the regeneration of the shoots.