Plant Tissue Cult. 13(2) : 125-133, 2003 (December)

Somatic Embryogenesis in Root Derived Callus of Indica Rice

Asit B. Mandal, Aparna Maiti and Anusrita Biswas

Biotechnology Laboratory, Central Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair-744101, India E-mail: pbl.carian@sancharnet.in

Key words: Root calli, Somatic embryogenesis, Indica rice

Abastract

Prolific callus induction was established in in vitro grown young roots of two high yielding indica rice varieties viz. Quing Livan 1 and IET 13856. Roots from eight-day-old seedlings displayed better callus health, maximum callus induction and plantlet regeneration. Callus induction was completed within 20 - 25 days enmassing the entire root explant. Quing Livan 1 showed more callus induction and plantlet regeneration and took less time also for callus development. Primary calli were white, wet surfaced and mucila-geneous. Quing Livan 1 showed maximum green plant : embryo conversion ratio on regeneration medium consisting of MS with 2 mg/l BAP and 0.5 mg/l NAA. Embryogenic cell suspensions were induced from the calli within two and a half months. Early establishment of cultures from tender roots deems to be telescoping the time requirement for callus induction from immature and mature seed embryos in rice.

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