Plant Tissue Cult. 6(2) : 73-82, 1996

In vitro Screening of Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Cell Lines and Regeneration of Plants Resistant to Pathotoxic Culture Filtrate of Cercosporidium personatum

Perumal Venkatachalam and Narayanasamypillai Jayabalan

Plant Tissue Culture Unit, Department of Plant Science, School of Life Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli-620 024, Tamil Nadu, India

Key words: Arachis hypogaea, Cercosporidium personatum, Groundnut, Tikka disease resistance, Cell lines, Regeneration

Abastract

Callus and subsequently cell suspension cultures were established from immature leaf explants of Arachis hypogaea cv. TMV-7. Growth of plant cell cultures was monitored over a 30-days-period in the presence of varying concentrations (25-100% v / v) of pathotoxic culture filtrates of the pathogen. Cell lines resistant to the culture filtrate of Cercosporidium personatum were selected by planting them on top of a layer of medium containing the above concentrations of the pathotoxic culture filtrate. Toxin resistant calluses were recovered from selective media and were used for plant regeneration. Regenerated plants were transferred to field condition and screened for reaction to tikka disease by inoculation of spore suspension of Cercosporidium personatum. Five out of 62 plants exhibited resistance (R₂). Among the four R₂ populations studied, 56.3 to 67.5% of the plants exhibited enhanced resistance. This study showed that groundnut plants with resistance to C. personatum can be selected from cultured cells of tikka leaf spot-susceptible cultivars using pathotoxic culture filtrates of C. personatum.

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