biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 51:15-21, 2007 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-007-0004-1

Genetic stability, ex vitro rooting and gene expression studies in Hagenia abyssinica

T. Feyissa^1,*, M. Welander¹, L. Negash²

¹ Department of Crop Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp, Sweden

² Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to assess genetic stability of 80 micropropagated Hagenia abyssinica plants, 40 of axillary origin and 40 of adventitious origin. The shoots were isolated from the same mother tree and micropropagated for over two years. Among the 83 RAPD primers screened, 16 gave reproducible band patterns. These 16 primers produced 115 bands for each plant. One plant from axillary origin showed two unique bands with primer OPC-11. All other plants showed identical band patterns. Generally, there was no significant difference in the shoot multiplication rate between shoots of axillary and adventitious origin. Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) resulted in better ex vitro rooting compared to indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). Non-micropropagated plants that were grown in the greenhouse for about one year were better in ex vitro rooting compared to those of juvenile material and mature tree derived micropropagated plants of the same treatment. Adventitious rooting related oxygenase gene (ARRO-1) isolated from apple (Malus domestica) was not expressed in H. abyssinica using a complementary DNA representational difference analysis fragment (cDNA RDA14) as a probe.

Keywords: adventitious shoots; ARRO-1; axillary shoots; RAPD bands; RDA14; shoot multiplication

Subjects: acclimatization, acclimation; auxins; cytokinins; ex vitro transfer; Hagenia abyssinica; in vitro culture, regeneration, proliferation, differentiation; in vitro culture, root cultivation, rooting; Malus domestica; nutrient medium, Murashige and Skoog (MS); oxygenase; polymerase chain reaction (PCR); random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)

Received: February 15, 2005; Accepted: October 2, 2005; Published: March 1, 2007Show citation