biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 2010, 54:369-372 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-010-0066-3

Direct shoot regeneration from leaf explants of Jatropha curcas in response to thidiazuron and high copper contents in the medium

V. Khurana-Kaul¹, S. Kachhwaha¹, S. L. Kothari^1,2,*

¹ Department of Botany, University of Rajasthan, 302004, India

² Centre for Converging Technologies, University of Rajasthan, 302004, India

Leaf explants of Jatropha curcas cultured on Murashige and Skoog's (MS) medium supplemented with thidiazuron (TDZ; 0.90 μM) in combination with indole-3-butyric acid (IBA; 0.98μM) produced adventitious shoot buds directly on the surface of the explants without formation of intervening callus while shoot bud formation was accompanied with callus formation on medium supplemented with 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP; 13.3 μM) and IBA (2.46 μM). TDZ treatment resulted in more than twice higher rate of shoot bud induction than BAP. Shoot buds were multiplied and elongated following repeated transfers to medium containing BAP (2.22 μM) and gibberellic acid (GA₃; 1.44 μM). The effect of copper sulphate on differentiation of shoot buds from leaf segments was also investigated. Both shoot induction and multiplication media were supplemented with different levels of CuSO₄ (0-5 μM). Significant improvement in shoot bud induction was observed when the concentration of CuSO₄ was increased to 10 times the normal MS level. Healthy elongated shoots were rooted on half strength MS medium supplemented with IBA (2.46 μM). Rooted plantlets were transferred to field and survived. Histological analysis revealed direct formation of shoot buds from leaf explants.

Keywords: adventitious bud regeneration; benzylaminopurine; gibberellic acid; indole-3-butyric acid; mineral nutrition.

Subjects: auxins; copper; cytokinins; in vitro culture, direct organogenesis; in vitro culture, rooting; Jatropha curcas

Received: August 18, 2008; Accepted: January 28, 2009; Published: June 1, 2010Show citation