In vitro propagation of jute plant (Corchorus capsularis L.) from shoot tip callus

Abstract

Crop improvement by generating somaclonal variants [1, 2] is an important tool available to plant breeders. However, till now no report was available about the success of tissue culture in jute. Thus, the present experiment was initiated to study the in vitro response of jute and an attempt was made to regenerate plants from shoot tip explants. Shoot tips of Corchorus capsularis variety JRC-212 collected from selected healthy plants grown in the field were used as experimental explants. The explants were initially washed in 10% teepol solution followed by rinsing in running tap water and again immersed in 0.1% Bavistin for 3 minutes. After washings in distilled water 3-5 times the explants were surface sterilized with mercuric chloride solution (0.1 %) for 1-2 minutes and washed again with sterile distilled water for 10 times before inoculation onto autoclaved modified Murashige and Skoog (1962) [3] medium containing 75% of each salts including vitamins and 7g/l of agar. 30g/1 of table sugar has been used incase of sucrose for low cost in vitro plant production. Explants about 2-8 mm size were excised out from the washed organ on Laminar airflow cabinet and cultured onto the solid medium in culture tubes with different concentration of hormones (Cytokinins and Auxins) individually or in combinations. The culture were maintained at 25 ± 2°C under fluorescent light of about 3000 lux for 16 hrs per day.