Evaluation of subculture ages on organogenic response from root callus and SPAR based genetic fidelity assessment in the regenerants of Hibiscus sabdariffa L.

The efficacy of an organogenesis based regeneration protocol and the occurrence of somaclonal variation has been studied up-to eighth subculture of Hibiscus sabdariffa L. var. HS4288. Initially, the induction of organogenic calli from 83.33% root explants was standardized in 2.26 mu M 2, 4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2, 4-D) and 4.65 mu M kinetin (KIN) supplemented Driver-Kuniyuki Walnut (DKW) basal medium. The calli were maintained up to the eighth subculture (each with 6-weeks duration) in the same basal medium along with 1.13 mu M 2, 4-D and 4.65 mu M KIN. The highest regenerative efficiency of the root-derived calli was found in 1.08 mu M alpha-Naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and 8.88 mu M 6-Bezyladenine (BA) containing DKW medium. This particular medium produced 14.30 +/- 0.47 numbers of visible shoots ( > 10 mm in length) at the first subculture from 425 +/- 35 mg of callus through the process of organogenesis. The morpho-histological study confirmed the organogenic mode of regeneration. With the gradual increase of culture passage, the frequency of shoots was steadily declined. The genetic polymorphism of the regenerated plants from eight successive sub-cultures was assessed using three different single primer amplification reaction (SPAR) methods; viz. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), Direct amplification of minisatellite DNA (DAMD) and Inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. The SPAR analysis revealed that up to fifth subculture all the three types of primers produced the monomorphic banding pattern among the regenerated plants with that of their mother plant. From the sixth subculture onwards there were some alterations in banding profiles both in RAPD and ISSR markers but DAMD marker did not show any polymorphism up to eighth subculture. In the present work, the highest polymorphism percentage was recorded among the plants of eighth subculture by using both RAPD (41.61%) and ISSR (31.65%) markers. The SPAR method ensured that the present protocol may be used for true to type plant production up-to five consecutive subcultures.