Geetika Pant¹ , Umesh Kabade²

1. Department of Biotechnology, Indian Academy Group of Institutions, Bangalore, India
2. Plant Tissue Culture, Arya Agribiotech and Research Centre, Santokpura, Anand, Gujarat, India
Author    Correspondence author
Tree Genetics and Molecular Breeding, 2014, Vol. 4, No. 1   doi: 10.5376/tgmb.2014.04.0001
Received: 06 Mar., 2014    Accepted: 11 Mar., 2014    Published: 17 Mar., 2014

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Pant et al., 2014, Micropropagation of Artocarpus lakoocha Roxb (Monkey jack) through Shoot Bud Culture, Tree Genetics and Molecular Breeding, Vol.4, No.1-6 (doi: 10.5376/tgmb.2014.04.0001)

The Lakoocha (Artocarpus lakoocha Roxb.), popularly known as “monkey jack”, is called as ‘barhal’ in India, belongs to family Moraceae and comprises of many species of woody trees. The present study was aimed to develop a micropropagation protocol for Lakoocha towards commercial mass production of planting material which permits rapid and easy multiplication rates, outwits genotype barriers, offers opportunities for continuous availability of genuine planting material with economic viability. We report here a prototype system of micropropagated plantlets of Lakoocha through shoot bud culture within 6 months catering to those parameters of commercial mass multiplication. Nodal explant with an axillary bud used as explant; showed in vitro bud induction within 7.33days in MS+BAP 13.33+IAA 2.28+GA₃ 0.57 µM. The maximum shoot multiplication (6.66 shoots/explant) was observed in MS medium supplemented with BAP 13.33 +IAA 1.14 µM. The microshoots were maintained in MS basal medium (BAP 0.89 µM) supplemented with Casein Hydrolysate 100 mg/l and then subsequently rooted in ½ MS medium supplemented with IBA 9.85+BAP0.89 µM+Activated charcoal 500 mg/l which resulted in 88.16% rooting. The in vitro rooted plants were primary hardened on autoclaved Sand : Soil : Peat moss (1:1:2) drenched with  ½ strength MS nutrients in plastic cups covered with transparent polyethylene bags to prevent excess water loss for 3 weeks in growth room at 25±2⁰C and then transferred to shade net house (50% shade 70%±5% RH) for secondary hardening. All plants showed 88.33% survival during acclimatization. The plants that were field established showed > 85% survivability, which is under further evaluation for fruiting and quality characters.

Prototype; Micropropagation; Artocarpus lakoocha; Monkey Jac