MICROPROPAGATION AND EVALUATION OF GENETIC FIDELITY OF MAERUA OBLONGIFOLIA (FORSSK.) A. RICH: A RARE MEDICINAL PLANT FROM SAUDI ARABIA
Maerua oblongifolia (Forssk.) A. Rich is an
important and rare medicinal plant from Saudi Arabia.
Natural regeneration of plant is very poor, occurs
by seed and tuber. Therefore, an in vitro micropropagation
protocol developed for the M. oblongifolia.
Nodal segments cultured on MS medium supplemented
with benzyl adenine (BA) and Kinetin
(Kn) produced buds, eventually forming optimum
multiple shoots on MS medium containing 1.0 μM
BA. A marginal improvement in shoot multiplication
was noted on addition of NAA (0.5 μM) to BA
(1.0 μM). Basal media MS, B5 and WP medium
proved to be ineffective in the multiplication of
shoots. In vitro raised shoots could be easily rooted
on MS medium supplemented with 2.0 μM IBA
(88% rooting). Other two axins IAA and NAA were
moderately effective. Acclimatization and hardening
of in vitro raised plantlets carried under controlled
conditions of a greenhouse, with 95% survival of the
plants. Inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) marker
was used to validate the genetic fidelity of 15 in vitro
raised plants along mother plant. The ISSR primers
resulted in monomorphic banding pattern in all the
micropropagated plants as well as mother plant. This
confirms the genetic homogeneity of the in vitro
raised plants. This propagation protocol will help to
conserve the plant and an alternative for secondary
metabolite production.
