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Sandhya Dulam, Jogam Phanikanth, Rohela Gulab Khan, Sura Syam Prasad, Vadluri Rajender, Shekhawat Mahipal S., Abbagani Sadanandam
Keywords: Genetic fidelity, Indirect regeneration, Marjoram, Multipurpose plant, Polymerase chain reaction
Origanum majorana (L.) is a multi-use aromatic plant used in the cosmetic, food, and pharmaceutical industries. In this study, a reliable protocol was established for the in vitro propagation of this medicinally and aromatically important plant using leaf explants. The experiments were conducted to induce callus from the explants and regeneration of shootlets from leaf-derived callus. Out of the different combinations of callus-inducing media (CIM) used, maximum callus (524.55 mg) was produced on Murashige & Skoog (MS) medium amended with 2.0 mg/L 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). Among the various shoot regeneration media (SRM) tested, the highest percentage (96%) of sub-cultured callus responded on MS medium supplemented with 1.5 mg/L BAP and 0.2 mg/L indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) with 112 numbers shoots per culture. The rooting of in vitro raised shootlets was performed on root-inducing media (RIM) and the highest rooting percent (100%) was recorded on MS medium (half strength) containing 1.0 mg/L indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). In vitro-derived plantlets were hardened in the greenhouse in paper cups containing soilrite® with 84% survival success. Further, the in vitro micropropagated plantlets were subjected to genetic fidelity tests using start codon targeted (SCoT) markers. Genetic fidelity results indicated that the regenerated plantlets are true-to-type in nature. The developed in vitro regeneration system could be used for large-scale production of O. majorana.
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Department of Biotechnology, Kakatiya University, Warangal, India