High efficiency plant regeneration and genetic fidelity of regenerants by SCoT and ISSR markers in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

High efficient and repeatable in vitro regeneration protocol was established from embryo axis, half-seed, axillary meristem, and cotyledonary node explants of chickpea. Various concentrations and combinations of various plant growth regulators (PGRs) were employed to induce multiple shoots, shoot elongation and rooting of shoots to obtain complete plantlets of chickpea. The pretreatment of seeds with 6-benzyl aminopurine (BAP) at 1.0 mg l^?1 was found to significantly increase the multiple shoot regeneration from the all explants tested. Among three PGRs such as BAP, kinetin (KIN) and thidiazuron (TDZ) tested for multiple shoot induction; BAP at 2.0 mg l^?1 produced the maximum number of shoots in all tested explants. The maximum number of shoots (48.80 shoots/explant) was attained from the embryo axis explant followed by half-seed (32.76 shoots/explant), axillary meristem (28.34 shoots/explant) and cotyledonary node explant (18.47 shoots/explant) on medium augmented with 2.0 mg l^?1 BAP along with 0.05 mg l^?1 Indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). The optimum percentage of shoot elongation response was recorded (96.68%) on medium fortified with IAA (0.05 mg l^?1), GA₃ (1.0 mg l^?1) and BAP (1.0 mg l^?1) with an average shoot length of 8.82 cm. The elongated shoots were successfully rooted in medium augmented with 2.0 mg l^?1 IBA. The complete plants were acclimatized in the greenhouse with a survival rate of 72%. The plantlets regenerated from four explants appeared to be morphologically similar to mother plants. The genetic fidelity of in vitro regenerated plants was evaluated using Start Codon Targeted and Inter simple sequence repeats molecular markers. The in vitro regenerated plants from all four explants were found to be the true to type with their mother plant. The in vitro protocol presented in the study should offer as a feasible system for chickpea genetic transformation.

     

Antimicrobial and antifungal activity of soil actinomycetes isolated from coal mine sites

In the current study, twenty-eight soil samples were collected from coalmine sites of Telangana, India. The isolates were purified and identified based on their culture characterization on oatmeal agar, glycerol asparagine agar, yeast extract-malt extract agar, inorganic salt starch agar, and starch casein agar medium. Further, the supernatant of all the isolates were tested for antimicrobial and antifungal activities. The biochemical and microscopic studies of isolated strains results indicates the potential isolate strains belongs to Streptomyces genus. Among all the strains the biological activity of BHPL-KSKU5 showed higher anti-bacterial and anti-funagal activity. The molecular characterization of BHPL-KSKU5 16s rDNA gene sequence and phylogenetic tree showed that is mostly related to the Streptomysis felleus (S. felleus) strain. This isolate was submitted to gene bank NCBI with accession number MH553077. In addition, physiological studies such as utilization of carbon, nitrogen, amino acid sources of potential isolated were studied. Further, optimization, purification and characterization of the novel compound producing strain may be helpful for discovering the new therapeutic microbial agent.     

High-frequency plant regeneration and genetic homogeneity assessment of regenerants by molecular markers in turmeric (Curcuma longa L.)

In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology - Plant - A highly efficient and reproducible in vitro plant regeneration method has been developed from shoot bud, half-shoot, and shoot slice...