Tissue culture and genetic analysis of somaclonal variations of Solanum melongena L. cv. Nirrala

The present study was designed to analyze genetically somaclonal variants using biochemical and molecular markers. Efficient tissue culture protocol for Solanum melongena L. cv. Nirrala was developed. Maximum callus induction (100%) was observed for Murashige and Skoog (MS) media supplemented with 2.0 mg L^?1 naphthalene acetic acid +0.5 mg L^?1 6-benzylaminopurine; and nodal explants gave best callusing response (88.8%) as compared to internodes (88.3%) and leaves (87.7%). The best shooting was induced on nodal and internodal callus in the presence of 2.0 mg L^?1 6-benzylaminopurine. Total soluble protein content of callus and regenerated variant plants was estimated for biochemical analysis, and largest amount of soluble protein was found in callus (6.54 mg g^?1 fresh tissue) followed by variant plant grown on 2.0 mg L^?1 6-benzylaminopurine (5.96 mg g^?1 fresh tissue). Random amplification of polymorphic DNA technique was done with five decamer primers (OPC1-OPC5) and maximum polymorphism was detected by OPC 2 (26.99%) among all samples, whereas nodal callus on media containing 1.0 mg L^?1 naphthalene acetic acid +1.0 mg L^?1 6-benzylaminopurine showed highest polymorphism producing 22 bands, out of which 8 bands were polymorphic. The study shows that this marker system can provide better evaluation of genetic variation induced by tissue culture.