In vitro response of encapsulated somatic embryos of Lagerstroemia indica L

A method to produce encapsulatable units for synthetic seeds was developed in L. indica. Somatic embryos were harvested from leaf derived embryogenic callus on Murashige and Skoog's basal medium supplemented with 2, 4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2, 4-D, 0.5 mg/l), 6-benzyl amino purine (BAP, 1 mg/l) and ascorbic acid (AA, 50 mg/l). The embryos were encapsulated in alginate beads and dehydrated. Germination ability of the artificial seeds were investigated. The frequency of regeneration from the encapsulated embryos was significantly affected by (i) the concentration of alginate (ii) the duration of storage, and (iii) the effect of different types of media. A 2% sodium alginate concentration on MS salts resulted in significantly higher germination frequencies than at other concentrations. L. indica showed maximum germination on MS medium (93.84%) after 6 weeks of culture. The germinated synthetic seeds with well developed roots and shoots were transferred successfully to green house. This is the first report on artificial seeds in Lagerstroemnia indica.