In vitro regeneration of Moringa Oleifera lam. from leaf explants

Abstract

Moringa oleifera Lam. is the most important tree because every part of the plant has nutritional and medicinal use. As a tree plant, it is difficult to improve this plant by traditional breeding. Biotechnological approaches are useful for its genetic improvement. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop in vitro regeneration protocol for Moringa oleifera by using leaf explants. Young leaves from in vitro multiplied shoots were excised, wounded and cultured on ms medium supplemented with different concentrations of bap in combination with naa for callus induction. For shoot regeneration, the calli were cultured on ms medium supplemented with bap (0.0, 0.5, 1.5, 2.0mg/l) in combination with naa (0.0, 0.5, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 mg/l). Multiplication of regenerated shoots was done on MS medium supplemented with bap (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 mg/l) in combination with IBA (0.0, 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 mg/l). For rooting, shoots were cultured on half strength ms medium containing 0.0, 0.5, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, mg/l naa or 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 mg/l iba. The highest percentage of callus induction (73.3%) and shoot regeneration from callus (33.3%) were obtained on the ms medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l bap and 0.5 mg/l naa, respectively. The highest mean shoot (3.13±0.73) and root (9.60±0.86) number per explant were obtained on medium containing1.0 mg/l bap and 0.5 mg/l iba, respectively. After acclimatization, 90% plants survived in greenhouse. This protocol can be used for genetic improvement of this tree species through genetic transformation and somaclonal selection.