Evaluation of Chemical and Physical Parameters for Callus Induction from Another Cultures of Tea (Camellia Sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze)

Tea belongs to the family Theaceae. Next to water, tea is the most consumed non-alcoholic beverage in the world. Tea plant synthesizes a lot of medicinally important secondary metabolites such as caffeine, theanine, catechin, primeverosides, linalool, geraniol and lutein. One basic requirement for their utilization at commercial level is the constant availability with standard quality. However, inconsistent environmental and genetic factors, and high out-breeding nature of the plant contribute to the uneven metabolite production. Plant cell and tissue culture offer solutions to overcome these problems where by manipulation of culture conditions, constant availability of cell biomass can be made available as an alternative source for these metabolites, irrespective of the seasonal constraints. By keeping in view the above problem, the anther cultures, bearing early-to-late uninucleate stage of microspores, were raised to induce callus. Various chemical and physical treatments like growth regulator combinations, sucrose concentration and temperature pre-treatments to cultures were given to induce sustained and massive callus' proliferation. In the absence of growth regulators (Basal Media) the response was nil. However, in presence of two auxins (NAA and 2,4-D) and at least one cytokinin (BAP/Kinetin), callus response was substantially improved. Control (25 degrees C) and Cold temperature (5 degrees C) treatments showed encouraging results for callusing while heat treatment was entirely unfavorable. Similarly, high sucrose concentration (9%) was found suitable for callusing. Through repeated subculturing on the same parent media, it was possible to achieve moderately growing, green and healthy calli in every 5-6 weeks. Further experiments are in progress to scale up the cell biomass.