In vitro regeneration, callus induction and rhizogenesis in Ficus krishnae: A rare endangered plant

Ficus krishnae which belongs to the family Moraceae is an endangered plant species with medicinal potential. Due to over-exploitative commercial use, it has become endangered hence demands immediate conservation. Application of in vitro strategies in conservation of plants is an efficient technique to produce true-to-type plantlets. In the present study, nodal segment explants were used as induction of shoots on Murashige & Skoog (MS) medium fortified with various concentrations of benzylaminopurine (BAP) in combination with 0.5 mg/l naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) to determine optimum levels of BAP and NAA for multiple shoot formation. Cytokinins, BAP and kinetin (Kn) were tested for shoot regeneration from nodal and axillary shoot tip explants. Among all the treatments BAP and Kn tested BAP at 4.0 mg/l and at 2.5 mg/l responds optimum in shoot regeneration from nodal explants and axillary shoot tip, respectively. Average number of sprouted shoots per explant and length of these shoots were determined after three weeks of explant inoculation. Axillary-shoot tip explants show best results of callus induction at 2 mg/l 2,4 diphenoxy acetic acid (2, 4-D) with a response percentage of 83.33%. Moreover, it was also noted that among the different concentrations of indole butyric acid (IBA) tested, IBA at the concentration of 1.5 mg/l resulted best in inducing the maximum number (12.66 +/- 0.33) of in vitro adventitious roots from the callus. In this study combination of BAP + NAA (4.0 + 0.5) mg/l and 2 mg/l (2,4-D) resulted better in shoot induction and callus formation respectively in F. Krishnae.