AN EFFICIENT PROTOCOL FOR INDUCING REGENERATION IN PHYSIC NUT (JATROPHA CURCAS L.)

An efficient protocol for induction of adventitious buds from petiole explants of Jatropha curcas was developed. Direct culturing of petiole explants from young seedlings on medium with thidiazuron (TDZ) from 0.1 to 1.2 mg/l induced only poor quality adventitious buds with low regeneration frequencies. However, by treating the petiole explants with 20 mg/l TDZ solution for 20 min before inoculating the explants to the medium, the regeneration rate was increased to as high as 91.36% as well as 12.01 shoot-buds per explant. Furthermore, by in vitro grafting the elongated shoots to seedling stocks and culturing the grafted shoots on half-strength MS medium containing 0.3 mg/l IBA and 2 mg/l glutamine. Intact plantlets ready for transplantation to the soil was obtained in 20 days eventually.