Axillary bud culture in papaya

Papaya is a polygamous plant, which comprise of female and hermaphrodite plants resulting in different shapes of fruits. The female plants bear round shaped fruits while hermaphrodite plants bear oval shaped fruits. Hence, an experiment was carried out to get uniform hermaphrodite plants through tissue culture using shootlet regeneration from axillary buds of field grown papaya (Carica papaya L.). MS medium containing 2.0 mgl⁻¹ 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 0.1 mgl⁻¹ a-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) produced highest number of shoots (70.0) per explant. Within three to four weeks of culture on the induction medium, the outer leaves covering the axillary bud swelled and opened up. After eight weeks of culture, minute shoot proliferation was observed. The multiple shoots further developed after 12 weeks of culture. Combinations of BAP and NAA affected number of shoots produced per explant; a protocol for in vitro shootlet regeneration from axillary buds offield-grown papaya (Carica Papaya L.) has been developed, to produce uniform, hermaphrodite plants.