Department of Biotechnology, Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan 173 230
Callus cultures were initiated from leaf segments of Actinidia deliciosa on MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of 2,4-D, NAA, 2iP, kinetin and BA. The best callus induction was obtained with BA (1.5 mg/l) and NAA (1 mg/l). The callus was hard, nodular and green in colour. But 2iP and kinetin failed to initiate callus from leaf segments. The callus pieces were inoculated on to the plant regeneration medium comprising BA or kinetin in combination with IBA at 60 days interval in three sub-cultures. BA (2 mg/l) with IBA (0.06 mg/l) proved to be the best combination producing maximum average number of shoots per callus. Three enzymes MDH, PRO and ALPH were studied to observe variations in the plants regenerated from callus by comparing with the donor plant in three sub-cultures. No differences were observed in the banding patterns of these enzymes, indicating that the plants produced from leaf callus were uniform and identical to the donor plants for at least three subcultures. The plants raised from the leaf callus were successfully transferred in the pots giving 70–80% survival.
