Somaclonal Variation in Three Varieties of Scented Rice

Suspended protoplast culture was made from callus culture of four scented rice varieties viz. Basmatibahar, Gourav, Kalimochi and Muskbudhi. A good yield of protoplast up to 0.6 x 10⁶ and 4 x 10⁶ protoplasts/ml were obtained from callus and cell suspension cultures respectively after 4 h of incubation. The protoplast cultured from Gourav exhibited best colony formation i.e. 16.2 from callus and 62.4 from cell suspension and 38.52% plant regeneration. The protoplasts derived from regenerated plants exhibited substantial magnitude of variability for five economic characters. Grain yield followed by grain number/plant and panicle number/plant showed significant variability.