Direct Shoot
Organogenesis and Clonal Fidelity Confirmation of Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma longifolia) using Molecular Markers
Annor Gebril Annour Alttaher1,
Zetty Norhana Balia Yusof1 and Noor Azmi Shaharuddin1,2*
1Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biotechnology and
Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Malaysia
2Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Food Security,
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Malaysia
*For correspondence: noorazmi@upm.edu.my;
nour732005@gmail.com
Received 26 June 2020; Accepted 04
January 2021; Published 10 June 2021
Abstract
Eurycoma longifolia is a medicinally potent plant found in the tropical
forest of South-East Asia. Every part of the plant, especially the root is
traditionally used as an aphrodisiac, anticancer and anti-inflammatory. E. longifolia is conventionally
propagated by seeds but with low germination rate
and efficiency. This has made an in vitro
propagation of E. longifolia a
desirable alternative. Hence, this study reports an effective
method of direct organogenesis of shoot. In vitro seedling’s leaves were cultured on Murashige and Skoog
(MS) medium containing 1.0 mg L-1 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP),
producing 1.8 ± 0.5 shoots per leaf with a regeneration frequency of 68.2%. The
shoot buds were directly formed from leaves without intermediate callus
formation. To obtain complete plantlets, the shoots were in vitro rooted with an average number of 4.2 ± 0.4 roots per shoot in
half-strength MS (½MS) medium supplemented with 0.5 mg L-1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). Regenerated
plantlets were successfully acclimatized to field conditions with an 85%
survival rate. Genetic
fidelity of the micropropagated plantlets was evaluated using Simple Sequence
Repeat (SSR) and Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) analysis. The
results showed that the monomorphic banding patterns of in vitro raised
plantlets and their mother plant were similar, confirming its homogeneity and
the reliability of the multiplication system. © 2021 Friends Science Publishers
Keywords: Clonal fidelity; Eurycoma
longifolia; Leaf explant; Shoot regeneration; SSR
and ISSR
Introduction
Eurycoma
longifolia Jack belongs to the family Simaroubaceae. It is one of the medicinal
plants that has become medically targeted by local communities due to its
aphrodisiac properties. E. longifolia is commonly found in the tropical forest of South-East
Asia and is known by its vernacular name ‘Tongkat Ali’ in Malaysia (Alsarhan et
al. 2014). Due to its diverse medicinal values, every part of the plant,
especially the root is traditionally used as medicine (Yahya et al.
2015). Studies have revealed that the root extracts of E. longifolia have antimalarial, cytotoxic, aphrodisiac,
antioxidant, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic, and anti-amoebic
properties, and also it has been applied in the treatment of diverse conditions
such as fatigue, impotence, loss of sexual desire, high blood pressure and
fever (Rehman et al. 2016).
E. longifolia is commonly propagated by seed germination. Like other woody plants,
the proliferation of E. longifolia
through seed germination is difficult due to the slow growth and the
unreliability flowering habit. The seeds are produced once a year and have low
rates of germination and the seeds take a long time to germinate (Danial et
al. 2011). The roots of E. Longifolia that need 4–7 years to be
harvested have further compounded the problem. Therefore, the conventional root production is
time-consuming and depending on the harvesting season (Lulu et al. 2015).
Tissue culture
technique provides an alternative solution for mass production of E. longifolia. Somatic embryogenesis and
organogenesis are the most common techniques used for plant micropropagation
and genetic transformation (Danial et al. 2011; Duncan 2011; Sidorov
2013). By using direct regeneration method, shoots and roots could be developed
directly from an explant (Ayob et al. 2013; Raju et al. 2015).
Leaf and cotyledon are one of the most desirable explants that are commonly
used for in vitro regeneration due to
their ability to preserve the genetic homozygosity (Huang et al. 2014;
Islam and Bhattacharjee 2015).
Although a
great number of researches have been done on E. longifolia,
micropropagation studies are still scarce and insufficient. Hussein et al.
(2005a) successfully regenerated shoots from cotyledon explant of E. longifolia through indirect somatic embryogenesis. Mahmood et
al. (2010) then reported optimizing suitable auxin types and concentrations
for induction of callus from different explants of E. longifolia. In addition, concentrations of different types of
auxins have been reported in inducing adventitious roots from E. longifolia leaf explant (Hussein et
al. 2012). By using cotyledon as
an explant, Rodziah and Madihah (2015) successfully produced a high-frequency
somatic embryo directly in a short time. More recently, an alternative system
of temporary immersion (RITA) has been reported by Mohd et al. (2017)
for proliferation somatic embryos derived from cotyledons of E. longifolia seeds. However, the
direct formation of shoot buds of E.
longifolia plant through the organogenesis is not still investigated well.
In general,
indirect regeneration of plantlets through the callus formation is considered
to be unreliable in the propagation of identical clones, while the regeneration
of plantlets through the direct organogenesis or somatic embryogenesis have been reported to be genetically uniform.
However, the possibility of somaclonal variations could not be ruled out
completely (Krishna et al. 2016). Thus, micropropagated plantlets
derived from long living woody plants should be early assessed for their
genetic fidelity (Rohela et al. 2019).
Several
DNA-based molecular markers have been used to assess the genetic fidelity in micropropagated plants. SSRs for
example, are widely used markers due to their desirable characteristics, such
as co-dominant inheritance nature, high reproducibility, high abundance in
organisms, the enormous extent of allelic diversity, and strong discriminatory
power (Kalia et al. 2011; Andeden et al. 2015). However, the
major disadvantage of using SSR markers is the DNA primers are expensive and
require plenty of time for development (Wang et al. 2011; Vieira et
al. 2016). ISSRs are suitable alternative markers to the SSR markers since
microsatellite markers are species-specific. ISSR is more efficient in
detecting genetic variations in regenerated plants such as Cocos nucifera
L. (Bandupriya et al. 2017) and grapevine cv. (Nookaraju and Agrawal 2012). The ISSR can amplify an SSR
motif occurring in specific regions of a genome (Ng and Tan 2015).
This current study
aimed to develop an efficient protocol for direct shoot regeneration from leaf
explants of E. longifolia. One of the
major requirements of micropropagation was a production of uniform plantlets,
but sometimes this could be hampered due to genetic variability. Therefore, in
this research, SSR and ISSR were used to evaluate the clonal fidelity among the micropropagated plantlets of E. longifolia and their mother plants.
Materials and Methods
Plant materials and explant preparation
The plant used
in this study was provided by Institute of Bioscience, University Putra
Malaysia (UPM). All experimental procedures were carried out at Plant
Biochemistry and Biotechnology Laboratory of Biochemistry Department at UPM. In vitro seed germination was carried
out to ensure aseptic growth conditions of seedlings as a source of leaf
explants (Fig. 1). Matured ripe dark-red fruits of E. longifolia were washed with Teepol and rinsed for 30 min under
running tap water. The epicarp and mesocarp of fruits were manually removed.
The surface-sterilization of seeds was carried out in a laminar-flow hood based
on the procedure explained by Mahmood et al. (2010) as follows: seeds
soaked in 70% (v/v) ethanol for 5 min; and then submersed for 20 min in 20%
(v/v) Clorox® plus two drops of Tween-20. Then the seeds were rinsed
5 times with sterile distilled water. After sterilization, the seed coat
was removed to hasten the rate of germination and help to avoid some phenolic
compounds that naturally released in culture media from the seed coat.
Cotyledons and embryos were aseptically placed on full-strength Murashige and
Skoog (1962) (MS) medium for 2 to 3 weeks until embryos germinated and seedlings
had well-developed leaves.
Fig. 1: In
vitro germination of Eurycoma
longifolia seeds (A) Matured
ripe dark-red fruits. (B) Isolated
cotyledons and embryos ready for inoculation (C) Cotyledons and embryo placed on germination media (D) Germination of seed (E) In
vitro seedling
Culture medium and conditions
All
experiments were conducted using MS medium supplemented with various
concentrations of plant growth regulators (PGRs) and 30 g L-1 sucrose.
The pH of culture medium was adjusted to 5.8 using 1N HCl or 1N NaOH, then 2.45
g L-1 of Gelrite added to the medium before autoclaving at 121ºC and
1.06 kg cm-2 pressure for 20 min. All cultures were maintained in a
growth room at 25 ± 2ºC in photoperiod
of 16 h light and 8 h dark with 35 μmol m-2 s-1
photon flux density obtained from white bulbs
of fluorescent. Relative humidity was maintained at 60%.
Direct shoot organogenesis
For direct
regeneration of shoot, leaf explants were excised from the 3-week-old aseptic in vitro-grown seedlings. Leaf segments
(0.5 cm2) were inoculated in 100 mL conical flasks containing 30 mL
of MS medium supplemented with various cytokinins such as 6-benzylaminopurine
(BAP) and kinetin (KIN) at concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 mg L-1)
and Thidiazuron (TDZ) at concentrations of 0.2, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mg L-1.
The leaf segments were cut
transversely across the midrib and placed horizontally on the culture medium
with their abaxial side in contact with the surface of the medium (Singh et
al. 2013). Shoot cultures were subcultured every 4-week interval onto a
fresh medium containing the same concentrations of cytokinins. The data on
percentage of shoot regeneration, shoot number per laef and length of shoot
were recorded every week. All experiments were repeated three times with three
replicates for each treatment.
In vitro rooting and acclimatization
To obtain a
complete plantlet, the in vitro
regenerated shoots (2.5 – 4.5 cm in length) were individually separated from
the leaf explants and cultured the rooting medium under aseptic conditions. The
rooting medium comprises ½MS medium with auxins such as indole-3-butyric acid
(IBA) or naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) at concentrations of 0.2, 0.5, 1.0 and
2.0 mg L-1. The observations on percentage of root induction, the
roots number per shoot and length of the roots were recorded after two weeks of
culturing on the rooting medium. Acclimatization was carried out as follows:
regenerated plantlets that had vigorous shoots with a well-developed root
system were gently removed from the culture medium and washed carefully with
distilled water to eliminate the traces of
nutrient medium from the surfaces of roots. Then the plantlets were potted in
7.5 cm plastic pots containing sterilized jiffy-7 medium. In order to maintain
a high percentage of humidity around the plantlets, the plantlets were watered
and covered with transparent polyethylene bags. After that, the plantlets were
kept in a growth room in 8 h dark and 16 h light photoperiod at 25 ± 2ºC for an
initial two weeks. After two weeks the humidity around the plantlets was
gradually reduced by puncturing the polyethylene bags with small holes.
Finally, the polyethylene bags were removed and plantlets were shifted to big
plastic 18 cm-pots containing garden soil. These plantlets were then kept under
natural daylight conditions at the greenhouse for normal growth.
Analysis of genetic fidelity
The genetic
homogeneity of the in vitro
micropropagated plantlets was determined using SSR and ISSR markers. Genomic DNA
of the plantlets and mother plants was extracted from fresh leaves (200 mg)
using modified cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) method as described by
Rai et al. (2012). The genomic DNA quantity and purity were determined
by spectrophotometric analyses and agarose gel electrophoresis. Only genomic
DNA with A260/280 nm ratio of 1.6 to 2.0 was selected and stored to be used for
the following analyses.
The PCR
reactions were performed in a total of 25 μL
volumes using Thermal cycler (Techne TC512, U.K.) based on the PCR program
reported by Tnah et al. (2011) with an initial denaturation (94°C) for 3
min, followed by 35 cycles of denaturation at 94°C for 1 min, then annealing
for 1 min and extension at 72°C for 1 min and final extension at 72°C for 7
min. The temperature of annealing was set at 2°C below the melting temperature
of each primer sequence. The PCR amplification product was performed in three
independent reactions for each primer set to confirm the reproducibility of the
results. All positive and negative controls (reaction without DNA template)
were included in each set of the PCR reactions to account for possible
contamination. The amplification products were resolved on 1.5% (w/v) agarose gel
in 1× TAE buffer and ran at 70 volts for an hour. All gels were stained with
0.25 μg /μL ethidium bromide. DNA fragments were visualized under
ultraviolet light and photographed using Gel Logic-212 PRO Imaging software
(Carestream, New York, U.S.A.). ExcelBand™ 100 base pairs DNA ladder (SMOBIO)
was employed to estimate the size of the amplicons.
Statistical analysis
All
experiments were statistically analysed based on a complete randomized design.
MS medium free plant growth regulators served as a control for each analysis.
The data obtained were subjected to one-way analysis of variance) to examine
whether they were statistically significantly different from each other or not
using Minitab software (version 16, Minitab Inc., State College, PA, U.S.A.).
Means were subjected to Tukey’s test (P ≤ 0.05) and the
results were expressed as means ± standard errors (ES). To test the primer
reproducibility of amplification, all samples were run at least twice in
different gels. The data recorded as discrete variables: 0 was recorded for the
absence band and 1 for the presence band. Only reproducible and dense bands
were scored and considered for further analysis.
Results
Direct shoot organogenesis
Successful
induction of shoot buds was achieved by using leaves as explants (Fig. 2).
After 8 weeks of culturing, induction of shoot buds were achieved from in vitro seedling leaves through the
direct organogenesis. MS medium supplied with various cytokinins (BAP, KIN and
TDZ) were applied to investigate their effect on shoot bud induction from the
leaf explants. Our result shows that BAP at 1.0 mga L-1 produced the highest frequency of shoot bud induction (68.2%) as compared
to KIN and TDZ (Table 1). The maximum mean of shoot number (1.8 ± 0.5 shoots
per laef) and shoot length (2.8 ± 0.6 cm) were also observed on MS added with
1.0 mg L-1 of the BAP. The shoot bud induction was observed on the adaxial surface of
the leaf explants. The shoot buds were initiated as a small group of
meristematic cells on the surface of leaf explants. Whereupon, these cells
subsequently developed into an adventitious bud within 6 to 8 weeks of culture,
then it continued to form shoots from leaf explants in the following weeks
(Fig. 2).
Fig. 2: Direct adventitious shoot from leaf explants of Eurycoma longifolia. (A) Leaf explants from in vitro seedling; (B) Leaflet segments cultured on shoot induction media; (C) Initiation of shoot buds; (D, E)
Shoot regeneration from leaf; (F, J) In
vitro rooting of shoot; (H)
Establishment of plants in the soil
In vitro rooting
and plantlets acclimatization
Elongated shoots (2.5 – 4.5 cm in height) were excised
from the leaf explants and inoculated into the rooting medium to evaluate their
ability to form roots. IBA and NAA with various concentrations were added to
the ½MS medium for root induction from regenerated shoots. Although the roots
were observed on ½MS medium without auxins, the presence of auxins had
encouraged the shoots to induce a higher number of roots. As shown in Table 2,
out of four concentrations of IBA and NAA tested, 0.5 mg L-1 of IBA has proven to be best for
rooting, which represents the highest frequency of root formation (90.2%).
Moreover, the root length was the longest (5.1 ± 0.3 cm) and the maximum number
of roots (4.2 ± 0.4) was also achieved at 0.5 mg L-1 of IBA. Similarly, IBA was the best
auxin for root induction from internode explants of Asteracantha longifolia (Kumar and Nandi 2015) and Strobilanthes tonkinensis (Srikun 2017).
However, the lowest mean roots number per shoot (0.4 ± 0.1) was observed in the
treatment of ½MS with 0.2 mg L-1 NAA after six weeks of incubation.
There was a significant difference between 0.5 mg L-1 IBA and 1.0 mg L-1 IBA in the mean number of roots
produced.
In this current
study, regenerated plantlets that had
a vigorous root system was selected for the acclimatization stage. These
plantlets were washed with autoclaved distilled water to remove all adhered
medium from their roots. Nutrient medium must be removed from the roots because
it might be an adequate environment for growing microorganisms that would cause
rotting of the roots. It was observed that plantlets that have a developed root
system before being transferred to soil, seemed to be well-established during
the acclimatization stage.
Analysis of genetic fidelity
Out of the 12 SSR
primer pairs screened, only 7 SSR primer pairs had generated a single scorable
band per primer. These SSR primers generated 7 amplicons with sizes ranging
from 100 to 300 bp (Table 3.). The bands sizes were almost the same in each
primer within the range as previously described by Tnah et al. (2011). On
the other hand, preliminary screening of ISSR primers showed that, a total of 8
ISSR primers could amplify reproducible and scorable bands. These 8 primers
gave 27 bands with sizes ranging from 300 to 1000 bp, and the number of bands
differed from 1 band with UBC-851 to 6 bands with UBC-811 in average of 3.4
bands per primer (Table 4). Fig. 3 shows the pattern of amplification obtained
from ISSR primer UBC-807 and SSR primer Elo 066. Overall, amplification
products obtained by SSR and ISSR primers showed that both micropropagated
plantlets and the mother plant exhibited a monomorphic banding pattern. This
pattern of banding confirms the genetic homogeneity of the clones. Table 5
shows a summary of SSR and ISSR amplified products obtained from nine samples
of E. longifolia. As shown in Table
5, seven SSR primers reproduced 7 bands with 1.0 bands per primer in average.
However, in ISSR 8 primers resulted in one to six of scorable bands regenerated
a total of 27 amplicons (3.4 bands on average). These results confirmed that
the in vitro raised plantlets of E. longifolia could remain free from
somaclonal variations and true-to-type nature over a culture period.
Table 1: Effect of different concentrations of cytokinins in MS medium on shoot
bud regeneration from leaf explants of Eurycoma
longifolia
Cytokinins |
Concentration (mg L-1) |
Regeneration frequency (%) |
No. of shoots/explant (mean ± SE) |
Shoot length (cm) (mean ± SE) |
Control |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
|
0.5 |
48.3 |
0.3 ± 0.1 ef |
1.6 ± 0.4 cd |
|
1.0 |
68.2 |
1.8 ± 0.5 a |
2.8 ± 0.6 a |
BAP |
1.5 |
63.7 |
1.2 ± 0.4 b |
2.1 ± 0.5 b |
|
2.0 |
51.3 |
0.9 ± 0.1 c |
2.0 ± 0.1 b |
|
2.5 |
41.4 |
0.5 ± 0.1 de |
1.4 ± 0.5 d |
|
0.1 |
38.4 |
0.5 ± 0.1 de |
0.4 ± 0.1 fg |
|
0.2 |
44.0 |
0.8 ± 0.2 c |
0.9 ± 0.1 e |
TDZ |
0.5 |
56.8 |
0.4 ± 0.1 e |
1.7 ± 0.3 c |
|
1.0 |
28.9 |
0.6 ± 0.2 d |
0.7 ± 0.1 ef |
|
1.5 |
11.6 |
0.6 ± 0.1 d |
0.5 ± 0.2 f |
|
0.5 |
21.3 |
0.4 ± 0.1 e |
0.3 ± 0.1 g |
|
1.0 |
33.1 |
1.9 ± 0.5 a |
0.9 ± 0.2 e |
Kin |
1.5 |
49.7 |
1.3 ± 0.4 b |
1.5 ± 0.4 cd |
|
2.0 |
38.4 |
0.7 ± 0.1 cd |
0.8 ± 0.3 e |
|
2.5 |
19.8 |
0.5 ± 0.1 de |
0.3 ± 0.1 g |
*Means
within a column that do not share a letter are significantly different at P ≤ 0.05 using Tukey’s test
Table 2: Effect of different concentrations of auxins in ½MS
solid medium on in vitro root
induction from shoot regenerated from the leaf and cotyledon explants of Eurycoma longifolia
Auxins |
Concentrations (mg L-1) |
Regeneration frequency (%) |
No. of roots/shoot (mean ± SE) |
Root length (cm) (mean ± SE) |
Control |
00 |
18.0 |
0.3 ± 0.1 e |
0.8 ± 0.2 c |
|
0.2 |
35.3 |
0.8 ± 0.3 d |
1.2 ± 0.3 c |
|
0.5 |
90.2 |
4.2 ± 0.4 a |
5.1 ± 0.3 a |
IBA |
1.0 |
56.3 |
2.3 ± 0.6 b |
2.8 ± 0.1 b |
|
2.0 |
30.1 |
1.9 ± 0.4 b |
2.2 ± 0.2 b |
|
0.2 |
15.1 |
0.4 ± 0.1 e |
0.6 ± 0.1 c |
NAA |
0.5 |
23.2 |
1.0 ± 0.4 c |
0.9 ± 0.3 c |
|
1.0 |
30.3 |
1.4 ± 0.3 c |
2.0 ± 0.3 b |
|
2.0 |
19.1 |
0.7 ± 0.2 d |
1.2 ± 0.2 c |
*Means within a column that do not share a letter are
significantly different at P ≤ 0.05
using Tukey’s test
Table 3: The number and size of the amplified fragments generated
by SSR primers in Eurycoma longifolia
Primer
code |
Annealing
temperature (°C) |
Number of
scorable bands/primer |
Total
number of bands amplified |
Range of
amplification (bp) |
55 |
1 |
9 |
200 – 300 |
|
Elo 026 |
45 |
1 |
9 |
200 – 300 |
Elo 066 |
55 |
1 |
9 |
200 – 300 |
Elo 085 |
55 |
1 |
9 |
200 – 300 |
Elo 099 |
45 |
1 |
9 |
100 – 200 |
Elo 104 |
45 |
1 |
9 |
200 – 300 |
Elo 112 |
45 |
1 |
9 |
100 – 200 |
Table 4: The number and size of the amplified fragments
generated by ISSR primers in Eurycoma
longifolia
Primer
code |
Annealing
temperature (°C) |
Number of
scorable bands/primer |
Total
number of Bands amplified |
Range of
amplification (bp) |
UBC-807 |
40 |
3 |
27 |
300 - 600 |
UBC-808 |
45 |
3 |
27 |
400 - 900 |
UBC-809 |
40 |
5 |
45 |
300 - 900 |
UBC-811 |
40 |
6 |
54 |
400 - 1000 |
UBC-812 |
40 |
3 |
27 |
400 - 700 |
UBC-835 |
43 |
4 |
36 |
300 - 600 |
UBC-840 |
40 |
2 |
18 |
400 – 600 |
UBC-851 |
43 |
1 |
9 |
600 - 700 |
Table 5: Summary of SSR and ISSR amplified products from nine
samples of Eurycoma longifolia
Description |
SSR |
ISSR |
SSR + ISSR |
Total
bands scored |
7 |
27 |
34 |
Number of
monomorphic bands |
7 |
27 |
34 |
Number of
polymorphic bands |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Number of
primers used |
7 |
8 |
15 |
Average
number of fragments per primer |
1.0 |
3.4 |
4.4 |
Size range
of amplified fragments (bp) |
100 - 300 |
300 - 1000 |
100 - 1000 |
Fig. 3: DNA amplification obtained with A) SSR primer (Elo 066). B)
ISSR primer (UBC807) Lane NC: Negative Control, Lanes 1 – 8: in vitro raised plants, Lane MP: Mother
plant, Lane L: 100-bp ladder
Discussion
The direct shoot
regeneration protocols could provide a potential technique that can be utilized
in genetic transformation. In this study, shoot buds were induced from leaf
explants. It has been reported that cytokinin concentration has an efficient
effect on shoot organogenesis from explant. High concentrations of cytokinins
have been reported to reduce the number of shoot buds and callus production
(Khan et al. 2015). Contrarily, lower concentration of cytokinins in
culture medium has been related to shoot bud proliferation from leaf explants
(Singh et al. 2013; Kumlay and Ercisli 2015). As expected, by increasing
BAP concentration, the frequency of shoot initiation, average number and length
of shoots were decreased in the current study. On the other hand, TDZ induced
the lowest number of shoot buds from leaf explants with all concentrations
tested and these shoots seemed to be stunted. However, prolonged exposure of
regenerated shoots to medium supplied with high concentrations of TDZ resulted
in distortion and exhibited stunted growth of shoots (Dewir et al. 2018).
The fasciation of the shoots or formation of stunted shoots on the medium
contained TDZ, has been reported in several species of plants such Cassia sophera Linn (Parveen et al. 2010) and Vitex trifolia L (Ahmed and Anis 2012).
The rooting of in vitro regenerated shoots is an
important step for the successful formation of the whole plantlets that can
survive in ex vitro conditions (Toppo
et al. 2012; Shekhawat et al. 2015). Auxins are generally
subjected to be used for root induction, but they might prevent the continued
growth of roots if they remain in the same rooting medium (Harahap et al.
2014). Shekhawat et al. (2014) reported that IBA is an auxin that plays
a significant role in the induction of roots from regenerated shoots of Turnera ulmifolia. A study conducted on
shoot tip explants of E. longifolia
by Hussein et al. (2005b) has shown that 0.4 and 0.5 mg L-1 of IBA were suitable to induce roots from regenerated shoots. They also reported that NAA
generated undesirable thick and short roots. Contrary to that, another study
conducted by Hussein et al. (2012) found that NAA was more efficient in
adventitious root induction from E. longifolia leaf explants. This is in
agreement with this current study, which observed that the concentration of 0.5
mg L-1 IBA was the best for root induction in E.
Longifolia plants. Besides,
IBA induced vigorous roots without the formation of callus on the shoots. Kumar
and Nandi (2015) reported a similar observation with the same concentration of
auxin (0.5 mg L-1 IBA) in the ½MS medium for induction of root from Asteracantha longifolia. Micropropagated plantlets, which are
developed in a controlled microenvironment might desiccate and die if they were
directly placed at a low level of humidity or higher light level that is
stressful as compared to in vitro
conditions. Moreover, during the acclimatization process the plantlets have
poor photosynthetic capability and the leaves act as a source of carbohydrates
for the newly developing leaves. This poor photosynthetic capability could
cause the deaths of some of the micropropagated plantlets (Chaari-Rkhis et
al. 2015). Several studies have shown that the usage of 100% jiffy-7 was
the suitable potting medium for the plantlets acclimatization (Yahya et al.
2015; Nabilah et al. 2017). After one month of acclimatization in the
laboratory, the plants were transferred to the large pots containing garden
soil for further growth and to be ready for transfer to the field. The plants
were adapted to the field conditions with 85% of the survival percentage.
The genetic
differences among in vitro plantlets
usually occur as a result of the exposure of plant tissues to in vitro conditions. This difference
could have a negative impact on application of tissue culture techniques in the
conservation of important traits in plants (Bairu et al. 2011; Cruz-Martínez et al. 2017). For better results of
genetic homogeneity analysis, it is always recommended to use more than one
marker that can help to target different regions of the genome because in vitro propagation might provoke
somaclonal variation in in vitro raised plantlets (Agarwal et al.
2015; Muthukumar et al. 2016). Two genetic markers (SSR and ISSR) were
used in the current study due to their efficiency in the assessment of clonal
fidelity and genetic diversity studies (Bairu et al. 2011; Kalia et
al. 2011; Krishna et al. 2016). The use of SSR and ISSR in the
evaluation of genetic homogeneity of in vitro propagated plants have
been reported in many species of plants such as Alhagi maurorum (Agarwal et al. 2015); Simmondsia chinensis (Kumar and Reddy 2011); Salvadora persica L. (Kumari et al. 2017); Withania somnifera L. (Nayak et al.
2013); Grapevine cv. (Nookaraju and Agrawal 2012); Psidium guajava L. (Rai et al. 2012) and acid lime accessions
(Sharafi et al. 2016).
Conclusion
In conclusion,
this study reports an efficient plantlet regeneration system from leaf explants
of E. longifolia via direct
organogenesis. This is the first
report on shoot induction from leaf explant. SSR and
ISSR markers were utilized to validate the genetic homogeneity among the
micropropagated plantlets. DNA fingerprints of micropropagated plantlets showed
a monomorphic pattern similar to
their mother plant, demonstrating the homogeneity of the in vitro raised plantlets. The regeneration protocol described here could be beneficial for the
conservation of germplasm and mass production of E. longifolia plants with less risk of genetic variability.
Acknowledgements
The authors
would like to thank the Biodiversity Unit at the Institute of Bioscience
University Putra Malaysia for providing the plant material for this research. This
research was funded by Putra Graduate Initiative (IPS) grant, Universiti Putra
Malaysia.
Author Contributions
All the
authors meet the essential criteria of the publication. AGAA performed the
experiments and prepared the manuscript, ZNBY designed the experiments and NAS
supervised the research work.
Conflicts
of Interest
Authors have no conflict of interest with regards to this
manuscript.
Data
Availability
The data will
be made available on fair request to the corresponding author.
Ethics
Approval
Not applicable.
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