In vitro Micropropagation in Boehmeria nivea to Generate Safe Planting Materials for Large-scale Cultivation

Abstract

An efficient in vitro micropropagation protocol has been developed using nodal explants of ramie (Boehmeria nivea), with maximum shoots (42) per explant in 5 passages (passage duration: 21 days) on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with 2.0 mg/l 6-benzyladenine and 2.0 mg/l AgNO3. ½ Murashige and Skoog medium containing 40% sucrose was found to be most effective for the rooting of in vitro developed shoots. Those plantlets were acclimatized and transferred to pots for hardening under glasshouse conditions. About 91% of mericlones survived and showed no ectopic expression in respect of any morphological character in comparison with the parental stock. Furthermore, clonal fidelity of the mericlones was confirmed by using DNA markers (random amplified polymorphic DNA and inter simple sequence repeats) and by polypeptide profiling through SDS-PAGE at a genomic and protein level, respectively, which showed the true-to-type nature of the in vitro micropropagated plants. Thus the protocol developed can be used to generate safe planting material for large-scale cultivation of ramie.