Micropropagation in Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) cv. ‘Bhagwa’ through Indirect Organogenesis and Assessment of Genetic Fidelity by RAPD Marker

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an ancient fruit crop belonging to the family Punicaceae. Conventionally, pomegranate is propagated through air layering, hard wood and semihard wood cuttings. Recently micropropagation is gaining popularity due to rapid mass propagation of disease free plants in short period of time and small space. Rapid regeneration of plants by micropropagation can be achieved by indirect organogenesis involving induction of callus with exogenous application of plant growth regulators. In the present study nodal segment was found superior for induction of callus when cultured on MS basal medium consisting of BAP 5 mg/l + NAA 0.4 mg/l. Early shoot initiation, more number of shoots per explant and maximum shoot length was noticed when proliferated calli were cultured on MS basal medium containing BAP 2 mg/l + NAA 0.1 mg/l + GA3 0.5 mg/l. Early in vitro root initiation, highest per cent rooting and maximum number of roots per plantlet were recorded when microshoots were cultured on full strength MS medium supplemented with IBA 3 mg/l. RAPD marker analysis revealed 90.66 and 9.33 % monomorphic and polymorphic bands, respectively among tissue culture regenerated plantlets of pomegranate.