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EVALUATION OF GENETIC STABILITY IN THE BLACKCURRANT PLANTS REGENERATED VIA MICROPROPAGATION USING RAPD-PCR TECHNIQUE

SAIFULLAH KHAN* AND WILLIAM SPOOR

Abstract: Blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum L.) cultivar Ben Sark was multiplied using meristem culture up to 16 generations. The leaves from each generation/subculture were collected and used to isolate DNA. RAPD-PCR technique was used to evaluate the genetic purity of the regenerated plants. The DNA profile of parent explant source and 16 regenerated plants were screened using 12 ten base random primers. Only reproducible fragments with intense bands were scored which generated 77 DNA fragments, thus 1540 bases were explored in this set of experiment. All the regenerated plants upto 14 subculture showed 100% similarity. In subculture 15 and 16, the similarity were 93.7 and 86% with variation 6.2 and 13.4, respectively. Production of variant plants from meristem culture is not good for commercial propagation. However, it could be minimised by reducing the subculture cycle. Additionally, this variability could be used for further improvement and selection of new cultivars and an important source of variability be exploited.

School of Agriculture, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, U.K.
Present address. In-charge Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology Div., International Centre for  Chemical Sciences, H.E.J.   Research Institute, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan.