TISSUE CULTURE STUDIES OF SUGARCANE

DISSERTATION

By
Mr. Rupinder Singh

Roll No. 3010118

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT

FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF
MASTERS OF SCIENCE IN BIOTECHNOLOGY

Department of Biotechnology and Environmental Sciences

Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology
Patiala 147004, India.
MAY 2003

ABSTRACT
Sugarcane assumes the important position in the economy of India by
contributing

nearly 1.9% of National GDP. Sugarcane is cultivated in over 4

million hectares spreading over a wide range of agro-ecological situations.

Sugarcane farmers are facing serious problems such as pest and disease
infestation especially red rot, non-availability of good seed material, support from
industry etc. It is need for the hour to find out and implement technological
interventions for the same. Plant Tissue culture is a tool for obtaining rapid, mass
multiplication of disease free, true to type planting material. Mass propagation
protocol once standardize, can be utilized for rapid multiplication of disease free
stock material, which further be, multiplied in strict management conditions for
bulking up. Plant Tissue culture can also be used for rapid dissemination of
newly released varieties with important agronomic characters.
In the present dissertation, we have tried to optimize the culture conditions of
CoJ 85, which is an important variety in Punjab. Through our work, we have
found that MS Basal + 0.5 mg/lt BAP + 0.5 mg/lt Kn + 30 gm/lt Sugar + 8.0 gm/lt
agar is the best among the different combinations for the initiation of this variety.
For the multiplication stage, best multiplication rate is observed in MS Basal + 1.0
mg/lt BAP + 1.5 mg/lt Kn + 30 gm/lt. We have also found that MS + 5 mg/lt NAA
+ 70 gm/lt sugar responded significantly for the rooting and for callus formation,
MS + 2,4-D (4mg/l) was found to be the best for the callus induction.

CANDIDATES DECLARATION

Myself, Rupinder Singh, hereby declare that the work presented in the
dissertation entitled, TISSUE CULTURE STUDIES OF SUGARCANE for
partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of Masters of
Science in Biotechnology, Department of Biotechnology and Environmental
Sciences, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, Punjab, India,
is an authentic record of my own work during the period of five months from
January 2003 to May 2003, under the supervision of Mr. Dipal Roy Choudhury,
Research Scientist, TIFAC, CORE. I have not submitted the matter embodied in
this dissertation for the award of any other degree or diploma.

Place: Patiala
Date:

(RUPINDER SINGH)

This is to certify that the above statement made by the candidate is correct and
true to the best of our knowledge.

(Mr. Dipal Roy Choudhury)

Project Supervisor
TIFAC CORE, TIET

(Dr. Sunil Khanna)

Head, DBTES,
TIET, Patiala.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I thank the almighty whose blessings have enabled me to accomplish my
dissertation work successfully.
It is my proud privilege to express my sincere thanks and deep sense of gratitude
to Mr. Dipal Roy Choudhury, Research Scientist, TIFAC, CORE, TIET, for his
valuable advice, supervision and constant patience through which this work was
able to take the shape in which it has been presented. His constant
encouragement and confidence imbibing attitude has always been a moral
support for me.
My sincere thanks to Dr. Sunil Khanna, Head, Department of Biotechnology and
Environmental Sciences, for his immense concern throughout the project work.
I take this opportunity as a privilege to thank Dr. Niranjan Das, Assistant
Professor, Department of Biotechnology and Environmental Sciences for putting
in his best efforts in guiding me at the appropriate time.
A special word of thanks to all the faculty members for their constant
encouragement and support throughout this duration.
Thanks to Dr. Kuldeep Singh Barna, Research Scientist, TIFAC-CORE, for his
timely help in preparing this report in colorful way.
I would also express my sincere thanks to all the Office staff and persons in
relation to TIFAC CORE and Department of Biotechnology and Environmental
Sciences, TIET, for their sincere help.
I am really grateful for the help rendered by the Tissue culture facility at TIFACCORE with special mention of Mr. Rajesh, Mr. Khem Raj, Mr. Deepak, Mr.
Bhupinder, Mr. Sandeep, Mr. Prakash, Mr. Naib Singh and Mr. Anil who were
always there for making me understand the minor details of the work on a day-today basis.

I express my sincere regards to Prof S.S. Gosal, Dept of Biotechnology, Punjab

Agricultural University, Punjab, for his immensely valuable advice and guidance
bestowed time to time during my entire course of work and Prof V.K. Saxena,
Head, Dept of Plant Breeding, PAU, for his kind help in providing the germplasm
of Sugarcane.
I feel deep gratitude to Dr I.D. Arya, Genetics and Tree Propagation Division,
Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, for giving me first hand learning of practical
Plant Tissue Culture during my association as a Summer Trainee.
I feel lacunae of words to express my most heartfelt and cordial thanks to my
friends Diwakar Aggarwal and Anshu Bansal, who have always been a source of
inspiration for me, stood by my side at the toughest times.
Finally, I wish to extend a warm thanks to everybody involved directly or indirectly
with my work.
The whole credit of my achievements goes to my parents, my elder brother, who
were always there for me in my difficulties. It was their unshakable faith in me
that has always helped me to proceed further.

DATE:

(RUPINDER SINGH)

CON TEN TS
1. INTRODUCTION

Page No.

1.a.

History of plant tissue culture

10

1.b.

Achievements in India and abroad

11

1.c.

Benefits of tissue culture

12

1.d.

History of sugarcane

13

1.e.

Botanical / agronomical description

15

1.f.

Importance of sugarcane to India

17

1.g.

Problems associated with Sugarcane

18

1.h.

Integration of tissue culture technology

20

to Sugarcane
2.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

22

3.

MATERIALS AND METHOD

3.a.

Collection of germplasm

26

3.b.

Media preparation

26

3.c.

Explant sterilization

28

3.d.

Inoculation

29

3.e.

Establishment of cultures

30

3.f.

Axillary shoot proliferation

30

3.g.

Rooting of shoots

33

3.h.

Transplantation

34

4.

INDUCTION OF CALLUS

35

5.

ISOLATION OF GENOMIC DNA

39

6.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

6.a.

Initiation

41

6.b.

Multiplication

44

6.c.

Rooting

49

6.d.

Transplantation

51

6.e.

Callus induction

53

7.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

56

8.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

58

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Plant tissue culture (PTC) is a generic description which embraces plant
protoplast, plant cell, plant tissue, plant organ and plant culture, where these
various types of culture involve, as a common factor, the growth of microbe-free
plant material in an aseptic (sterile) environment, such as sterilized nutrient
medium in a test tube. Basically it is the branch of biotechnology, which is used to
clone plants at a very high speed without the restriction of the season (Bhojwani
and Razdan, 1983). It involves culture of plant parts or tissues or organs
aseptically in a proper container where the environment and the nutrition can be
rigidly controlled. All plant cells retain the ability to use all of their genes and
thereby can produce any type of tissue and eventually whole plants. This ability to
generate any cells from such starting tissue is called Cellular "totipotency".
The technique of plant tissue culture may play a key role in the Second Green
Revolution in which biotechnology and gene modification are being used to
improve crop yield and quality. Usually, the plant part (explant) is placed in a
suitable tissue culture media, proliferation of the lateral buds or adventitious
shoots or the differentiation of the shoots results in tremendous increase in the
number

of

shoots

available

for

rooting.

This

process

is

known

as

micropropagation. It offers several distinct advantages that are not possible with
conventional propagation techniques.

Through micropropagation, it is possible to produce over a million clonally

uniform plants, within one year in vitro from a single explant (shoot tip,
nodal segment, leaf pieces etc), e.g. Eucalyptus.

Through micropropagation, newly developed cultivars can also be released

for commercial planting within a short period of time.

Micropropagation can also be used for production of disease/pathogen free

stock material (widely used in Horticulture industry) - as thorough meristem
culture.

Apart from these conventional benefits, research on various aspects has widened
the scope of Plant tissue culture.

Secondary metabolite production through Tissue culture technology has

been proved more efficient as compared to conventional extraction from
field grown/naturally cultivated plants - commercial production of the
napthoquinone pigment Shikonin (Bhau, Brijmohan Singh,1999).

Plant tissue culture has also been used in the production of flavours,
sweeteners, natural colourants and bio-pharmaceuticals (Khanna, P.
1982).

Regeneration of the plants from callus is found to be an important source of

variation (Skirvin and Janick, 1976), This phenomenon is called as
Somaclonal variation which can also be used for the creation of new plant
varieties with increased importance (Evans and Sharp, 1986). The origin
and expression of the observed variations are usually very diverse, but the
occurrences of stable gene mutations have been proved in many species
(McCoy and Phillips, 1982). One of the more frequent types of variation is a
difference in chromosomal number, e.g. aneuploidy, polyploidy, mixoploidy.
This may be due to many reasons such as source of explant used or
effects of culture process itself (lengthy culture periods, growth regulators
used, nutritional stress etc) leading to changes in chromosome no/position.
All these variations are found to increase with increase in culture periods.
These changes may be either permanent (genetic) or temporary
(epigenetic) in nature.

Tissue culture also found wide application in the fields of forestry and biodiversity conservation. Mass production of plantlets for afforestation programme
depends greatly in advancement of tissue culture techniques. Tissue culture also
plays an important role in the preservation and conservation of the endangered
plants.

Even though tissue culture has tremendous applications in various fields, it has
some limitations also. Tissue culture requires advanced manpower skill,
specialized equipments and capital intensive facilities. Tissue culture techniques
are usually specific and hence success rate varies widely.

1.a.

History of Tissue Culture

The concept of plant tissue and cell culture was conceived as early as 1902 by
the German botanist Gottlieb Harberlandt and published a paper entitled
Experiments on the culture of isolated cells. It was only during the last three
decades or so, that its application have increased tremendously both in the basic
research as well as applied fields especially in the agriculture and horticulture.
Haberlandt had attempted to culture chlorophyll-containing cells and demonstrate
the totipotency of cells. Though his success was not enthusiastically received
during his time, he did manage to initiate a new method of plant propagation,
which has become known as 'Plant Tissue Cultur
e'. Since 1952, there has been
an increasing interest in plant tissue culture for propagating many types of plants.
Meristem tip culture has been primarily used to increase stock of desired plants
that do not reproduce true through sexual means. Skoog and Miller (1957) gave
the concept of hormonal control of organ formation. According to them,
combination of auxin and cytokinin in tissue culture media determines
differentiation of roots and shoots. High level of auxin in the medium induces
rhizogenesis vis a vis high level of cytokinin promotes caulogenesis. Single cell
culture became possible after the work of Muir et al (1954), who developed the
nurse culture technique. E.C Cocking isolated protoplast for the first time,
however; totipotency of isolated tobacco protoplast for regeneration into intact
plantlet was demonstrated by Takebe et al (1971). Another attempt was made by
Carlson et al (1972) when first inter-specific somatic hybrids plants were
produced by fusion of Nicotiana longsdorffi and Nicotiana glaucca protoplast. In
early 1960s, Murashige completed a study while working in Skoogs lab leading
to commercial application of tissue culture. Murashige had developed a culture
medium especially for rapid growth and bioassay of tobacco callus (Murashige

10

and Skoog 1962). Reports concerning the recovery of plants from haploid cells
began to appear in 1960s and the first success was obtained with Datura (Guha
and Maheshwari, 1960). Consequently, the technique of tissue and organ culture
are used for rapid multiplication of plants for the biosynthesis of plant
constituents, for genetic improvement of crops, for obtaining disease free clones
and for preserving valuable germplasm.
At present, some 300-plant species have either been reported/successfully
demonstrated to be produced through tissue culture (Vasil and Vasil, 1980). Of
the various plant species, ornamentals have been most successfully multiplied
through tissue culture technique on commercial scale. The most glaring example
is of orchid, the trade of which has been revolutionized by tissue culture
(Hartmann and Kester, 1975; Morel, 1975; Rao, 1977) and now a days
successfully grown as a cottage industry in Thailand. Transgenic plants was
developed by transformation of tobacco with Agrobacterium (Horsch et al 1984),
a novel bacteria known for inducing callus and a new terminology, Genetic
engineering had been coined. Development of biolistic gene transfer method for
plant transformation (Sanford et al 1990; Klein et al 1987) has now been
successfully used as an alternative to Agrobacterium mediated gene transfer.
1 b.

Achievements of India in Plant Tissue Culture

In India, tissue culture was initially reported by Maheshwari and Rangaswamy in

1958 for the regeneration of somatic embryos in vitro from the nucellus of Citrus
ovules. A novel technique of test-tube fertilization was developed in Delhi
University to overcome incompatibility in plants that is exhibited in wide
hybridisation. Another landmark research in plant breeding and genetics was the
production of haploids through another culture of Datura (Guha and Maheshwari,
1964) achieved for the first time at Delhi University. Development of triploid
plants through endosperm culture was also first developed from Delhi University
in the 1970's.The in vitro flowering of Bamboo, which is a rare phenomenon, was
demonstrated by NCL scientists in the (Nadgauda, R.S., et al.).

11

A.V. Thomas & company was the first to put India on the modern tissue culture
technology map of the world by setting up a commercial micropropagation unit in
1987 in Cochin Export processing Zone (Govil and Gupta, 2000). In the following
year, three other companies has also started commercial laboratory, 1) Indo
American Hybrid Seeds (IAHS), Bangalore, 2) Hindustan Lever Ltd, Mumbai, 3)
Unicorn Biotech, Hyderabad.

1.c. Benefits of Plant Tissue Culture

Plant tissue culture research is multi-dimensional and it has direct commercial
applications as well as value in basic research into cell biology, genetics and
biochemistry. The techniques include culture of cells, anthers, ovules and
embryos on experimental to industrial scales, protoplast isolation and fusion, cell
selection and meristem and bud culture. Instead of being a tool for rapid
propagation, tissue culture became an alternating tool of breeding by selecting
and testing for useful variants (Heinz et al 1971, Babra et al 1977, Morales et al
1989). The culture of the plant cells either as a callus tissue or as liquid
suspension provides important techniques that can be preliminary to the
regeneration of the whole plants because of the potential genetic variability
associated with these systems. Spontaneously arising changes in tissue culture
have been recognized as rich source of variability. In the Netherlands alone, over
100,000,000 plants are produced using micropropagation each year (Hall, 1999).
Plant tissue culture is also advantageous to growers because the overwhelming
number of plants can be produced using the tissue collected from a single parent
plant and the plant which itself remains unharmed in the tissue harvesting
process. Crop production through micropropagation also eliminates the
possibility of any interruption in the growing season because it can be carried out
inside the carefully regulated environment of a greenhouse. Because the
chemical and physical environment inside a greenhouse can be closely
monitored, any lull in production that might typically occur as a result of seasonal
change can be avoided. (Lineberger, 2002).

12

Applications include:
Micropropagation using meristem and shoot culture to produce large numbers
of identical individuals
Screening programmes of cells, rather than plants for advantageous
characters
Large-scale growth of plant cells in liquid culture as a source of secondary
products
Crossing distantly related species by protoplast fusion and regeneration of the
novel hybrid
Production of dihaploid plants from haploid cultures to achieve homozygous
lines more rapidly in breeding programmes
As a tissue for transformation, followed by either short-term testing of genetic
constructs or regeneration of transgenic plants
Removal of viruses by propagation from meristematic tissues

SUGARCANE - AN OVERVIEW
1.d.

History

The Sugarcane has been known from the earliest times, and is referred to in
historical records going back into the remote days of ancient civilizations, which
flourished long before the Christian era. Actual extraction of sugar from it does
not appear to had been discovered until much later. The original home of
Saccharum officinarum was in dispute until Brandes exhaustively surveyed the
evidence and concluded that it was originated in New Guinea, where from
ancient times, various forms of this thick, tall, tropical cane has been grown as a
native domestic garden crop for chewing. Prior to this, Barber had discussed the
subject under three headings: historical, linguistic and botanical.
The derivation of all names, for sugar and sugarcane from the Sanskrit
Shakkara is adduced as linguistic evidence of Indian origin on the basis of the
meaning a new crop from the east. Barber concludes that botanical studies

13

indicate two separate classes of cane with differing origins: the thin Indian
indigenous canes of North India and tropical forms from space islands of
Oceania, with New Guinea as a possible nucleus. Noel Deerr (1948) refers to
South Pacific as being the source of origin and stated that S. officinarum is
indigenous to that region. After much examination and discussion of available
evidence by Brandes, his firm conclusion was that New Guinea is the undoubted
home of the species and it represents the generally accepted view today.
Chaturvedi (1951) asserts that India is the home of sugarcane, basing his opinion
on recorded ancient Hindu mythology, but adducing no other evidence. Crude
sugar was being produced by 400 B.C. Brandes (1956) distinguishes three main
movements of sugarcane and first of these brought about the introduction of S.
officinarum to the Solomon islands, New Hebrides and New Caledonia from 8000
B.C. onwards. The second dates from 6000 B.C. and took a westerly direction to
Indonesia, Philippines and ultimately to northern India. The third is considered to
have occurred in circa A.D. 600 to 1100, reaching various island groups east of
the New Hebrides, including Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands and Hawaii, as
well as other parts of Oceania. Then it migrated to Hawaii during 600 A.D. and
Prophet Mohammeds army found Sugarcane in Persia during 632 A.D.,
Sugarcane was commercially exploited in 700 A.D. The first export of sugar from
Philippines occurred in 1565 and it has been shown that the general direction of
distribution in early times was westward from the Pacific.
The discovery of the Otabeite cane, renamed Bourbon, and its introduction to
Mauritius from Tahiti by Bougainville in 1768, exercised a notable influence on
the sugar industry of the world. Around 1780, the Bourbon cane was taken from
Mauritius to the French West Indies, and introduced to St. Vincent in 1793.
These events provided the parent stocks from which most of the sugar of New
World, and of considerable proportion of the old, was obtained for the next
hundred years until this famous variety succumbed to disease. In 1795 one plant
of bourbon was obtained from Santo Domingo by the Island Botanist of Jamaica,
a further introduction of the same variety was made to that island by Captain
Bligh a year later and obtained one plant of Bourbon from Santo Domingo. This

14

cane was the principal kind grown throughout the Caribbean region and the
Hawaii until the effects of a rind disease caused by the fungus Colletotrichum
falcatum became so serious from 1890 onwards that it had to be replaced by
resistant varieties, which though inferior in yield enabled sugar industry to
survive. The basis of the sugar industry until shortly after the close of the
nineteenth century was a considerable number of variants of S. saccharum L. of
natural occurrence often called native canes. The Bourbon was the principal
variety and other ones being Crytalina, Tanna, and Transparent etc all of which
were found in different rind colours and were known by different names. These
continued to be cultivated for many years afterwards until they were replaced by
artificially developed hybrids having special characteristics including resistance to
the diseases which attacked the older canes to an increasing extent as the
industry expanded, rendering their cultivation on a commercial scale unprofitable,
and in some cases impossible. It is said that the first sugar plant in India was
established by the French People at Aska in Orissa in 1824. Not much is known
about this factory except that it was maintained by Late James Fredrick Vivian
Minchin and that it stopped its operation around 1940. However, the first vacuum
pan process sugar plant was set up at Saran in Marhowrah in Bihar in 1904. By
1931-32 there were 31 sugar factories in India all of which were in the private
sector. The total production of sugar at that time was only about 1.5 lakh tonnes,
whereas the consumption was about 12 lakh tonnes. To meet the domestic
demand of sugar, India had to import sugar mainly from Java (Indonesia).
1.e.

Botany

All varieties of Sugarcane are species or hybrids of genus Saccharum

(Gramineae; Andrpogoneae). Sugarcane is a tall perennial tropical grass (C4
plant) that tillers at the base to produce unbranched stems, 3-4 m or more tall,
and about 5 cm in diameter. The basic structure of the sugarcane is closely
related to that of other members of the order Gramineae, of which it is a giant
member.

15

The solid unbranched stem, roughly circular or oval in cross section, is clearly
differentiated into joints, each comprising a node and an internode. Generally the
nodes are placed at an interval of 15 -25 cm, but are much closer at the top of
the stem, where elongation is taking place, than at the bottom, where they form
part of the rootstock and are essential to the formation of tillers. As a rule, types
of canes are preferred which have comparatively long joints and straight stalks,
combined with other favorable commercial characters. In commercial production,
sugar cane is propagated from stem cuttings (setts, or seed-pieces), each having
two or more buds. Sugar accumulates in the stems (canes), of which the
internodes vary in length (5-25 cm), girth (1.5-6 cm in diameter), shape
(cylindrical, barrel or bobbin and circular or oval in cross-section), colour (yellow,
green, red, purple, black, striped, variegated) and hardness according to the
variety and growing conditions.
The leaves of sugarcane are attached to the stem at the bases, alternately in two
rows on opposite side of the stem. Each leaf consists of two parts - a sheath and
a blade. The leaf has a strong midrib, white and concave on the upper surface,
convex and green below.
Two types of root system develop shortly after a sett has been planted: those
from primordial of the cutting, which are thin and branched; and those from the
primordial of the tillers that are thick, fleshy and much less branched. At first the
newly planted seed piece depends entirely on its own roots for the uptake of
water and nutrients. Later this function is taken over by the tillers, and sett roots
die. Each shoot produces its own root system.
Most Saccharum varieties will not flower on day lengths longer than about twelve
hours, nor if light is given in the middle of dark period. Generally twelve and a
half hours day light and 20-250C night temperature induces floral initiation if
enough inductive cycles are given, probably at least ten. The inflorescence,
which is known as arrow, emerges above the mass of foliage, presumably an
adaptation to wind pollination. The ultimate branches bear the spikelets, one of
which is sessile and other one a stiff pedicel. Both spikelets have two florets, the
lower one of which is sterile and represented by a rare delicate pointed lemma or

16

third glume that is shorter than the glumes. Natural pollination is by wind. After
pollination, it takes 2125 days for the seed to fill and mature. The seed is dry
one, seeded fruit or caryopsis formed from single carpel, ovary wall (pericarp)
being united with seed coat (testa). The seeds are shed within the spikelet,
individual florets breaking off at the nodes.

1.f.

Importance of Sugarcane to India

In our country, agriculture is not an agri-business, but way of life . Sugarcane, an

agro-industrial crop, is an important integral component of the agriculture. It
assumes the important position in the economy by contributing

nearly 1.9% of

National GDP. Sugarcane is cultivated in over 4 million hectares spread over a

wide range of agro-ecological situations, both in tropical and sub-tropical regions.
The crop sustains second largest organized agro-industry, the sugar industry.
This has enabled us to be the largest producer of sugar and the second largest
producer of sugarcane in the world. At present, total production of sugarcane is
around 300 million tonnnes. (Shahi. H.N, 2002).
India is the single largest producer of sugar including traditional cane sugar,
sweeteners, khandsari and gur equivalent to 26 million tonnes raw value followed
by Brazil in the second place at 18.5 million tonnes. Even in respect of white
crystal sugar, India has ranked No.1 position in 7 out of last 10 years. Over 11
million tons of refined sugar is produced, accounting for 60% of the total sugar
cane cultivated. The total Indian export of the sugarcane in the year 2000-2001
was 811027.5 MT. Punjab is one of the major player in the production of
sugarcane in India.
Area under Sugarcane, Yield Per Hectare, Sugarcane Production and
Utilisation (India)
Y ear

Ar ea u n der
cu lt ivat ion
( m illion h ect ar e)

Y ield
per
h ect ar e

S u gar can e
pr odu ct ion
( m illion t on n es )

%
u t iliz at ion
of s u gar

%
u t iliz at ion
of gu r

1 9 9 7 -9 8

3 .9

6 6 .4

260

4 9 .2

3 8 .8

1 9 9 8 -9 9

401

6 8 .4

280

5 6 .0

3 2 .0

1 9 9 9 -0 0

402

7 0 .8

299

5 9 .7

2 8 .4

17

1.g.

Problems of Sugarcane

Infestation of major disease - Red Rot

Red

rot,

caused

by

Glomerella

tucumanensis,

(previously

known

as

Colletotrichum falcatum), is one of the major constraints in the profitable

cultivation of sugarcane. This fungal disease drastically retards the yield and
considerably deteriorates the juice quality (Agnihotri, 1990) thus causing
considerable loss for both the growers and millers. Many wonder varieties (e.g.
CoJ 64) have now gone out of cultivation due to serious infestation of red rot.
The symptoms of the disease first appear when the crop is about six months old.
At the initial stage, drying of top leaves can be seen. The leaf starts withering and
drooping almost all shoots in a clump starts drying one by one. Red lesions with
straw coloured centres develop on the midrib of leaves.
Control
Use of disease free or heat-treated setts (MHAT) or resistant variety for planting
is recommended. After harvest, collect and burn the plant debris. Grow resistant
varieties/use resistant parents in breeding programmes. Dip the setts in systemic
fungicide Benomyl (0.1%) solution for at least 30 minutes before planting.
Follow crop rotation.
OTHER PESTS/DISEASES
Apart from the red rot, there are some other pests that are of major concern to
the farmers. Among them the prominent one are Top borer, Internode borer,
Whip smut, Grassy shoot disease and early shoot-borer. Termites are also
contributing to the loss of sugarcane in India. Many states in India are facing
severe disease outbreaks and over the years the pathogen have gained
virulence and most of the cultivators grown in the field become susceptible
(Viswanathan et al 1997). It is also observed that due to the development of the
new variants of pathogens, the newly released varities succumbed to pathogen
(Padmanabhan et. al. 1996)

18

NON AVAILABILITY OF HEALTHY SEED CANES

Healthy seed cane supply is the lifeline in the productivity of the sugarcane.
Since the disease is carried to the planting material and sugarcane, it is very
important to maintain the healthy cane supply system for improving /sustaining
the productivity. Therefore it is imperative to adopt utmost care for the use of only
healthy seeds as planting material. For this, three-tier production programme i.e.
breeder-foundation-certified has to be followed which may be costly. Moist hot air
treatment (MHAT) treatment can be given to the seed material and this treatment
can only be given at the breeder seed stage only but not at the commercial level.
The area under sugarcane has reduced due to non-availability of superior
varieties. In 2000-2001, sugarcane area in the Punjab fell down to 145,000 ha.
Primary reason for this drastic reduction was infestation of diseases,
mismanagement of sugar mills and untimely payments to the farmers in the
preceding year. These non availability of healthy seed cane and infestation of
diseases call for an integrated approach for solving the problem.

MINIMUM SUPPORT PRICE

A higher MSP promotes sugarcane as a diversification crop and encourage

farmers to break free from the wheat-paddy cycle. While the MSP for sugarcane
fixed by the Centre for 2001-02 is Rs 620.50/tonne, the growers are paid higher
due to the State Governments announcing advisory prices (SAP). Uttar
Pradesh's SAP ranges from Rs 980 to Rs 1,000 a tonne based on recovery,
while in Haryana, it rules at Rs 750-1,100. In the southern States, it is between
Rs 750 and Rs 780. However, despite the directives from the Central and State
Govt to provide farmers MSP and arrears, mill owners refused to observe the
rule. And due to this situation, even in this year 2003, farmers face huge losses
to sell canes at a lower ate. But there are other hurdles, which discourage
farmers from taking sugarcane in a big way, and a remunerative MSP alone is
not a sufficient attraction. Some of the state governments delay the
announcement of state advised prices. According to a recent press report,
sugar mills in Haryana owed Rs 100 crore to growers while the arrears in UP

19

amounted to a staggering Rs 1,000 crore. The situation countrywide is so grim

that the payment of sugarcane arrears to farmers was included in the Govt of
Indias recent package for the drought-hit. Since the income generated by
sugarcane is only once a year, there is a dire need to diversify the cropping
system by introducing intercropping to generate mid-season income for the
farmers and additionally fulfilling the household requirement of food, besides
mitigating the ill effects of sugarcane monoculture.

1.h.

Integration of Tissue Culture with Sugarcane

Plant regeneration from tissue culture of sugarcane has been successfully

applied to breeding programs for rapid screening of clones for disease
resistance, salt tolerance, drought tolerance, herbicide resistance and early
maturity and high sugar. A newly identified variety with desirable character, e.g
pest/disease resistant, high sugar content, stress resistant can be propagated
through tissue culture and made available to the farmer for commercial benefit
that is otherwise not possible through conventional means that take appox 8-10
years. Yield losses due to diseases could be reduced by using resistant varieties.
(Krishnamurthy and Tlaskal 1974) obtained disease resistance sub clones
through tissue culture. Liu et al (1983) developed a calli clone containing an
average of 2.35% more sucrose than its donor and had taller and thicker stalks.
In vitro selection from callus culture whereby the selection pressure is imposed
by adding a toxic substance from the environment so that only the mutated cells
survive and hence a more resistant form is developed, e.g. for salt tolerance
desirable mutants can be isolated from the cells exposed to high salinity. An in
vitro selection system for salt stress and eye spot disease resistance has been
developed by Maribona et al (1986). This system is able to discriminate
pathological and salt stress adaptation for genetic mutation. However, it is also
imperative to check the persistence level over generations and only stable
mutants showing desirable characters can be released.

Development of

molecular markers for disease resistance, high sucrose and other characters are
been undertaken in research organizations (e.g, Sugarcane Breeding Institute,
20

Coimbatore) and the benefits of these technology can only be translated when
improved varieties will be released for the benefit of the farmer. Tissue culture
technology can play a major role for efficient dissemination of these. An
integrated approach including a research organization for identifying and
selection of a new / important variety, mass propagation and Sugarcane industry
support in raising a mother nursery for bulking up has been in need of the hour.

21

2.0

Review of Literature

Tissue culture is the cloning of plants from mother plant. Tissue culture materials
are uniform at maturity and this makes it easy for harvesting. Plant tissue culture
is a versatile cloning technique offering benefit of scale, scope and uniformity. It
requires sophisticated equipments, skilled manpower, dedicated research and is
labour intensive. Tissue culture technology can ensure virus-free, disease
indexed and high yielding planting material, which will help to increase yield,
productivity, uniformity of produce, reduced harvesting time and reduced
wastage.
Several of the authors and scientific institutes all over the world are working on
various aspects of Sugarcane ranging from Agronomy, Plant protection, Crop
improvement , mass propagation, genetic transformation etc. We have referred
some of the important works pertaining to standardizing of tissue / callus culture
of Sugarcane.
Plant regeneration from shoot tip culture of sugarcane using Murashige and
Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 0.2 mg/lt BA and 0.02 mg NAA/lt have
been reported. Shootlets were multiplied 4-fold every 2 weeks by sub culturing in
the same medium. Further multiplication was carried out on solid MS medium
containing the same growth regulators, before enhancing shoot growth on
medium containing 1 mg 2,4-D/lt and 15% (v/v) coconut water, and finally
stimulating rooting on MS medium with 1 mg IBA/litre. (Naritoom, K. et al., 1993).
However, it is later developed that in Sugarcane, once axillary bud proliferation
has been started, liquid culture medium can be used for further multiplication.
This will reduce usage of gelling agent like Agar, which is very costly, and add
considerably towards the cost of development of plantlets. The use of different
gelling agents (agar and agarose) and support materials (filter paper bridge,
cotton cloth bridge and adsorbent cotton) as well as shaken and static liquid
(control) cultures was studied in order to improve in vitro shoot multiplication and
vigour in sugarcane (Lal, N. et al, 1993). Sterilized 2-3 mm shoot tips of
sugarcane were cultured on modified Murashige and Skoog medium containing 3

22

or 4 mg BAP and 0-2 mg IAA/lt. Percentage induction of multiple shoots, and

mean multiple shoot number, were highest (90% and 16.5, respectively) with 3
mg BAP + 1 mg IAA/lt. Roots were induced on half-strength MS medium
containing 2 mg IBA + 1 mg IAA/lt ( Dhumale, D. B. et al. , 1994).
Rapid multiplication of commercial sugarcane varieties through tissue culture
was demonstrated in MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg IAA, BAP and
Kinetin (70% shoot regeneration) and rapid shoot multiplication was achieved by
sub culturing the established shoot clumps in MS medium supplemented with 0.1
mg/lt IAA, 2.0 mg/lt BAP, and 1.0 mg/lt Kinetin. Rooting (85-92%) was induced by
transferring shoot clumps on 1/2 MS medium containing 2 mg/lt NAA and 1.0
mg/lt IBA. (Pawar, S. et al, 2002).
Effect of growth regulators on in vitro multiplication of sugarcane cultivars (Co86032, Co-740 and Co-8014 ) were used to study the effect of different levels of
kinetin,

benzyl-aminopurine

(BAP)

and

coconut

water(CW)

on

shoot

multiplication, length of main shoot and number of leaves on main shoot. MS

medium was supplemented with 3 levels of kinetin (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 mg/lt), 4
levels of BAP (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mg/lt) and 2 levels of CW (10 and 20%). The
highest shoot multiplication ratio for all cultivars was recorded in the MS medium
supplemented with 1.5 mg kinetin/lt, 1.5 or 2.0 mg BAP/lt and 20% CW. The
treatment 1.5 mg kinetin/lt+1.0 mg BAP/lt+20% CW gave the highest values for
length of main shoot in all cultivars, invitro plantlets treated with 1.0 mg
kinetin/lt+1.0 mg BAP/lt+20% CW gave the highest number of leaves on the main
shoot in all cultivars. (Pawar, S. V. et al., 2002).
Another interesting thing was observed when the effect of explant source and
genotype on growth of sugar cane in vitro was observed. Explants from three
sources, axillary bud, apical bud and shoot apex, were cultured. Severe bacterial
contamination occurred in axillary buds resulting in necrosis and death of the
explants. Growth responses were better with apical buds than with axillary buds .
In B 6504 and M 554/79, 8.3% and 12.5% of axillary buds, respectively, formed
shoots. On the other hand, 26.3% and 36.4% of apical buds developed into
shoots. Best response was obtained with variety M 261/78, with more than 66%

23

of explants developing into shoots. M 52/78 responded poorly (Mulleegadoo, K.

D. and Dookun, A. 1999).
An efficient protocol for micro propagation of sugarcane using shoot tip explants
was developed in which sugarcane cultivars inoculated on MS agar-gelled
medium containing benzyladenine, kinetin and gibberellic acid (0.5 mg/lt each) +
sucrose (30 g/lt) at pH 5.8. Clumps with well-grown shoots were transferred on
1/2 strength MS liquid rooting medium supplemented with NAA (5.0 mg/lt) and
elevated sucrose level (60 g/lt) for induction of rooting. The development of fine
roots, which began after 7-15 days, ranged from 75% (CoJ 85) to 95% (CoJ 86).
Profuse rooting was achieved within 30-40 days. Plants transplanted in the field
45-60 days after hardening in the greenhouse showed uniform growth and
asynchronous tillering within 60 days after transplanting (Singh, B., et al, 2001). It
was reported that the 4-mm size of meristem tips was the most suitable for
establishment of culture. When meristem tips were treated with solution of
ascorbic acid (100 mg/lt) + citric acid (150 mg/lt) for 10-15 minutes, phenolics
could be controlled (Kazim Ali et al., 2001).
The highest mean rate of callus induction was produced on MS medium + 3%
sucrose + 3 mg/lt 2,4-D + 0.5 mg benzyladenine/litre. On this medium, callus
induction from spindle explants was greatest in the genotypes CoS 767, CoJ 64
and S 2536-82 (Cheema, A.S., et al, 1992). Sterilized explants of sugarcane
variety Co 740 were cultured on semisolid MS medium containing 100 mg myo inositol and 3 mg 2,4-D/lt and 10% v/v coconut milk, and incubated (Mohatkar,
L.C., 1993) for callus induction.
An interesting observation involving immature inflorescence segments of
sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) breeding lines (87-588, 87-693 and 87-696) were
cultured on 4 versions of MS based media containing various concentrations and
combinations of 2,4-D, kinetin, BAP [benzyladenine], casein hydrolysate and
calcium pantothenate. Calluses could be initiated from all parts of the
inflorescence segments. In terms of callusing frequency, the most important
factor was the age of the explants. As long as it was at the period of pollen
mother cell to tetrad, all of the 3 genotypes were capable of producing a large

24

quantity of callus. Callusing frequency was significantly higher following cold (13
deg C) storage for 2 or 3 d than following natural night temperature treatment
(Liu, M.C., 1993).
Calluses were derived from the innermost, unfurled, leaf spindles of sugarcane
cv. CoJ-76 and cultured on MS medium, supplemented with 3 mg/lt 2,4-D and
0.2 mg/lt benzylaminopurine (BAP) and maintained under dark conditions.
Calluses were then separated according to morphological appearance and
maintained by regular subculture on MS medium supplemented with 2 mg/litre
2,4-D and 0.2 mg/lt BAP at 15 days intervals (Gupta, J. N. et al , 1995).
Kharinarain, R. P., 1996, reported that Murashige-Skoog (MS) medium
supplemented with 3 mg 2,4-D/lt and 5 mg diethyldithiocarbamate/lt was best for
the formation of morphogenetic calluses.
Segments from young leaf bases of 4 clones were cultured on MS medium
supplemented with 10% coconut milk and 0.5-3.0 mg 2,4-D/lt. Callus formed
within 7-10 days and somatic embryos were obtained within 15-20 days of callus
initiation(R. Islam et al, 1996). Various factors affecting efficient plant
regeneration from long-term maintained callus cultures were investigated in three
sugarcane cultivars, viz. CoJ 64, CoJ 83, and CoJ 86. Murashige and Skoog
(MS)+2,4-D (4 mg/lt)+BAP (0.5 mg/lt) induced excellent callusing in the spindle
explants of all the three cultivars (Ajinder Kaur et al, 2001). The effects of 2,4-D
(2, 3 and 4 mg/l), alone or in combination with benzyladenine (0.5 and 1.0 mg/l),
on the somatic embryogenesis of sugarcane cv. Co Si 95071 were investigated.
Growing tips collected from 4-month-old plants were placed in Murashige and
Skoog medium and incubated at conditions of 24-26 deg C, 5.8 pH, 16 h light
and 8 h darkness. After 3 weeks of incubation, non-embryonic calluses, and
cream-coloured, compact and nodular somatic embryos, appeared on cut edges
of leaf bits. More somatic embryos were formed using 2,4-D combined with
benzyladenine. The treatment with 3 mg 2,4-D + 0.5 mg benzyladenine produced
the highest number of somatic embryos (Geetha, S. ; Padmanabhan, D., 2001).
.

25

3.0

Material and Methods

3.a. Collection of Germplasm

We collected the plant material from Ladowal seed farm, Punjab Agricultural
University (PAU), Ludhiana from the Department of Plant Breeding. The explants
from 6-8 month old, healthy, disease free seed canes of variety CoJ 85 were
collected.

3.b. Medium
The appropriate composition of the medium largely determines the success of
cultures. Plant material does vary in their nutritional requirements and therefore it
is often necessary to modify the medium to suit a particular tissue. The basal
medium employed for the culture of sugarcane is MS medium (Murashige and
Skoog 1962). A variety of growth regulators such as 6- Benzyl amino purine
(BAP), alpha-Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), 3-Indole Butyric acid(IBA) and 2,4dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) were added to the medium singly or in
combinations at various concentrations and were used for initiating different
experiments. The concentrated stock solutions of the major salts, minor salts and
vitamins are prepared to be used in the preparation of the media and stored
under refrigeration. Auxins were dissolved in 1N KOH and cytokinins in 1N HCL
before making up the final volume with distilled water. Iron EDTA stock solution
was stored in amber coloured bottle.
The medium was prepared by adding appropriate quantities of the stock
solutions and correct volume was made up with the distilled water. The pH
was adjusted in all cases to 5.8 by using 1 N KOH and 1 N HCL and agar
0.8%(w/v) were used for semi solid medium for culture initiation/establishment
only and liquid medium were used for multiplication and rooting of
microshoots. Before autoclaving, the media was poured into washed and
dried test tubes (upto 20ml) and or culture bottles (15-20ml for liquid culture)
which are then, capped and labelled properly. These were then autoclaved at
1210C for 15 minutes at 15-psi pressure and transferred to the inoculation
room where they were stored under aseptic conditions till their use.

26

Composition of Murashige and Skoog (1962) Medium

Constituents

Amounts (mg/l)

A. Macronutrients
NH4NO3

1650

KNO3

1900

CaCl2.2H2O

440

MgSO4.7H2O

370

KH2PO4

170

B. Micronutrients
H3BO3

6.2

NaEDTA.2H2O

37.30

MnSO4.4H2O

16.9

FeSO4.7H2O

27.8

ZnSO4.7H2O

8.6

KI

0.83

Na2MoO4.2H2O

0.25

CoCl2.6H2O

0.025

CuSO4.7H2O

0.025

C. Vitamins
MYOINOSITOL

100

GLYCINE

2.0

NICOTINIC ACID

0.5

PYRIDOXINE HCL

0.5

THIAMINE HCL

1.0

SUGAR

30000

AGAR

6000

27

D. Growth regulators (when required) SIGMA

alpha-Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA)
Indole acetic acid (IAA)
2,4- dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D)
6- Benzyl amino purine (BAP)
Kinetin (Kn)

Choice of Explant
The tissue taken from a plant or seed and transferred to a culture medium to
establish a tissue cultures system or regenerates a plant. The choice of the
explant depends upon the methods of the shoot multiplication to be followed. All
plant organs viz. nodal segments, internodal segments, shoot tip, root,
cotyledons, epicotyl, hypocotyl, leaf, petiole, anthers and ovule etc are known to
give rise to complete plants.
For micro propagation, where aim is to get identical plants, it is advisable to
initiate cultures from explant from preexisting meristems. It is necessary to know
the origin (variety, cultivar). In adult plant to such explants exists i.e. shoot tip and
nodal explant (stem portion to which leaf is attached). For most micro
propagation work the explant of choice is an apical or an axillary bud. Usually the
explant are more responsive to culture treatments if they are collected during the
period of active growth.

3.c.

Explant Sterilization

Select the disease free and young, healthy sugarcane tops, as their cells will
be more likely to have retained their totipotency. Remove the young leaves,
from the top portion of plant and excise the spindle from the top.
The collected explants are partially trimmed off and then washed thoroughly
under running tap water for 10 minutes each for three cycles to wash off
external dust/contaminant.
After this, spindles were again washed with a liquid detergent (Rankleen,
Ranbaxy, India) adding a few drops of Tween-20 for 15 minutes. This
treatment should be done twice to avoid any chance of contamination. The

28

detergent acts as a wetting agent and allows the entire surface of the spindle
to be exposed for anti microbial agent.
After these treatments, explants were washed again in sterile water for 10
minutes.
After these treatments, explants were washed again under running tap water
for 10 minutes.
After these initial washings, the explants were kept in an aqueous solution of
Bavistin (BASF India Limited) [1% w/v] for 15 minutes.
The explants were firstly taken out from the Bavistin solution using forceps
and transferred to sterile conical flask, which were then washed thoroughly in
sterile distilled water (4 washings).
After this treatment, the explants were taken inside the laminar hood for
further sterilization. Inside the laminar hood, sterilization with 0.1% mercuric
chloride is done for approximately 8 minutes. When the explant has been
"surface sterilized", it is removed from the sterilizing solution and rinsed three
times in sterile, autoclaved distilled water to completely remove any remaining
mercuric chloride.
These last steps are performed inside a laminar flow hood to maintain
the axenic condition of the explant and to prevent the re-introduction of
contaminating microbes. Finally all the extra water is removed from the
spindle and the explant is then ready to be trimmed if necessary.
3.d.

Initiation and Culturing of the Spindle

Sterilized explants were transferred aseptically from the conical flasks to

sterile glass plates under laminar hood in inoculation chamber for making
them into the suitable sizes (3.5 4.0cm). All the outer whorls of the spindle
should be removed with a sharp blade attached to scalpel and the precaution
to be taken so that spindle should not get injured or broken.
Then, a fresh cut to be given on both basal as well as the top portion of the
spindle. Again, rinse the forceps in the 70% ethanol and flame the forcep and

29

allow it to cool. Remove the lid from one test tube and test tube mouth need
to be flamed to avoid further chances of contamination.
Place the spindle in the test tube with the long forceps without touching the
rim of the test tube and place no more than one section in each test tube.
Carefully replace the lid onto the test tube, lightly flame it and then and seal
with parafilm.
Return the forceps to the ethanol and mark the variety of the sugarcane on the
test tube along with the date. Repeat the same procedure for all the spindles
available and finally put test tubes in the rack and place them in growth room.
Maintain 2520C , with 16 hours daylight and 8 hrs night break.( (2000-3000
Lux).
3.e.

Establishment of the Cultures

After two cycles of transfer of the spindles to the solid medium, the spindles had
established themselves and they turned green in colour from yellowish green.
Then spindles were inoculated into the liquid medium, which had the same
composition as that of the initiation media excluding the agar. With a clean
forcep, the spindles were taken out of the test tubes, medium adhered to the
basal portion of the spindle was removed, undesirable / brownish leaves /
portions were removed and well-established cultures with 1-2 shoot buds were
transferred to the culture bottles containing autoclaved liquid medium (15-20 ml
per bottle). Then the bottles were labeled and placed in the culture room under
the standard conditions of temperature (25 20C) for 16 hours of daybreak (20003000 Lux).
3.f.

Multiplication of the Shoot by Repeated Subcultures on

Multiplication Medium
Concept of Multiplication

The multiplication of the explant is a crucial stage in the propagation of any

species for commercial exploitation and the most rapid rates are required. The
most common additives to standard media are cytokinins usually as BAP or
30

Kinetin. Typically the same medium and environment conditions are used for
both stage I and II.

1) Enhanced Axillary Branching

The axillary bud present in the axil of the each leaf either develops into a
single shoot or forms a cluster of shoots. The presence of cytokinin influences
the rapid emergence of axillary buds by reducing apical dominance.

2) Adventitious Bud Formation

Buds arising from any part other than the leaf axil or shoot apex are called
adventitious bud. In nature also, a number of plant species produce
adventitious buds from different organs e.g. leaf in Begonia, root suckers in
Sheeham etc. Infact propagation through adventitious bud is a standard
horticulture practice. This method cant be applied for chimeric plants (plants
with variegated leaves) as it results in solid lines.

3) Through Callusing
Plant cells are totipotent i.e. able to multiply indefinitely later differentiate to
form the whole plant. In tissue culture the differentiated cells first differentiate
and give rise to the mass of cells commonly known as callus. The callus
either give rise to shoot bud or the bipolar structure resembling embryo.
These are known as somatic embryo. There are certain doubts raised on the
clonal uniformity of the plants produced. Since the division in the callus cells
are very fast, the chromosome number might vary and different type of
abnormalities might occur thus plants generated from callus source may not
be identical to the mother plant. This method however is of the immense
importance when the aim is to induce variability especially in self-pollinating
species with narrow genetic base.

4) Subculturing
This susceptibility to culture components and as a consequence, the reaction
of the explant, can change within culture and number of subculture. On the
same medium, cultures, originally yielding axillary shoots, can produce
31

abundant adventitious shoots after number of subcultures. Generally 10 12

subcultures is considered to be maximum.

Protocol For Multiplication

Repeat the preparation and sterilization steps for the medium, instruments
and chamber as before. Sterilize hands as before too. Transfer the containers
of shoots to one side of the cabinet and the sterilized medium at the other
side.
Transfer several shoots from the culture bottle to a sterile glass plate using
flamed sterilized scalpel. Remove the brownish coloured leaves from the
clump and sub divide the clump into the smaller clumps.
Transfer the mass or the shoot into a new culture flask containing
multiplication medium (15-20ml) for which different combinations have been
made. All this work was done with extreme care and inside the laminar hood
to avoid any possible chance of contamination.
Incubate the flask in the culture room under light and repeat the step 24 times every 2-3 weeks so that a mass of shoots is formed. As a general
observation, sugarcane shoots can multiply 2.5 3 times initially every 2-3
weeks.
If a sterile environment was not maintained, contamination will be obvious
within 3-4 days.
DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS OF THE MULTIPLICATION MEDIUM
(with medium code: C1-C16)
GROWTH REGULATORS

0.2 BAP

0.5 BAP

1.0 BAP

1.5 BAP

0.2 Kn

C1

C2

C3

C4

0.5 Kn

C5

C6

C7

C8

1.0 Kn

C9

C10

C11

C12

1.5 Kn

C13

C14

C15

C16

(mg/ltr)

Control: C0 MS Basal medium

32

3.g.

ROOTING OF PLANTLETS

CONCEPT OF ROOTING
Once the sufficient number of shoots have been generated, portion of explant
that contains one or more than one shoots could be transferred to a medium that
contains higher concentration of auxin, resulting in root formation. The production
of the roots is easily achieved in some species by reducing the cytokinin level or
in MS Basal medium with or without the addition of extra root promoting auxins,
especially IBA (0.2-0.5mg/l). A lower concentration is often require e.g. Knops
medium, half strength MS. Activated charcoal added in the medium eliminate the
residual effect of cytokinin by adsorption. Phenolic co-factor often enhances the
rooting temperature. Rooting is initiated in stage III.

Protocol For Rooting

In the laminar flow, under sterile conditions, remove the para-film and cap
from the culture bottle and use the forceps to carefully remove the
explant from the multiplication medium.
Place the multiplied shoot mass on a sterile petri dish or on the sterile
glass plate. Using a sterile scalpel carefully remove or cut plantlets away
from the mass of shoots/clumps. Remove the undesirable portion of the
explant and using sterile forceps rinsed in 70% ethanol and flamed,
carefully place plantlets into the rooting medium.
Note that lower side of the shoot remains in contact with the media and
shoot remains straight. Carefully cap the culture bottle, label them properly
and return them to the rack for 2 - 4 weeks under the same condition.
During this time, the shoots will continue to grow, however, most of the
plants energy will be focused into producing roots.

33

DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS OF THE MEDIUM FOR ROOTING(with

Medium code: (RT 1- RT10)
SUGAR
30gm/L

IBA 0.5ppm

IBA 1.0ppm

NAA 2.0ppm

NAA 5.0ppm

FULL MS

RT 1

RT 2

RT 3

RT 4

HALF MS

RT 5

RT 6

RT 7

RT 8

SUGAR 70gm/L

NAA 5.0 ppm

FULL MS

RT 9

NAA 3ppm + IBA 2ppm

RT 10

Control: RT0 (MS basal)

3.h.

Transplantation of Plantlets
Concept for Transplantation

This is the final stage and required careful hardening of plants .The transition
of plantlets from completely controlled conditions (heterotrophic growth) to
outside environment (autotrophic) should be gradual in order to prepare the
tissue culture raised plants to survive in the field condition. This is called
acclimatization. The plants produced in tissue culture, although green in color
do not prepare sufficient food for their survival. Also inside the culture vessel
the humidity is high and thus the natural protective waxy covering of cuticle is
not fully developed. In few species, stomata do not close properly, therefore
immediately after transfer plants are maintained under high humidity (above
90%) and it is gradually reduced over a period of 6 to 8 weeks. During this
time the plants attain ability to synthesize more food and develop cuticular
wax covering. Plants are later transferred to larger container with a compost
based mixture. Plants are maintained under shade and once they have
started producing and maintaining newer leaves/roots, they are the ready to
be transfered in open nursery. Tissue culture propagated plants should be
retained in the nursery for the same duration as the conventionally raised
plants.

34

Protocol For Transplantation

After 15-20 days of culture on modified MS media meant for rooting, the
sufficiently rooted plantlings were transplanted for hardening prior to their final
transfer to the soil. The rooted plantlets were taken out of the culture bottles
using forceps with extreme care to avoid any mechanical damage to the
plantlets and root system. These were then thoroughly washed in tap water or
lukewarm water to remove any remaining medium to avoid any future
infection of plantlet. Again, plantlets were dipped in Bavistin(1gm/lt) solution
for appox 2-3 min.
After this, the plants are carefully planted in the polybags containing agro peat
mixed soil (cocunut peat compost, supplied by M/s Varsha Enterprises,
Bangalore, India)by inserting a hole in the middle of the potting mix and gently
insert the roots in that hole. It is to be taken care that the roots at the time of
transplanting should not be too long so that they bent during transplantation.
These are then thoroughly watered and kept in poly house under humidity
range of >75% -80% for about 2-3 weeks, with. The poly house is covered
with agro net on the top and the humidity is maintained with intermittent
misting. After this period in poly house, these plantlets are generally
transferred to shade house in which they should be kept under the humidity
range of 60-70%. Watering is done as per requirement.
When the roots are well established and the plants are acclimatized (this

should take about 2 weeks), they can be given light fertilizer and be treated
like any other plant. It is advisable to gradually increase the light intensity and
transfer the plants to open nursery for final hardening.
4.

Regeneration of plants through Callus formation

Concept of Callus

A mass of unorganized cells resulting either as a consequence of wounding in

plants or in tissue culture.(Mascarenhas, A.F. 1997). The technique of callus
(tissue) culture was first developed in the late 1920s and 1930s and was one of
the primary methods of tissue culture for many years. Callus cultures have been

35

frequently used in physiological, biochemical, and genetic experiments to unfold

the mystery of hitherto unexplained plant processes.
Unlike animals, where differentiation is generally irreversible, in plants even
highly mature and differentiated cells retain the ability to regress to a
meristematic state as long as they have an intact membrane system and a viable
nucleus. When non dividing, quiescent cells from differentiated tissues are grown
on a nutrient medium that supports their proliferation. The cells first undergo
certain changes to achieve meristematic state these include replacement of nonfunctional cellular components damaged by lysosomal activity during the
processes of cytoquiescence. The phenomenon of a mature cell reverting to a
the meristematic state and forming undifferentiated mass known as callus is
termed as dedifferentiation. Multicellular explant generally comprise of cells of
diverse type. As a result the callus derived from it would be heterogeneous with
respect to the ability of its component cells to form a whole plant or plant organs
and the phenomenon is known as redifferentiation and the process of induction
of roots and shoots in callus cultures is referred as organogenesis.
For plant cells to develop into a callus the nutrient medium should contain plant
hormone essentially an auxin, a cytokinin and a gibberellin. The absolute
amounts of these, which are required, vary for different tissue explants from
different parts of the same plant and for the same explant from different genera
of plants.. Most of media in common use consist of inorganic salts. Trace metals,
vitamins, organic nitrogen sources (glycine), inositol, and sucrose and growth
regulators. Relatively high ratio of auxin to cytokinin is required for root induction
and high ratio of cytokinin to auxin is required for shoot induction.
When subcultured regularly on nutrient medium callus culture will exhibit an s
shaped or sigmoidal pattern of growth. There are five phases of callus growth,
these phases are: A lag phase, where cells prepare to divide
An exponential phase, where rate of cell division is highest
A linear phase, where cell division slows but the rate of cells expansion
increases

36

 A deceleration phase, where the rate of cell division and elongation

decreases
A stationary phase, where the number and size of cells remain constant.
Callus growth can be monitored by fresh weight measurements, which are
convenient for observing the growth of cultures over time in a non-destructive
manner. Dry weight measurements are more accurate the fresh weight, but this
method requires sacrifice of the sample.

Factors Affecting Callus Induction

Position of the explant on the plant as well as size of explant.
Genotype of the explant.
Physiological state of the donor plant and explant.
Composition of culture medium.
Environment under which cultures are grown i.e. light, temperature, and
humidity.
Callus cultures can be induced to undergo an entirely different development
process under certain nutritional and hormonal conditions, which is known as
somatic embryogenesis. In this process the callus cells undergo a pattern of
differentiation similar to that observed in zygotes after fertilization and produce
embryoids. Such somatic embryoids differ from normal embryos in being
produced from somatic cells instead of fusion of two germ cells.

Uses of Callus Cultures

Callus cultures are useful for many purposes of pure and applied research
among these are:
Their use for the synthesis of starting compounds that are subsequently
modified to yield the desired product.
Their use as starting material for the vegetative propagation of plants

37

 Their use as basic material fore high-yield cultivars (maintenance

breeding).
Their reverting to tissue cultures allows the conservation of virus- or fungi-

free and resistant cell lineages

CALLUS INITIATION
Explant Sterilization
Select the disease free and young sugarcane tops and remove the young leaves,
from the top portion of plant and excise the spindle from the top. The collected
explants are taken and are partially trimmed off and then washed thoroughly
under running tap water for 30 minutes. After this they were again washed with a
liquid detergent (Rankleen, Ranbaxy, India) and then immersed in water
containing few drops of Tween-20 for 20 minutes This treatment should be done
twice to avoid any chance of contamination. The detergent acts as a
wetting agent and allows the entire surface of the spindle to be exposed for anti
microbial agent. After these treatments, explants were washed again under
sterile water for 10 minutes. After these initial washings, the explant were kept in
an aqueous solution of Bavistin (BASF India Limited) [1% w/v] for 15 minutes.
The explants were firstly taken out from the Bavistin solution using forceps and
transferred to sterile conical flask which were then washed thoroughly in sterile
distilled water (4 washings). Sterilization with 0.1% mercuric chloride is done for
approximately 7-8 minutes in the laminar flow. When the explant has been
"surface sterilized", it is usually removed from the sterilizing solution and rinsed
three times in sterile, autoclaved distilled water to completely remove any
remaining mercuric chloride. These last steps are performed inside a laminar
flow hood to maintain the axenic condition of the explant and to prevent the reintroduction of contaminating microbes.

38

Pretreatment of Coconut Water for Culture Medium

Firstly the coconut water is removed from the green coconut and collected inside
the clean beaker and then it is filtered with the help of cotton and filter paper.
Now the filtrate is taken in the flask and placed in the microwave for 5-7 minutes
and now again it is filtered. It is allowed to cool down and ready for use.

Initiation of the Explant for the Callus

Leaf explants were inoculated directly into the medium (2-3 per bottle) and the
spindle was inoculated at a rate of one segment of spindle per bottle. The
medium employed was MS Basal with different concentration and combinations
of phytohormones such as 2,4-D. After inoculation the culture bottles were
properly capped and sealed. With sufficient labeling these are transferred to the
incubation room where they are incubated 25 20C in the dark room or the
culture bottles are incubated in the black paper.
5.

DNA ISOLATION:

To find out any possible somaclonal variation in plants regenerated through

micro propagation and for genetic analysis of plants growing in the natural
conditions and plants raised through micro propagation we have to isolate DNA
of both the plants. For the isolation of DNA we used the CTAB Precipitation
method of genomic DNA isolation. The protocol CTAB (Cetyl trimethly
ammonium bromide) DNA isolation was initially used in bacteria (Johns, 1953)
and later modified to obtain DAN from plants (Murray & Thompson 1980). For the
isolation DNA of both the samples we use CTAB plant extraction kit provided by
GENEI, Bangalore. The protocol and solutions used in the kit are as fallows.
Solutions of CTAB DNA isolation kit
Solution A (CTAB extraction buffer)
CTAB

- 2% (w/v)

Tris-HCl

- 10 mM (pH 8.0)

39

EDTA

- 20 mM (pH 8.0)

NaCl

- 1.4 M

Solution B (Extraction buffer)

Tris-HCl

- 100 mM (pH 8.0)

EDTA

- 100 mM (pH 8.0)

NaCl

- 250 mM

Solution C (CTAB Precipitation solution)

CTAB

- 1% (w/v)

Tris-HCl

- 50 mM (pH 8.0)

EDTA

- 10 mM (pH 8.0)

Solution D (High salt TE buffer)

Tris-HCl

- 10 mM (pH 8.0)

EDTA

- 0.1 mM (pH 8.0)

NaCl

- 1.0 M

Procedure
The young and soft plant tissue (~1.2 g) was pulverized to a fine powder in the
presence of liquid nitrogen and was distributed equally to three microfuge tubes
(2.0 ml capacity). Immediately 0.9 ml of s olution A + 2% (v/v) -mercaptoethanol
(at 65C) was mixed to the tissue to wet it thoroughly. The tubes were incubated
at 65 C for 1 hr. with occas ional mixing, after every 15 min. E qual volume of
chloroform: iso-amyl alcohol (24:1) was added to it. The solution was mixed well
by inversion for 7 min. and then centrifuged at 8000 rpm for 5 minutes. The upper
aqueous layer was recovered, to which, 1/10th volume (100 l) of 65 C s olution
B was added and this solution was mixed well by inversion for 5 min. This
solution was extracted in the same way with equal volume of chloroform: isoamyl alcohol (24:1) and the upper aqueous layer was recovered. To this solution,
1 volume (900 l) of s olution C was added. T he s olution was mixed well and was
incubated at 65 C for hr. This solution was centrifuged for 5 min. at 5000 rpm.
T he pellets were res us pended in ~500 l of s olution D by intermittent incubation
at 65 C. 300 l of is opropanol was added to each, mixed well and this was kept
at 4 C for 15 min. T his s olution was centrifuged at full s peed for 15 min., when

40

the pellets were washed with 80% ethanol. The pellets were air-dried and were
finally res us pended in 60 l of T E buffer and s tore at 20oC.
6.
6.a.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Initiation and Establishment

After the inoculation of the spindle(s), it was found that the sterilization protocol
followed for the sterilization of the explants was reliable, as out of 12 explants,
only two had reported the contamination so the survival rate comes out to be
83.33%.
Table 1
Observation of initiation:
Number of explants taken Contamination reported
12

Survival percentage
83.33%

After the incubation of the spindles in the controlled conditions of temperature

and humidity, it was observed that the spindle had changed its colour from pale
yellow to green in colour in the first week but during this period there was not any
significant growth of the spindle. It was also found that the medium at the base of
the spindle turn brown which is assumed to be due to the release of phenolics in
the medium after 12-14 days and there was not any significant decrease in the
release of the phenolics even though some of the medium combination was
supplemented with an anti-oxidant i.e. citric acid (50mg/l). The explants were
inoculated again after every 7-9 days into fresh medium (of same composition).

41

Table 2
Observation of browning:
Medium

Number of Spindles

Observation (+ or
browning of the medium)

SI-3 (0.5 mg/lt BAP +

0.5 Kn mg/l)
SI-3 CA (0.5 mg/lt BAP+
0.5 mg/lt Kn + Citric
Acid
50 mg/l)
After 14 days of incubation, it was observed that there was increase in the size of
the spindle and whole of the spindle had turned green. The spindle had sprouted
at the base but not much growth was observed in it. The medium, which had 0.5
mg/l of BAP and 0.5 mg/l of Kinetin (SI-3), had shown the best results of initiation
as it shows 75% bud break. Pawar et al observed approximately 70% shoot
regeneration after 4 weeks of incubation. However, in control, we found only 30
% bud break and also the growth and appearance of the sprouted bud were
weak as compared to the mediums using phytohormones. It is therefore
observed that phytohormones (cytokinins) have a definite role in axillary bud
initiation.
Table 3 Observation of initiation on different media combinations:
Media

No of

Combinations

explants

Discard

No of explants

% of bud break

showed bud break

inoculated
MS (control)

30%

MS + 1.0 BAP

66%

75%

+ 1.0 Kn
MS + 0.5 BAP
+ 0.5 Kn

42

After 30 days of incubation the sprouted bud had grown considerably especially
in the medium containing MS + 0.5 mg/lt BAP + 0.5 mg/lt Kn. The length and
basal growth of the sprouted buds are observed significantly higher than the
other medium containing MS + 1.0mg/lt BAP+ 1.0 mg/lt Kn.

43

44

6.b.

MULTIPLICATION RESULTS

After 4 weeks of subculturing in the solid medium (3 times with an interval of 7-10
days depending upon the conditions of the spindle), the parent spindle along with
the newly formed axillary bud sprouts was transferred to the liquid culture
medium having different concentration of the plant growth regulators. These
explants were inoculated into the fresh culture bottles having approximately 1520ml of the medium. We have observed, initially mass of axillary shoot buds
appears to be increased with each sub culturing stage upto 2-4 sub culturing in
the liquid media. To reduce cytokinin carry over effect, we have inoculated all
the cultures into MS Basal media before experimentation with different media
combination. Then, we subjected them to multiply under different media
combinations and recorded following observation.
Table 4
Observation of different media combinations for multiplication:
Each culture jar: 2 clump each having 6-8 shoots on inoculation day
No of replicates: 3
Media

No. of shoots /

No. of shoots / No. of shoots /

combination

jar on inoculation

jar on 14 days

jar on 21 days

Control, C0

12.81 1.4

21.11 1.7

24.2 2.0

C6

14.33 2.3

44.33 2.2

46.33 2.1

C8

12.33 2.0

37.33 2.0

39 1.7

C13

12.33 1.2

35.67 2.3

36 1.7

C15

16.67 2.5

54.33 1.8

57 2.4

In this case, we have designed the experiments after the cultures have
sufficiently been established, with several, well-grown axillary buds on the shoot
clumps and last subcultured in MS basal medium. We put 2 clumps each having
6-8 shoot buds per culture bottle and recorded shoot multiplication after 14 /21
45

days. It was observed that media combination C15 (MS + BAP 1.0 mg/lt + Kn 1.5
mg/lt) and C6 (MS + BAP 0.5 mg/lt + Kn 0.5 mg/lt) have recorded maximum
shoot proliferation rate as compared to the other two media. However, C15
combinations gave the highest number of shoots per jar (after 14 days of
inoculation). In both the cases, the shoots formed were showing moderate
growth in height but number of shoots per jar were significantly higher than the
other media combinations . The number of shoots had achieved a multiplication
rate of 3.26 in C15 and 3.1 in C6 (after 14 days). It is further observed that there
was no significant difference between the number of shoots generated between
14 days and 21 days of each treatment. Pawar, S. V. et al., 1997 also observed
that effect of growth regulators on in vitro multiplication of sugarcane cultivars
(Co-86032, Co-740 and Co-8014 ). They had designed the experiment to study
the effect of different levels of kinetin, benzyl-aminopurine (BAP) on shoot
multiplication, length of main shoot and number of leaves on main shoot on MS
medium was supplemented with kinetin and BAP. The highest shoot
multiplication ratio for all cultivars was recorded in the MS medium supplemented
with 1.5 mg kinetin/lt, 1.5 or 2.0 mg BAP/lt.
In control experiment, using only MS basal medium, rate of shoot multiplication is
significantly lower than any other media combinations using cytokinin. It
essentially indicates that use of cytokinins have a positive role in multiplication of
Sugarcane. Since all the cultures were incubated under the same set of
conditions of light and humidity but they responded differently to different media
combinations so it proves that both BAP and Kinetin have an important role to
play in the axillary shoot proliferation in the multiplication stage of the experiment.
Here the results also matched with results obtained by Pakistan by Kazim Ali;
Shahid Afghan (2001) who reported that Basal medium (MS) supplemented with
benzyl amine purine [benzyladenine] (BAP) and kinetin (K) was used for rapid
shoot multiplication. Though we had gone for sixteen different combinations of
the medium but the above mentioned four combinations had shown the good
response for the multiplication stage and hence are discussed here.

46

Table 5
Observation of different media combinations for shoot length:
Each culture jar : 2 clump each having 6-8 shoots on inoculation day
No of replicates: 3
Media

Av shoot height /

Av shoot height

Av shoot height

combination

jar on inoculation

/ jar on 14 days

/ jar on 21 days

Control , C0

3.08 0.2

3.88 0.4

4.01 0.2

4.03 0.2

5.9 0.1

6.13 0.1

5.0 0.3

8.2 0.5

8.6 0.1

4.7 0.2

7.8 0.4

8.03 0.4

4.13 0.3

5.9 0.2

5.9 0.1

MS Basal
C6: MS +
0.5 BAP+0.5 Kn
C8: MS +
1.5 BAP +0.5 Kn
C13: MS +
0.2 BAP+1.5 Kn
C15: MS +
1.0 BAP+1.5 Kn
For observation of shoot height for different media combinations, we found that
C8 (MS + BAP 1.5 mg/lt+ 0.5 mg/lt Kn ) has shown maximum shoot height
increase. Other media combination C13 (MS + 0.2mg/lt + 1.5 mg/lt Kn) has also
shown promising results.

47

48

ROOTING RESULTS

6.c.

After 2-3 multiplication subculture, when the cluster size and shoot height attains
optimum size, we inoculated the shoot clumps into one cycle of MS basal
medium to reduce cytokinin carry over effect and then put into different rooting
media combination. We have carried out the experiments in several
combinations, but the best results obtained have been shown here for reference.
Here as well, we inoculated 2 clumps each having 6-8 shoots and take rooting
observation on 14 days.
Table 6
Observation of rooting of shoots
Each culture jar: 2 clump each having 6-8 shoots on inoculation day
No of replicates: 3
MEDIUM

A) 5 NAA (Full strength

Av. height of

No. of rooted

Av. root length

5 shoots

shoots

(14 days)

(14 days)

(14 days)

8.6 0.2

13.33 0.6

3.86 0.1

7.66 0.2

11.67 0.6

3.73 0.06

11 0.1

10.67 0.6

2.86 0.1

MS) + 70gm/lt Sugar

B) 3 NAA+ 2 IBA (Full
strength MS) + 70 gm/lt
Sugar
C)

0.5

IBA

(Half

strength MS) + 30 gm/lt

Sugar
In case of rooting experiments, the best results were obtained in the medium that
was supplemented with MS + NAA (5mg/l) and which had elevated levels of
sugar (70gm/l). It was found that roots initiate after 8-10 days and sufficient
rooting was obtained within 14-15 days after inoculation into the medium. These
newly formed roots showed good growth and were slightly white to pinkish in

49

colour and normal in appearance. The roots were approximately 3.8 cm in length
and rooting percentage is approximately 85% for the same medium.

It was

important to note that most of the shoots that were inoculated into the medium
showed considerable root formation within 15 days. Some of references cited
here have also indicated that the use of NAA is desirable for the best response to
rooting in case of sugarcane. (Singh, B. Yadav, G. C. Lal, M., Sugar Tech, 2001).
Another

observation

study

was

found

that

medium

containing

same

concentration of plant growth regulator (5 mg/l NAA) but with 3% sugar showed
relatively less rooting as compared to medium containing 7% sucrose. It
essentially proves that higher sugar concentration has a positive impact on the
root formation. This result is in accordance with the result obtained by Mitchell, S.
in which he performed in vitro performance of a range of sugarcane clones
evaluated in the Jamaican variety development programme at Sugar Industry
Research Institute (SIRI), Mandeville, Jamaica. However, 72% rooting is
observed in the medium which had 3 mg/l NAA + 2mg/l IBA with 70 gm/lt of
Sugar. It was also observed that approximately 66% rooting was observed in the
medium containing solely indole butyric acid (0.5mg/l) with half strength MS
medium, but one important observation is the average shoot height has
increased significantly. This result for rooting using IBA was also in accordance
with the work done in Pakistan by Kazim Ali and Shahid Afghan in which
micropropagation of 8 sugarcane clones was studied using meristem tip culture
method in which half strength of MS + indole butyric Acid (IBA) was used for
induction of roots. Though it is reported that several of the other cultivated
species show sufficient rooting in MS basal medium only but in our case, control
experiment (RT0) having no phyhormones failed to generate roots. In the present
study we found that IBA plays a pivotal role in the induction of rooting in the
plants grown in the tissue culture lab.

50

51

6.d.

TRANSPLANTATION TO THE POLYBAGS

After the sufficient rooting of the sugarcane cultures they were then transferred to
the polybags that were having peat and then watered adequately. Due to the lack
of time we were not able to find out the proper hardening of the sugarcane
plantlets.

52

TRANSPLANTATION OF THE PLANTS TO THE POLYBAGS

53

6.e.

CALLUS INDUCTION RESULTS

Callus initiation generally requires auxin and cytokinin or both in the nutrient
medium. The leaf and the spindle segments inoculated on the MS basal media
with different combinations and concentrations of 2,4-D. In some of the
combinations 10% coconut water was also added in the medium. The cultured
bottles showed the initiation of callus after the period of 3 weeks. Initially the
explants were found to be increased in size. Callus initiation began from the cut
ends of the explant that is in contact with the medium. After the induction of the
callus from the base of the explants they showed good growth and entire surface
of the explants were totally covered with light rose to brown white callus tissue
within the next 1-2 weeks. In the present study 4mg/l 2,4-D and 2,4 D + coconut
water (10%) showed the development of the callus but the size of the callus
formed in the medium containing coconut water was comparatively less in size
as compared to medium containing 2,4- D only. Ajinder Kaur et al, 2001 has
reported different factors affecting efficient plant regeneration from long-term
maintained callus cultures were investigated in three sugarcane cultivars, viz.
CoJ 64, CoJ 83, and CoJ 86. The medium Murashige and Skoog (MS)+2,4-D (4
mg/litre)+BAP [benzyladenine] (0.5 mg/litre) induced excellent callusing in the
spindle explants of all the three cultivars .On the other hand the explants cultured
on the basal medium without any phytohormone failed to produce any response
at all. It was also observed that medium with low level of concentration of 2,4-D
(2mg/l) produced comparatively less response. From the above result it was
found confirmed that 2,4-D is the crucial factor in the induction of the callus from
sugarcane explants.
DNA ANALYSIS
For the analysis of the genetic comparison of the normal and regenerated plants
aimed to identify any possible somaclonal variants of the plant we did the DNA
analysis also. But we were able to complete only the first of this work that is the
isolation of DNA from normal plants.

54

CALLUS INDUCTION IN MEDIUM CONTAINING MS+2,4-D(4mg/L)+CW(10%)

LEAF CALLUS IN MEDIUM CONTAINING 2,4-D(4mg/L)

CALLUS INDUCTION IN SPINDLE OF SUGARCANE

55

7.0

Summary and Conclusion

In this present study, we have attempted to work on Tissue culture protocol for
Sugarcane, which is an important crop for Punjab farmers. Though there are
several problems associated with Sugarcane in relation with cultivation,
identification of suitable variety in different agro geographical regions, sale of
Sugarcane to the mills, minimum support price for the farmers, and a declining
trend of Sugarcane cultivation in Punjab, we hope that with a renewed approach
in combination of better package of services, better planting material and
combination of Plant Biotechnological approaches for mass propagation will
certainly bring a change in the whole scenario. We believe that mass propagation
of Sugarcane through Tissue culture approach will definitely result in availability
of disease free germplasm, dissemination of newer germplasm with improved
agronomic characters for the ultimate benefit of the farmers.
We observe and conclude the following in our present study:
1. In identifying the sterilization protocol for sugarcane explant(var CoJ 85),
our experience with the followed protocol is satisfactory .
2. We have also observed that the explants have to be subcultured for 3-4
times (in 7-10 days interval) for at least 4 weeks in solid medium before
transfer to the liquid medium for further establishment. The media
combination used for initial establishment phase is MS Basal + 0.5 mg/lt
BAP + 0.5 mg/lt Kn + 30 gm/lt Sugar + 8.0 gm/lt agar.
3. At the multiplcation stage, we found that two combinations MS + 1.0 mg/lt
BAP + 1.5 mg/lt Kn + 30 gm/lt Sugar and MS +0.5 mg/lt BAP + 0.5 mg/lt
Kn + 30 gm/lt Sugar has shown best results for multiplication rate.
However, at this stage, shoot elongation has been found to be maximum
in MS + 1.5 mg/lt BAP and 0.5 mg/lt Kn + 30 gm/lt.
4. Significant rooting response found in media combinations having MS + 5
mg/lt NAA + 70 gm/lt sugar and as compared to the media with same conc
of Auxin but reduced sugar(30gm/lt) has a reduced response for rooting.
5. We have transplanted a few plants for hardening but due to time
constraints we could complete the experiments. To standardize a

56

successful Tissue culture protocol, successful hardening of microshoots

are very essential and further experiments are needed.
6. For callus induction, MS + 2,4-D 4 mg/lt is found to be satisfactory,
however, we could not experimented further with the callus growth.
7. In order to ascertain the true to type character of the Tissue culture raised
plantlets through axillary shoot proliferation, it is essential to check at the
genomic level, it is felt that further experimentation is needed towards
achieving the result.

57

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