In Vitro Plant Regeneration of Momordica cymbalaria Fenzl. and Assessment of Genetic Fidelity using ISSR primers

Present investigation successfully established the plant regeneration from different explants of Momordica cymbalaria Fenzl., an important medicinal Cucurbit. Leaf node and shoot tip explants were successfully callused on Murashige and Skoog's medium (MS) supplemented with various concentrations of auxins 2, 4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), IBA (indole-3-butyric acid) and cytokinin BAP (6-benzylaminopurine) alone. Maximum percentage of callus (95%) was obtained from leaf explants at 1.0 mg/l 2, 4-D. Leaf derived callus highly responded for the shoot regeneration (13.33 +/- 0.667shoots) on half strength MS medium containing 1.5 mg/l BAP in combination with 1.5 mg/l IBA. The elongated shoots were rooted on half strength MS media supplemented with 0.2-2.0 mg/l NAA (naphthalene acetic acid) and IBA (indole-3-butyric acid). The highest number of roots were obtained (5.33 +/- 0.667) in 0.5 mg/l NAA. The rooted plants were successfully hardened and transferred to the green house with 90% of survival. Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) analysis revealed the genetic stability of in vitro raised plants with mother plant. The present investigation showed that regeneration of Momordica cymbalaria offers a good opportunity to raise micropropagation from leaf node and shoot tip explants.