Micropropagation of Daylily (Hemerocallis fulva) from Crown-Tip Explants and Assessment of Somaclonal Variation of in Vitro-Propagated Plants Using SCoT Markers.

Determination of the somaclonal variation of in vitro-propagated plants is crucial to determine the appropriate micropropagation protocol and growth regulators for commercial scale multiplication. In this research, nine multiplication media (MM) augmented with different concentrations of 6-benzyl adenine (BA), Kinetin (Kin), and Thidiazuron (TDZ), Three rooting media (RM) supplemented with three levels of α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and three types of soil mixtures (v/v); Coco peat/Vermiculite/Sand (CVS), Peat moss/Perlite/Sand (PPS) and Peat moss/Perlite (PP) were used in the micropropagation protocol of daylily plants. MM2 showed the maximum shoot length and the number of leaves, while MM9 showed the maximum number of shoots. The RM1 showed the maximum root length and the number of roots. During acclimatization, CVS, PPS, and PP soil mixture showed similar performance except the CVS mixture showed lower performance regarding plant height and diameter. The genetic fidelity of micropropagated plants was evaluated using Start Codon Targeted (SCoT) Markers. Six SCoT primers amplified 51 scorable bands with an approximate range from 146 bp to 1598 bp size. Thirty one out of 51 loci were presented in the mother plants. 40 loci were polymorphic, 11 were monomorphic and 7 were unique. The amplification patterns of the micropropagated plants demonstrated genetic integrity to the mother plant ranging from 84.32 to 47.06 and somaclonal variations ranging from 52.94 with 5 mg/l BA pathway to 15.68 with 1mg/l TDZ pathway, thus demonstrating that the homogeneity and the variation of the micropropagated plants affected by the type and the quantity of the plant growth regulator used during multiplication subcultures. This research can be successfully used for other ornamental and medicinal plants' bulk multiplication, germplasm conservation, and future genetic improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]