IN VITRO PROPAGATION OF SAINTPAULIA IONANTHA WENDL. GENOTYPES AND ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC STABILITY OF REGENERATED PLANTS USING CDDP MARKERS.

A micropropagation protocol via direct shoot organogenesis from leaf explants of six commercial varieties of Saintpaulia ionantha Wendl was established in this study. The shoot induction was successfully achieved on Murashige and Skoog (MS) media supplemented with 0.2 mg L-1 indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and 0.5 mg L-1 benzylaminopurine (BA). In proliferation stage, the effects of two combinations of PGRs (V1-0.2 mg L-1 IAA + 0.2 mg L-1 BA and V2-0.2 mg L-1 NAA +1 mg L-1 BA) on shoot number and length were examined for each genotype. The results suggest that PGR's combinations significantly influenced shoot proliferation in all analysed variety and among the treatments 0.2 mg L-1 NAA in combination with 1 mg L-1 BA was the most effective for in vitro shoot multiplication. The in vitro rooting percentage was 86.86-96.66% and was varieties-dependent. In vitro-raised plants showed a very high rate of survival (82-94 %). The genetic fidelity between the selected vitro-plants and mother plants were confirmed by CDDP markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]