Rejuvenation of mature lentisk by micrografting and evaluation of genetic stability

Abstract

An in vitro propagation method was established for both male and female genotypes of lentisk using actively growing shoot tips derived from forcefully lignified shoots. The effects of growth regulators on in vitro morphogenesis were investigated. Since rooting of the regenerated shoots for both genotypes was not achieved, an in vitro micrografting method was developed for the production of plantlets. Moreover, genetic stability of 3-, 6-, and 24-times subcultured clones of both genotypes was assessed and compared with the mother plants using fluorescent-based amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis. The set of main plants and the different subcultured clones were divided into two clusters. In the first cluster, the original male and female plants were grouped together with the 3-times subcultured female and the 6-times subcultured male and female groups, whereas the second cluster contained the 24-times subcultured clones and the 3-times subcultured male group. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of successfully inducing plantlets from mature lentisk genotypes and the first analysis of clonal fidelity of regenerated mature female and male P. lentiscus L. plants by AFLP.