Regeneration and Genetic Fidelity Analysis of <i>Chlorophytum borivilianum</i> Using Flower Stalk as Explant Source

Chlorophytum borivilianum is a critically endangered plant well known for its medicinal properties for diabetes mellitus, diarrhea, arthritis, sterility, and erectile dysfunction, etc. Due to low viability and long dormancy of seeds, in vitro regeneration is required for large scale cultivation of this plant. In the present study, direct plant regeneration was optimized using flower stalk as explant. Nodal segments of flower stalk were sterilized and kept for direct regeneration on different combinations of BAP and KIN supplemented media. The highest, 15.27 ± 1.14 number of shoots were produced on medium containing BAP (2 mg/L) per nodal segment. The multiple shoot clumps regenerated from flower stalk were separated carefully and kept on rooting media. A maximum of 16.87 ± 1.53 roots per plant was observed in MS media having 0.5 mg/L of NAA. The rooted plantlets were shifted into the pot containing soilrite for hardening and acclimatization. The genetic stability of hardened plants was confirmed by start codon targeted, and inter simple sequence repeats molecular markers. All the 18 randomly selected plantlets showed similar genetic homogeneity to the mother plant. It is the first report on in vitro regeneration along with the genetic fidelity analysis of the regenerated plantlets from flower Stalk of C. borivilianum. As the standardized method of regeneration and mass multiplication is quite efficient and genetically stable, the protocol will be useful for the large-scale production of C. borivilianum to meet the market demand.