Somatic Embryogenesis in Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal

Somatic Embryogenesis in Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal

Somatic embryos were formed from calli obtained from axillary shoots (raised from nodal segments of glasshouse-grown plants under aseptic conditions), internodal segments (from in vitro-raised plants), and root and coty-ledonary leaf segments (from in vitro-raised seedlings) after 8 weeks of initial culture. Embryo formation was the highest (97.33%) from cotyledonary leaf callus on Mura-shige and Skoog's (MS) medium containing kinetin (KN) (3 mg/L). Somatic embryo induction was lesser with different combinations of auxins while it increased to 100% in internodal segment and cotyledonary leaf calli with 6-benzyladenine (BA) (2mg/L) along with 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid (TIBA) (2mg/L). The shoots were induced from somatic embryos raised from root, coty-ledonary leaf and internodal segment calli grown on MS medium containing BA in combination with indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). Maximum of 66.67% cultures formed shoots on MS medium containing BA (1mg/L) in combination with IAA (2mg/L). The shoots raised from somatic embryos were rooted on MS medium supplemented with indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) (2mg/L). The plantlets transferred to the field showed 70% survival rate after one year.