Early assessment of genetic fidelity in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) plantlets regenerated through direct organogenesis with RAPD and SSR markers

Abstract

Early assessment of genetic fidelity of micropropagated plants aids in fine tuning protocol parameters and gauge suitability of regeneration protocol for large scale applications. Induction of direct organogenesis leading to reduced duration in vitro can lead to production of genetically stable plantlets. The present work describes early assessment of clonal fidelity in Sugarcane plants regenerated through direct organogenesis using RAPD and SSR markers. Analysis of RAPD banding patterns generated by PCR amplification using 20 random primers gave no evidences for somaclonal variation and the percent of polymorphic bands in a total of 110 amplicons was 0.02%. RAPD patterns of the plantlets were identical with the original mother plant, indicating that direct adventitious organogenesis did not induce somaclonal variation that can be detected by RAPD. Mean while SSR banding pattern analysis generated with 15 primers (112 amplicons) also gave no evidences for somaclonal variation. The genetic fidelity testing of micro-shoots, based on a RAPD and SSR analysis indicated a strong genetic purity like the parent genotype. Lack of variation confirms the genetic purity of tissue culture plants of sugarcane raised through direct organogenesis in young whorl leaf roll explants and confirms to the suitability of overall regeneration protocol.