Potential of Alternative Cheap Gelling Agents for in vitro Micro-Propagation of Rice (Oryza sativa L)

Abstract

Plant tissue culture techniques often require optimizing cost reduction by substituting the culture medium with alternative gelling agents. This study was conducted to investigate various commercial products; agar, stabilizer, corn flour, Kithul flour, gelatine and potato as gelling agents in culture media preparation for in vitro propagation of rice. MS basal medium was prepared without plant growth regulators supplemented with different alternative gelling agents and agar. Results showed that agar and alternative gelling agents successfully produced shoots from the seed explants of At 401 and AT 402 after 4 weeks in culture. The highest length of shoots were obtained in MS basal medium containing 8 g L 1 agar (11.89 cm, 11.95 cm) for both varieties. However, 50 g L stabilizer (9.85 cm, 10.13 cm), 60 g L1 corn flour (7.17 cm, 7.25 cm), 80 g L 1 Kithul flour (11.03 cm, 10.79 cm), 60 g L 1 gelatine (10.08 cm, 10.05 cm) and 80 g L'1 potato starch (4.64 cm, 4.63 cm) were also supported shoot growth in both rice varieties AT 401 and AT 402, respectively. Kithul flour has shown a greater potential as a cheaper alternative gelling agent for agar based medium according to the cost analysis.