Evaluation of Genetic Fidelity of in Vitro Propagated Greater Galangal (alpinia Galanga L.) Using Dna Based Markers

Tissue cultured Alpinia galanga plantlets were subjected to assessment of genetic stability considering the fact that associated in vitro stress might result in breakdown of control mechanism causing instability of the genome. We have used two DNA based molecular markers to assess the genetic fidelity of in vitro regenerated Alpinia galanga L. through axillary buds from unsprouted rhizomes. The sprouted buds upon transfer to medium containing Kinetin (3 mg/l), Benzyladenine (3 mg/l) and Napthalene aceticacid (1.0 mg/l) exhibited maximum number of shoot multiplication as 15.6±0.2. Out of 30 RAPD and 13 ISSR primers screened, only 12 random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and 9 inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) primers produced clear reproducible and scorable bands. All banding profiles from micropropagated plants were monomorphic and similar to the mother plant. A similarity matrix based on Jaccard’s coefficient revealed the pair-wise value as 1 between the mother and in vitro regenerants. After 2 years of culture in vitro, plantlets were transplanted to the field and evaluation of phenotypic characteristics was done. This study is of high significance as these could be commercially utilized for large scale production of true-to-type plantlets in Alpinia galanga.