Home »

The flow of work..

Eleven Red Sanders growing locations were identified all over Tamil Nadu, from which a total of 44 trees were selected based on comparison check tree selection followed by regression analysis. Macropropagation studies on Red Sanders revealed that rooted cuttings could be used after treatment with IBA @ 200ppm on rapid plunge basis for clonal multiplication. Micropropagation studies showed that mercuric chloride at the concentration of 0.1 per cent for l min was effectively used as a surface sterilant in aseptic cultures. For direct embryogenesis Murashige and Skoog’s medium was found better than Gamborg’s medium. The best treatment for obtaining multiple shots from nodal segment was MS+BAP 3mg l-1. Among the several auxins and cytokinins tried MS+NAA 2mg l-1 and MS+BAP 4 mg l-1 were found to be the best for callus induction. The calli subcultured in MS medium supplemented with auxins such as IAA and Naa did not induce rhizogenesis.

The seedlings of the selected plus trees were established for the use in diversity analysis and as a source material for the collection of explants for propagation studies. RAPD analysis of 33 selected trees revealed that all the selected trees from various locations were grouped into a distinct cluster for individual locations, signifying the identify of each population and revealing the suitability for selection. The genetic distance between population was higher than the genetic distance within the population.

The Thesis bagged two gold medals, one for the best research thesis of the year and another for the best research worker.

My Ph.D Project..

That was an adventurous experience. I joined for Doctorate in Department of Genetics and Plant breeding during 1996.Thesis Tittle: MicroPropagation and Molecular Characterisation of Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus). The project was funded by Inidian Council for Forest Research and Education (ICFRE) from 1996 to 1999.

The work...

Initially, I was assigned to work on Rice Apomixis, but later switched to Mocropropagation and Molecular characterisation of an endangered tree species, Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus). The work involves identification/collection of RedSanders tree form forests of different part of the country, establishing the propagules in the laboratory, multiplying them through micropropagation. RedSanders is a 'tanin' rich tree and so standardising techniques for tissue culture were challenging. Furthermore the collected /established materials were characterised using molecular markers.

The research work involved three major objectives viz.,

  • selection of superior plus trees from various districts of Tamil Nadu,
  • assessment of extent of genetic diversity using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis in the selected trees
  • standardisation of efficient protocol for macro and micro propagation.