In Vitro Regeneration of Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) from Cotyledonary Node Explants

Full potential of grass pea has not been utilized because of the presence of the neurotoxin amino acid β-N-oxalyl-L-αβ -diaminopropionic acid (ODAP/BOAA). Conventional breeding and other approaches have not been successful in reducing the toxin. Integration of in vitro techniques can contribute significantly to meet the challenge. Therefore, this study was carried out to evaluate the in vitro regeneration capacity of grass pea genotypes. Shoot initiation, multiplication and rooting of IVAT-LS-690 were conducted using completely randomized design with five replications. Genotypes were treated with BAP and NAA for shoot initiation while BAP and Kn Combination were used for multiplication. Different concentrations of IBA and IAA were used for rooting. Shoot proliferation percentage was the highest (100%) for IVAT-LS-690,on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium augmented with 2.0 mg/l BAP +0.1 mg/lNAA.For in vitro shoot multiplication, best results were obtained on concentrations of 3mg/l BAP+1mg/l Kn with maximum shoot number per explants (11.5). High number of roots per shoot (6) and percent of rooted shoot (86.66%) were obtained from ½ MS medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l IBA. This study inferred that both genotype and BAP levels play a crucial role for shoot regeneration capacity and the optimum hormonal combination for grass pea is genotype specific.