Tissue culture studies on clonal variations in micropropagation of Dalbergia sissoo

The present study was undertaken to study the in vitro responses of different clones of Dalbergia sissoo. For this study, three clones: one from Uttarakhand (clone No.09), Rajasthan (clone No.59) and Haryana (clone No.79) were investigated. These clones were selected on the phenotypic characters of candidate plus trees namely: higher volume of wood, clean bole length and stem form, etc. These clones were established and maintained at the Vegetative Multiplication Garden of Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. In this study, a standard procedure was developed for rapid multiplication of Dalbergia sissoo through axillary bud proliferation. Nodal explants were collected from different clones and were sterilized with 0.1% mercuric chloride for 15 min. Explants were collected for a year and the effect of season was adjudged. In all the three clones, explants collected from March to May respond at higher frequency and induced more shoots at optimum requirement of each clone. In clone No.9, maximum response of 92.35% was recorded, while in clone No. 59 and clone No.79, it was 89.31 and 91.63% respectively. For in vitro shoot multiplication in clone No.9 BAP at 2.5 μM was found superior with multiplication rate of 2.41, while in clone No.59 and clone No.79 BAP at 5 μM was found superior with 2.35 and 2.37 multiplication rates respectively. In vitro roots were induced on IBA supplemented medium. Effective IBA concentration was found to be 5 μM in clones No.9 and No.79 where 65.12 and 62.74% of root induction was obtained, while 7.5 μM IBA gave maximum of 60.50% of root induction in clone No.59. Plants were hardened and acclimatized before field transfer in all the three clones.