PLANT-REGENERATION FROM EXCISED COTYLEDON OF AEGLE-MARMELOS CORR

A protocol for excising and culturing cotyledon explants from seeds of different ages of Aegle marmelos was developed. Cotyledon explants fo rmed callus and shoot buds on agarsolidified Murashige & Skoog (MS) me dium containing several combinations of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), ind ole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and gibberellic acid (GA3). The highest freque ncy of adventitious bud forming explants and maximum number of shoots per explant were obtained from 110-150 days old cotyledons. BAP with I AA or GA3 gave better result than BAP alone. Shoots were elongated by transferring explants with shoots buds to same basal medium containing 1.0 mg/l kinetin (kn) and 0.1 mg/l IAA. The in vitro regenerated shoo ts rooted when cultured on half strength MS medium containing 25 mg/l indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). Regeneration by this method may be useful for mass propagation of A. marmelos.