AN IN-VITRO METHOD FOR RAPID REGENERATION OF A MONOPODIAL ORCHID HYBRID ARANDA DEBORAH USING THIN-SECTION CULTURE

A thin section culture system for rapid regeneration of the monopodial orchid hybrid Aranda Deborah has been developed. Thin sections (0.6-0 .7mm thick) obtained by transverse sectioning of a single shoot tip (6 -7mm), when cultured in Vacin and Went medium enriched with coconut wa ter (20% v/v), produced an average 13.6 protocorm-like bodies (PLB) af ter 45 days, compared to 2.7 PLB formed by a single 6-7 mm long shoot tip under same culture condition. Addition of alpha- naphthaleneacetic acid to Vacin and Went medium enriched with coconut water further inc reased PLB production by thin sections. PLB developed into plantlets o n solid Vacin and Went medium containing 10% (v/v) coconut water and 0 .5 g l(-1) activated charcoal. With this procedure, more than 80,000 p lantlets could be produced from thin sections obtained from a single s hoot tip in a year as compared to nearly 11,000 plantlets produced by the conventional shoot tip method.