Micropropagation and Genetic Fidelity of Fegra Fig (<i>Ficus palmata</i> Forssk.) and Grafting Compatibility of the Regenerated Plants with <i>Ficus carica</i>

<i>Ficus palmata</i> is an important fig species that produces edible and nutritious fruit and possesses several therapeutic uses. This study reports an effective method for the micropropagation of <i>F. palmata</i> using nodal explants. In vitro shoots were cultured for 7 we...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plants
Main Authors: Ahmed Ali Al-Aizari, Yaser Hassan Dewir, Abdel-Halim Ghazy, Abdullah Al-Doss, Rashid Sultan Al-Obeed
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-05-01
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/13/9/1278
Description
Summary:<i>Ficus palmata</i> is an important fig species that produces edible and nutritious fruit and possesses several therapeutic uses. This study reports an effective method for the micropropagation of <i>F. palmata</i> using nodal explants. In vitro shoots were cultured for 7 weeks onto MS medium fortified with different concentrations of cytokinins, light intensities, sucrose concentrations, and light/dark incubation treatments. Optimal axillary shoot proliferation (10.9 shoots per explant) was obtained on a medium containing 30 g/L sucrose and supplemented with 2 mg/L 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) under 35 μmol/m<sup>2</sup>/s light intensity. Dark incubation limited the foliage growth but favored shoot elongation and rooting compared with light incubation. Elongated shoots, under dark conditions, were rooted (100%; 6.67 roots per explant) onto MS medium containing 1 mg/L indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and 1.5 g/L activated charcoal. The micropropagated plantlets were acclimatized with a 95% survival rate. In this study, the genetic fidelity of micropropagated <i>F. palmata</i> clones along with their mother plant was tested using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR), and start codon targeted (SCoT) molecular markers. The genetic similarity between the micropropagated plantlets and the mother plant of <i>F. palmata</i> was nearly 95.9%, assuring high uniformity and true-to-type regenerated plants. Using micropropagated <i>F. palmata</i> plantlets as a rootstock proved appropriate for the grafting <i>F. carica</i> ‘Brown Turkey’. These findings contribute to the commercial propagation and production of the fig crop.
ISSN:2223-7747