Establishment of somatic cell culture and plant regeneration in grapes (Vitis vinifera L.)

Abstract

Perlette and Thompson Seedless cultivars are commercially grown for seedless table grapes in Northern plains of India The synchronization of fruit maturity with the rainy season coupled with low total soluble solids and susceptibility to various fungal diseases, provides a greater scope of incremental improvement of these existing cultivars. Moreover, the improvement of seedless cultivars through conventional methods is tedious and laborious. Hence the somatic cell culture offers a greater scope for the incremental improvement of seedless cultivar of grapes. Since the first report on successful grape culture in vitro (Morel, 1944), subsequently, callus cultures have been initiated from various explants viz. stem, tendrils, petioles, flowers and berries of Vitis (Schenk and Hildebrendt, 1972; Standt et al.,1972; Hawker et al.,1973; Krul and Worley, 1977). Callus growth ceased after 40 days of incubation (Hawker et al., 1973). But shoot regeneration is problem in grapes. However, complete plants have been obtained from leaf callus (Favre, 19777 and Clog et al., 1990). The present investigation deals with the development of protocol for establishment of somatic cell culture and plant regeneration.