Tissue Culture Laboratory

Year of Establishment: 2014-15

Funding Agency: RKVY

About the Unit/ Centre

Commercial micro-propagation industry is considered as relevant to agribusiness as tissue culture has the capability to break the plateau in yield improvements reached by green revolution and has several exclusive practical applications leading to improvement in crop productivity which are not possible in conventional science. Agricultural crops offer potentially very high volume demand. Sugarcane, banana and potato are three crops capable of offering high volume market. Therefore, the overall research project focuses on conserving genetic purity, enhancing the sugar content, importing disease free as well as agronomic traits that improve crop resilience in different environment.

Because of continuous commercial cultivation of sugarcane varieties in the farmer’s field, they are subjected to various biotic and abiotic stresses of the environment. Consequently, the varieties gradually loose their original yield potential, which is known as varietal degeneration/degradation/varietal sowing down/varietal decline. Realizing the potential of plant tissue culture technology in revolutionizing the commercial agriculture sector by enabling mass propagation of elite, high yielding and disease free plants throughout the year, there started the need of the in vitro mass multiplication facility.

Therefore, tissue culture is one such alternative that uses meristem to clone the mother plant, preserve genetic identity, yet maintaining/enhancing the cane and sugar yield similar to conventionally propagated plants.

Since seed is a vital component and its availability determines the productivity(about 15- 20%) of the crop. The tissue culture plantlets being novel one and it can maintain much better quality in terms of genetic purity, having higher germination percentage and rare chances of getting any contamination to the seed material. The planting material is disease and pest free. Therefore there is no need of giving Hot Water Treatment or Moist Hot Air Treatment to the planting material.

Apart from this 2 to 2½ times more planting material can be obtained from an unit area as compared to the conventionally planted seed plot. Canes from the plant lets produce highest bud germination in the field. All buds germinate within a period of ten days after planting and helpful in implementing season and varietal planting and harvesting programme in the area of operation of a sugar factory.

It also offers industrial benefits like rapid, mass production of assured disease free seed cane, rapid multiplication and distribution of new high performing varieties and all commercial varieties to meet grower’s requirements for commercial planting, Reduced impact of pest and disease incursions through the ability to rapidly replace susceptible varieties with resistant varieties and supporting maximum industry productivity by allowing rapid adoption of new varieties and by managing serious diseases that are spread in seed cane like Ratoon Stunting Disease (RSD), leaf scald, chlorotic streak, Mosaic (Poty virus) and Fiji leaf gall.

A virus cleaning programme is therefore needed to eliminate sugarcane viruses from noble canes through appropriate measures. Therefore, sugarcane micro-propagation would be need of the hour of all the sugarcane farmers across the state owing to rising levels of pests and diseases along with the variety deterioration.

Mandates

1. To establish incubation facility in the tissue culture laboratory for large scale production of sugarcane seedlings at Zonal Agricultural Research Station, V. C. Farm, Mandya.
2. Development of low cost effective micro-propagation protocol for faster multiplication of popular sugarcane varieties of Southern Karnataka.
3. To supply genetically pure, disease-free seedlings with high yield and which are potential characters to the farmers and to maintain the varietal potential for yield other characters.
4. Popularizing the adoption of micro-propagated plantlets among farmers for higher yields and profitable income and to supply of in vitro cultured plantlets for commercial cultivation.
5. Germplasm repository to be maintained using tissue culture techniques.
6. Large scale multiplication of sugarcane varieties in collaboration with sugar factories and Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka under National Food Security Scheme.

Laboratory Facilities

• Tissue Culture Laboratory
• Molecular lab
• Drying area
• Inoculation room
• Media preparation room
• Washing area

Contact