Verification of somaclonal variation of oil palm embryogenic callus on solid and liquid medium by RAPD and SSR techniques

Abstract

Effects of types of medium on somaclonal variation of the embryogenic callus of oil palm were investigated. The calli were cultured either on solidified or in liquidified MS medium supplemented with dicamba at different concentrations and subcultured at monthly intervals for 3 months. The results showed that the maximum growth of the callus at 0.333 gram fresh weight (gFW) and 1.191 gFW were obtained from the solidified and liquidified medium containing 0.1 mg/l dicamba, respectively. Verification of somaclonal variation in embryogenic callus raised on both types of culture media was detected by RAPD and SSR techniques. The RAPD technique re-vealed that 6 primers namely OPA-03, OPAB-01, OPAB-09, OPAB-14, OPR-11 and OPT-06 gave clear DNA patterns with monomorphic bands. In the case of SSR primers, all of them provided clear DNA patterns and high uniformity without somaclonal variation of embryogenic callus. The results obtained from this study suggest that there are no somaclonal variations in cultured calli using both solidified and liquidified media.