Micropropagation and Genetic Fidelity of In Vitro Grown Plantlets of Begonia malabarica Lam. Authors: Aswathy J M and Murugan K* *Correspondence:
[email protected] DOI: https://doi.org/10.21315/tlsr2019.30.3.3 Highlights • In vitro culture, field establishment of Begonia malabarica Lam. • Evaluation of its genetic fidelity using anatomical, molecular markers using twelve RAPD and seven ISSR primers among in vitro and in vivo plants. • Callus induction and establishment of cell suspension. TLSR, 30(3), 2019 © Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2019 Tropical Life Sciences Research, 30(3), 37–58, 2019 Micropropagation and Genetic Fidelity of In Vitro Grown Plantlets of Begonia malabarica Lam. Aswathy J M and Murugan K.* Plant Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Botany, University College, Thiruvananthapuram 695034, Kerala, India Publication date: 26 December 2019 To cite this article: Aswathy J M and Murugan K. (2019). Micropropagation and genetic fidelity of in vitro grown plantlets of Begonia malabarica Lam. Tropical Life Sciences Research 30(3): 37–58. https://doi.org/10.21315/tlsr2019.30.3.3 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.21315/tlsr2019.30.3.3 Abstract: Begonias are ornamental indoor plants and also cultivated for landscaping. Begonia malabarica Lam., found naturally in the hilly regions of South India and Sri Lanka called by the tribals as Narayana Sanjeevi, i.e. possess miraculous therapeutic properties. The present study targets in vitro culture, field establishment and evaluation of its genetic uniformity using anatomical, molecular markers followed by callus induction and establishment of cell suspension. Explants such as shoot tip and leaves from in vitro germinated seeds were cultured on Murashige-Skoog medium.