In vitro ENHANCED MULTIPLICATION AND MOLECULAR VALIDATION OF EUCALYPTUS F1 HYBRIDS

Multiple shoots from mature nodal segments of 25-30 years old Eucalyptus F1 hybrid (E. citriodora X E. torelliana) were obtained through tissue culture on three basal media WPM, B5 and MS supplemented with BAP, Kn and NAA. Proper elongation of shoots was achieved in full strength MS medium Supplemented with 1.0 mg/l BAP. Best rooting (87.5%) was observed in ½ MS supplemented with IBA (0.5 mg/l). The method of in vitro clonal propagation of F1 hybrid of FRI-15 reported in this paper will be helpful in clonal multiplication of F1 hybrids for testing them under different agro-climatic and edaphic condition. This interspecific F1 hybrid is of interest it involves two parent species viz., E. citriodora X E. torelliana, will help in retaining the hybrid vigour of F1 hybrid of Eucalyptus which has the potential to produce 3-5 folds more volume of wood than the parent species. The in vitro raised shoot propagules of FRI-15 were assessed for genetic analysis through cluster analysis along with the parental plants with Eucalyptus grandis as an outlier and showed about 97% of similarity with the mother ex-plant of FRI-15, and thus show high uniformity throughout the stock cultures with various treatments of media components during multiplication, rooting and acclimatization.