Effect of Plant Growth Regulators and Explant Type upon Cell Dedifferentiation and Callus Induction in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) as a member of the Legumine family is one of the most important plant protein resources. One of the methods for increasing of variation is somaclonal variation. The most common factors affecting somaclonal variation are explant and growth regulators in which the culture is established. The current research was setup as a callus induction experiments for comparison of different growth regulators and explants of chickpea (Bivanij cultivar). The callus induction experiment was conducted in MS medium supplemented by different concentrations of 2, 4-D (0, 1, 2 and 4 mg/l) plus 0.1 m/l BAP in five explants (embryo, seed, root, hypocotyl and cotyledon). The evaluated traits include days to callus induction, callus induction percentage and callus growth rate. Results showed that mostly medium induced the callus formation and the best response was in medium supplemented by 2 mg/l 2, 4-D. The lowest days to callus induction was belong to embryo explant in medium supplemented by 0.1mg/l BAP+1mg/l 2,4-D (4.25 days) and highest days to callus induction was belong to cotyledon explant in medium supplemented by 0.1mg/l BAP+2 mg/l 2,4-D (14.25 days). The highest callus growth rate was belong to embryo in medium supplemented by 1 mg/l 2, 4-D (0.1775 mm diameter/d) and the lowest was belong to cotyledon (0.02 mm diameter/d) in 4 mg/l 2, 4-D and seed (0.01mm diameter/d) in 1 mg/l 2, 4-D.