Genetic and morphological variations induced by tissue culture in tetraploid cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

Abstract

Three parental cotton cultivars including Bakhtegan, Zeta-2 and their hybrid Bakhtegan × Zeta-2 were used in tissue culture and the genetic and morphological diversity of the parental genotypes and the regenerated plants of different sub-cultures were studied. The seeds excised from three different cotton cultivars were cultured in MS free hormones, using the single nodes from seedlings as explants. Thirty random primers were used for molecular studies. The regenerated plants differed significantly in morphological characters like the length of shoots and number of leaves and differed in the number of RAPD loci identified as well as degree of polymorphic bands. Different sub-cultures produced different level of genetic diversity in the cultivars studied. With an increase in the time period of sub-cultures an in crease in the amount of genetic variation occurred in the regenerated plants of the tree cotton cultivars studied.