Micropropagation of Ilex khasiana, a critically endangered and endemic holly of Northeast India

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Ilex khasiana is a rare and critically endangered holly endemic to the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, India, and confined to a small number of pocket areas. In addition to conventional methods of propagation, endemic and threatened plants such as this could be more effectively multiplied and conserved using in vitro methods. Such techniques have the additional advantage of having a low impact on wild populations because they require a minimum of starting material. Our objective was to develop methodologies for the successful in vitro mass propagation of I. khasiana. METHODOLOGY: Seedlings were germinated in vitro under sterile conditions and nodal explants from these were transferred to Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 8.88 µM 6-benzyladenine and 4.64 µM kinetin. PRINCIPAL RESULTS: This generated ∼10 shoots per explant. In a second approach, callus was obtained from seedling-derived leaf discs cultured on MS medium supplemented with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 6-benzyladenine. Approximately 12 adventitious shoots per callus were regenerated from 83.33 % of the calli after transfer to MS medium supplemented with 6.63 µM 6-benzyladenine. The most effective treatment for inducing root formation on the shoots was transfer of shoots to half-strength MS medium with 9.84 µM indole-3-butyric acid. Regenerated plantlets with well-developed shoots and roots were hardened and transferred to open soil with 70 % survival after 4 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: Both the methods described here are well suited for the mass multiplication of this critically endangered tree species.