Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(4): 3115-3121 3115 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.704.353 Effect of Cytokinin on Multiple Shoot Regeneration in Shoot Apical Culture of Physalis minima L. - An Important Fruit and Medicinal Plant Kumari Anjani * and Harsh Kumar Department of Agricultural Biotechnology and Molecular Biology, Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Pusa-848125, Bihar, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction India is the home of about 15000 species of flowering plants but only 800 species have been domesticated. The proportion of medicinal plants is still low. There are 3000 species of medicinal plants that have been officially documented but very few of them are grown on large scale and commercially exploited. Their limited availability and overexploitation is resulting in a gradual decline of such species. One such plant is Physalis minima L. In India, it grows like a weed throughout Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and in many parts of Bihar (Usaizan et al., 2014 and Anjani and Kumar, 2018). Itbelongs to the family Solanaceae and is a small, delicate, annual herb having a height of 0.5-1.5m (Chothani and Vaghasiya, 2012; Ukwubile and Oise, 2016 and Anjani and Kumar, 2018). It has great medicinal value and a very good potential as a non- conventional fruit. The fruit is a good source of vitamin C, protein, minerals, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron and phosphorus. It International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 04 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Shoot apices of Physalis minima L. were cultured on fifteen full strength MS medium supplemented with various concentrations of cytokinins (BAP, KIN and TDZ). Tissue culture responses namely elongation of existing shoot and differentiation of multiple shoots were observed from the cultured explants. The establishment of cultured explants was not affected by the cytokinin concentration in the medium but overall shoot apices showed better establishment on medium supplemented with BAP than other cytokinins. Majority of established explants showed elongation of existing shoot followed by differentiation of multiple shoots. The maximum frequency of elongation of existing shoot (86.13 ± 0.94) was observed in MS 2 which has BAP at 1.0 mg/L concentration and minimum was observed on MS 10 (KIN 2.5mg/L). The frequency of multiple shoot differentiation was less than shoot elongation and medium with BAP (1.0mg/l) showed the best response of 75.15 ± 0.52 percent. The multiple shoots developed directly from the shoot apices, without the formation of callus. Thus, the results of this investigation can be used to develop a very efficient micropropagation protocol for this economically important plant. Keywords Cytokinin, Micropropagation, BAP, TDZ, KIN, Multiple shoot Accepted: 26 March 2018 Available Online: 10 April 2018 Article Info