EXPLORING IN VITRO CORM INDUCTION POTENTIAL OF CROCUS SATIVUS THROUGH DIRECT ORGANOGENESIS

Saffron is an economically high-value crop globally that can give farmers a high income. Its sexually sterile nature demands vegetative propagation and quality planting material. Hence, this study was designed to build a rapid and reproducible procedure for the micropropagation of saffron. We have examined the surface sterilization of corms as explant with fungicides, antibiotics, and 0.1% mercuric chloride, resulting in maximum sprouting (91.07%) with minimum contamination and mortality. As the propagation of saffron corm and its germination is a critical factor for its yield, we have checked different phytohormone concentrations for bud corm germinations. We found that BAP is an efficient cytokinin to initiate buds on corms. MS medium with NAA (0.5 mg L-1 ) and BAP (3.0 mg L-1 )led to 97.77% sprouting in an average of 34.67 days. Subculturing of sprouted corms on the increased concentration of BAP enhanced shoot proliferation from the base of the sprouted bud. The MS medium with NAA (0.5 mg L-1 ) and BAP (6.0 mg L-1 ) shows maximum mean number of shoots (12.67). The presence of growth retardants like ABA, PBZ, and CCC inhibited shoot growth and led to corm development. PBZ (1.5 mg L-1 ) significantly affected cormlet induction (80%), with a maximum mean weight of 1.70g. Accumulative sucrose concentration to 90 g L-1 further increased mean weight (2.52 g) and size of cormlets (1.08 cm). Our in vitro propagation protocol can produce many corms for regular supply to farmers.