Evaluation of somaclonal variation in micropropagated RA 87-3 sugarcane seedlings

PERERA, M. F.; GARCÍA, M. G.; NOGUERA, A. S.; FILIPPONE, M. P. Y CASTAGNARO, A. P.

BioCell

Inca Editorial

Año: 2007 vol. 31 p. 284 - 284

The “Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres” produces 30.000 healthy sugarcane seedlings annually, through hot water treatment and subsequent in vitro micropropagation.  The availability of molecular profiles that define each genotype allows ensuring seedling genetic purity and detecting alterations produced by somaclonal variation. Our aim was to determine if micropropagated RA 87-3 seedling vulnerability to mosaic virus disease was attributable to somaclonal variation. Stalks of affected by mosaic and healthy RA 87-3 plants, and stalks of other conventionally propagated varieties were collected. DNA was extracted from meristematic tissue (Aljanabi et al., 1999, Plant Mol. Biol. Rep. 17: 1-8)) and the AFLP technique was used (Vos et al., 1995, Nucl Acids Res. 23: 4407-4414). Differences among varieties were detected with the 19 primer combinations used, and with seven, differential profiles were obtained in two of the 16 RA 87-3 samples. No differences were found between healthy and sick plants, so greater vulnerability to the disease might be attributed to environmental factors, pathogen variations, or epigenetic changes in the plant.