Surface sterilized seeds of maize cv. Swan were germinated on Murashige and Skoog's (MS) basal medium. The seedlings were grown to 4-5 cm shoot length. Three seedling explants, namely about 1 cm primary root segments, about 0.3 cm seedling shoot segments taken 1 cm above the seedling node, and unrolled young leaves, were cultured to assess their response for callusing and rhizogenesis.
The MS basal medium supplemented with 2,4-D, IAA and kinetin (KN) in different concentrations, either singly or in combinations of two were used for callusing and rhizogenesis. Callus formation and subsequent rhizogenesis from all the three explants were best achieved on 2,4-D (5.0 mgl-1) + IAA (2.0 mgl-1). Among the three explants, root segments gave the best response, followed by young leaves. Shoot segments were the least responsive explants for both callus formation and subsequent rhizogenesis (Table 1). Among root and shoot segments, the basal portions were more responsive than the apical portions or explants. The younger the leaves, the better the response.
Table 1. Response of different seedling explants for callusing and subsequent
rhizogenesis on MS + 2,4-D (5.0 mgl-1) + IAA (2.0 mgl-1).
| Callusing | Rhizogenesis | ||||
| Sl no. | Explants | % cultures | Growth | % cultures | No. culture |
| 1 | root | 86.50 | ++++ | 65.07 | 6-12 |
| 2 | shoot | 10.34 | + | 2.75 | 2-4 |
| 3 | leaf | 23.52 | ++ | 11.76 | 2-5 |
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