IN VITRO SHOOT AND ROOT PROLIFERATION OF JACK FRUIT AS AFFECTED BY DIFFERENT CONCENTRATIONS OF GROWTH REGULATORS

The research work relating to the micro-propagation of Jack fruit was carried out in the tissue culture lab of the Horticultural Research Institute, NARC, Islamabad during the year 2004 with the objective of finding a suitable protocol for its mass multiplication. Explants grown from seedlings in the greenhouse were surface sterilized with NaOCl. For this purpose, four levels of NaOCl i.e., 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25 % w/v were used. MS basal medium containing different concentrations of BAP (1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 mg l^-1) was used for shoot proliferation. Different concentrations of IBA (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 mg l^-1) were used for determining the in-vitro rooting potential. The best survival was observed with 0.75% NaOCl which gave maximum survival (46.66 %) while BAP @ 1.5 mg l^-1 exhibited the highest number of shoots. Higher rooting rate (%) and number of roots per plant were obtained with IBA @ 3.0 mg l^-1.