In Vivo induction and identification of heteroploids in ginger

Ginger, a commercially important spice, is propagated vegetatively and genetic variations among clones are limited. The study aimed to induce heteroploidy in ginger to create genetic variations that could potentially enhance production, improve quality and disease and insect resistance was undertaken at College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Kerala. Eight superior ginger genotypes were selected and treated with colchicine (0.1%). In vivo induction using colchicine resulted in twenty suspected heteroploids. These genotypes were field planted and observed for morphologic, cytologic and yield characters. The morphological characters like plant height and number of leaves per plant were significantly higher in the treated genotypes compared to the control. The chromosome number counting revealed the plants T1S5, T5S1, T8S1 and T8S4 to be heteroploids with chromosome numbers 27, 68, 24 and 30 respectively. The histogram peak of the colchicine treated plants T1S5, T8S1 and T8S4 obtained in both channels 50 and 200, confirming heteroploidy. Among the four heteroploids developed, the heteroploid plant, T8S1 was found to be highly promising with respect to plant height, number of leaves plant-1, fresh rhizome yield plant-1 and dry rhizome yield per plant. The study suggested that induced heteroploidy in ginger plants using colchicine can lead to genetic variations with potentially beneficial traits for cultivation.