In vitro direct and indirect organogenesis and genetic fidelity assessment in <i>Clerodendrum volubile P. Beauv.</i>

Despite propagation challenges, Clerodendrum volubile remains a nutritionally dense and medicinally valuable leafy vegetable belonging to the family Lamiaceae. Poor seed setting makes seed propagation difficult, hence this study on tissue culture methods for callus induction and shoot proliferation. Leaf, nodal and petiole explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with varying concentrations of Naphthaleneacetic acid, Indole-3-butyric acid, 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, 6-Benzylaminopurine (NAA, IBA, 2,4-D, BAP) and Kinetin to promote growth. Results showed that MS medium with 2 mg/L of NAA yielded the highest growth rate (0.78) for leaf explants, while for nodal explants, growth rate was optimal at 1 mg/L BAP (0.994). High genetic resemblance between in vitro- regenerated plants and the mother plant was found when genetic fidelity was evaluated using Start Codon Targeted (SCoT) and Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) molecular markers. The study unveilled alternative propagation methods of this important species by effectively regenerating its callus and shoot in vitro and also confirmed the genetic integrity of the regenerated plants.