Can You Grow Mangoes Using Tissue Culture?

Table of Contents

Mango, scientifically known as Mangifera indica, belongs to the family of Anacardiaceae. It originated in the regions between Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Northeastern India. However, it’s only one species! The tree has hundred other cultivars or varieties with different shapes and colors, ranging from yellow, yellow-orange, gold, and green. South East Asia is the center of diversity for the Mango genus.

Introduction

It’s SUMMER!

Which thought hit your mind when you think of “SUMMER”.

Well keeping aside the hot weather and sweating, MANGOES are what come to my mind.

The delicious, yellow-orange, juicy mangoes have been my all-time favorite since childhood. And, no, not only “Mine” but my whole family. They come in all different varieties, with different tastes and beautiful colors and sizes. Back then, I was like who can hate Mangoes!!

I also planted a couple of trees using the seeds of the fruits I ate. I used to wash them, dry them a bit, cover them with soil, and water them regularly. The excitement was yet at another level seeing those small seedlings coming out with two-three tiny leaves.

Have you done that?

If yes, then you would also be knowing how long it takes for a mango tree to grow into a mature tree and start fruiting. Additionally, pathogen attacks and pest problems are other challenging problems when it comes to growing Mangoes using traditional techniques.

Cultivating mangoes using conventional methods has problems like

• Long juvenile phase
• Self-incompatibility
• Single seed per fruit
• Low-fruit set
• Polyembryony
• Polyploidy
• High-degree of cross-pollination
• Heterozygous nature

An alternative approach to the problem is tissue culture of Mangoes.

In this article, you will learn how a specific mango cultivar can be cultured using the tissue culture technique, what advantages the technique offers, and what progresses have been made in the area.

How Much Do You Know About Mangoes?

Mango, scientifically known as Mangifera indica, belongs to the family of Anacardiaceae. It originated in the regions between Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Northeastern India. However, it’s only one species! The tree has hundred other cultivars or varieties with different shapes and colors, ranging from yellow, yellow-orange, gold, and green. South East Asia is the center of diversity for the Mango genus.

The Mango trees grow up to the height of 30–40 meters. They are long-lived and fruit once a year. Its leaves are simple, evergreen, alternate, and broad. The flowers are small with five petals each and are produced in terminal panicles. The fruits of the plant are oval, round, or kidney-shaped.

Figure: An image of Mango fruits.

The Mango trees are extensively grown using their seeds and typically they require 3-5 years before they start fruiting. Often, they are also propagated using cuttings. However, these plants do not develop deeper and strong rooting systems.

Propagation of Mango

Mango tree has several uses. Its fruits are eaten ripped and raw ones are used to make chutneys, pickles, curries, drinks, desserts, and much other edible stuff in different parts of the world, such as India. Its leaves are an essential part of Indian Pujas and branches are used for fuel and timber in many parts of the world.

Mango is a heterozygous crop. Thus, growing this tree using seeds doesn’t seem to be an effective approach to obtaining true-to-type plants. Besides seeds, the tree is also grown using vegetative propagation techniques such as cutting, grafting, enarching, and budding. However, these are labor-intensive and time-taking approaches. Thus, not suitable to fulfill sky-rocketing commercial demands.

One other approach to growing Mango trees is by using tissue culture procedures. The technique facilitates superior clone production in a shorter span of time.

Here’s a procedure to culture (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Baramasi, using nucellar tissue as an explant. It’s taken from the study of Said Al Busaidi, Khair & Shukla, Manish & Abdullah, Hamed & Ghaya, Sultan & Mohammed, Hamed & Basem, Saif & Hamoud, Darwish. (2016). In vitro regeneration of Mango (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Baramasi through nucellar embryogenesis. Journal of Horticulture and Forestry. 8. 37-43. 10.5897/JHF2016.0443.

Tissue Culture of Mango species (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Baramasi

Explant sterilization

• Collect immature mango fruits and wash them under running tap water and soap for a few minutes.
• Surface sterilize the explant using 70 % (v/v) ethanol (10 min) and 0.1 % (w/v) HgCl2 (5min).
• Rinse with double distilled water 3-4 times under laminar airflow.

Callus Induction and pro embryonic calli (PEC) initiation

• Open the sterilized fruits and cut the intact ovule containing nucellar tissues longitudinally into two halves.
• Culture the explant in a media prepared by using:B5 Major salts and MS Minor salts (basal media), 2,4-D 1 mg/l, BAP 0.25 mg/l, L-Glutamine 400 mg/l, Malt Extract 500 mg/l, L-Ascorbic acid 100 mg/l, PVP 100 mg/l, Sucrose 30 gm/l, and Phytagel 2.5 gm/l. Adjust the pH to 5.8.
• Keep the cultures at 25 ± 2°C, 55 to 60% relative humidity (RH) in the dark.
• To reduce the browning of the media, subculture the explants every three days.

Conversion Stage

• After 3 months, transfer the callus to a conversion medium prepared by using:B5 Major salts and MS Minor salts (basal media), BAP 0.5 mg/l, L-Glutamine 400 mg/l, Malt Extract 500 mg/l, L-Ascorbic acid 100 mg/l, PVP 100 mg/l, Sucrose 30 gm/l, and Phytagel 2.5 gm/l. Adjust the pH to 5.8.
• Keep the callus and pre-embryonic cultures at 25 ± 2°C temperature and 55-60% RH in the dark.

Maturation and Germination Stage

• Transfer the cotyledonary and torpedo stage embryo in maturation media, prepared by using: B5 major salts, MS minor salts, iron-EDTA, and organic supplements and vitamins as basal media with 100 µg/l each of ABA and IAA, 100 mg/l PEG, 30 gm/l sucrose, 2.5 gm/l phytagels and pH 5.8.
• Incubate the cultures at 25 ± 2°C, 55 to 60% RH in the dark.
• After 4 weeks, transfer the mature cotyledonary stage embryos into a germination media, prepared by using:

B5 Major salts and MS Minor salts (basal media), 0.1 mg/l IAA, GA3 0.5 mg/l, 1 mg/l Kinetin, L-Glutamine 400 mg/l, Malt Extract 500 mg/l, Sucrose 20 gm/l, activated charcoal 20mg/l, and Phytagel 2.5 gm/l. Media pH: 5.8.

However, so far, some challenges are also observed using this technique, which include:

• The development of axenic cultures
• Phenol leaching, browning of tissue explant
• The poor conversion rate of somatic embryoids
• Poor shoot and root development,

However, efforts are being continued to overcome these problems.

Some ways to prevent the browning of the explants are:

• Adding L-Ascorbic acid (100 mg/l) and 0.3 % PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone) in the induction and conversion media to control explants browning along with frequent sub-culturing and incubation in dark conditions.
• Pre-treatment of explants with antioxidants solutions
• Pre-culture in liquid induction media
• Use of activated charcoal (0.5 gm/l) in basal media
• Incubation of nucellar cultures in dark with frequent subculturing

How is Plant Cell Technology Helping Culturists Worldwide In Their Tissue Culture Application?

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And, that’s not it! Plant Cell Technology also offers consultation services to culturists of all sizes that help to get instant solutions to your tissue culture problems.

So, visit plantcelltechnology.com today and learn more about our products and services and how they help you excel in your tissue culture processes.

Happy Culturing!!