A reliable protocol has been established for in vitro propagation of Artemisia nilagirica var. nilagirica (Indian wormwood), a valuable medicinal plant from India. A highly proliferating organogenic callus was obtained on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 2.5 lM IAA when nodal explants were cultured on MS medium supplemented with various growth regulators. Further, highest regeneration frequency (83.3 %) of adventitious shoots was observed, when the callus was subcultured on MS medium supplemented with 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP; 2.5 lM) along with 7.5 lM 2-isopentenyl adenine (2-iP). An optimal of 10.16 ± 2.24 shoots were regenerated on medium supplemented with 2.5 lM BAP ? 7.5 lM 2-iP. Quarter strength MS medium supplemented with 10 lM IBA was effective for rooting of the shoots. Ex-vitro plants were normal and were established successfully. Cytological and molecular marker studies showed that regenerated plants showed genetic stability in micro-propagated plants.

Genetic variation of 36 Sechium edule accessions collected across 12 states in India was assessed using morphological traits and DAMD markers. Eighteen fruit morphological traits (both qualitative and quantitative) were evaluated to confirm the variations in the present collection. Quantitative traits showed major variations with respect to fruit weight (7.85-498.33 g/fruit), fruit length (5.8-15 cm/fruit), fruit diameter (6-28 cm/fruit) and length of the spine (0-5 cm). Qualitative traits were also diverse in fruit colour, shape, spine density, reticulation, flexibility of spine and furrow depth. The first six principle components showed 82.88% variation in the principal component analysis. The principal component analysis revealed that fruit weight, fruit width, fruit diameter, fruit shape, length of spine, spine density and furrow depth had a significant contribution to the total variation. The DNA analysis performed using DAMD primers were used for deducing the diversity at DNA level. The collection produced 102 bands out of which 97 were polymorphic and the percentage polymorphism ranged between 66.66 and 100 per primer. Discrete pattern of clustering was obtained using UPGMA method of complete linkage percent disagreement revealing high diversity among the collected accessions. Thus, the present study indicates that molecular and morphological marker map would improve our knowledge of S.edule and would facilitate efforts to breed improved S. edule cultivars.

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Biotransformation of p-coumaric acid by Paecilomyces variotii resulted in the accumulation of a metabolite which was identified as p-hydroxybenzoic acid. We studied the possibility of enhancing this metabolite by various parameters such as varying the concentration of substrate, addition of different nitrogen sources and carbon sources at varying concentration and use of different agricultural wastes as a nutritive medium. Maximum amount of 254.6 ± 9.34 mg/kg of p-hydroxybenzoic acid was detected in the solid medium of corncob on 4th day of incubation using 10 mM p-coumaric acid as a sole carbon source. Consequently, P. variotii can be used as candidate fungi for the production of p-hydroxybenzoic acid. Solid wastes can be managed by using them for biotransformation of pharmaceutically important phenolic acids and hence cut down the cost of production of value-added compounds using a low-cost medium.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13205-014-0262-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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