Incorporation of Organic Growth Additives to Enhance In Vitro Tissue Culture for Producing Genetically Stable Plants

The growing demand for native planting material in ecological restoration and rehabilitation
for agro-silvo-pastoral ecosystems has resulted in a major global industry in their sourcing,
multiplication, and sale. Plant tissue culture is used for producing high-quality, disease-free, and
true-to-type plants at a fast rate. Micropropagation can help to meet the increasing demand for
planting material and afforestation programs. However, in vitro plant propagation is an expensive
technique compared to conventional methods using suckers, seeds, and cuttings. Therefore, adopting
measures to lower production costs without compromising plant quality is essential. This can be
achieved by improving the culture media composition. Incorporating organic growth additives
can stimulate tissue growth and increase the number of shoots, leaves, and roots in culture media.
Organic growth supplementation speeds up the formation and development of cultures and yields
vigorous plants. Plant regeneration from meristems (shoot tips and axillary buds) is a reliable way
to produce true-to-type plants compared with callus and somatic embryogenesis regeneration, but
in vitro culture environments can be mutagenic. Therefore, detecting somaclonal variations at an
early stage of development is considered crucial in propagating plants. The genetic stability of in vitro
regenerated plants needs to be ascertained by using DNA-based molecular markers. This review aims
to provide up-to-date research progress on incorporating organic growth additives to enhance in vitro
tissue culture protocols and to emphasize the importance of using PCR-based molecular markers
such as RAPD, ISSR, SSR, and SCoT. The review was assessed based on the peer-reviewed works
published in scientific databases including Science Direct, Scopus, Springer, JSTOR, onlinelibrary, and
Google Scholar.