Long-Term Field Performance of Micropropagated Aloe vera Plants

Long-term field performance of micropropagated, primary (tissue cultured plants) and secondary (suckers produced by tissue cultured plants) plants of Aloe vera plants was compared with control (non- tissue cultured plants) plants. The regenerated plants both primary and secondary showed 100 % survival in the field like control plants. Growth of primary tissue cultured plants lagged compared to that of control plants especially on the basis of leaf fresh weight and leaf length. Secondary tissue cultured plants did not show significant difference in growth from the control plants in any of the character evaluated. RAPD markers were used to assess the clonal fidelity of 25 plants. As all the bands produced by these plants were monomorphic, no variation was detected between tissue cultured and control plants.