Investigation of surface sterilization method and callus induction for napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum)

Feed is a vital part in the dairy industry as it is the major portion in total cost production of dairy. However, the dairy industry of Malaysia is highly dependent on the feed imported from overseas due to the quality factor and this leads to dairy industry to be operated in small scale and contributes to poor self-sufficiency level of milk. One of the fodder crop cultivated as cattle feed in Malaysia is Pennisetum purpureum (Napier grass) which has high yielding and palatability characteristics with high protein content that meets the daily protein requirement of dairy cattle. Nevertheless, the nitrogen level is quite low and is the structural component of milk casein and has direct influence on milk quality in terms of total solids of milk fat, milk density and milk yield. Moreover, phytochemical screening of Pennisetum purpureum revealed the presence of anti-nutrients components such as tannins, cyanogenic glycosides, oxalates, phytates, and saponins. Hence, the milk production by cattles is limited due to these anti-nutrient components that affect the nutritional value of the forages and these components causes toxicity in cattles. By mutational breeding, the anti-nutrient components of Pennisetum purpureum could be eliminated. However, there is a lack of publications found on the biotechnology application of Pennisetum purpureum including its tissue culture methodology. The aim of this study is to identify the most optimum antiseptic treatment with the lowest contamination for the development of callus for Napier grass and to determine the most optimum combination of the plant growth hormbnes concentrations, cytokinin and auxin needed to induce callus formation required for-Napier grass to enable mutational breeding for the species. Tissue culture was carried out by using the plant material sample of Napier grass as the explant which was cultured in Murashige and Skoog (MS) media under different aseptic conditions to induce callus propagation with addition of suitable hormones concentration. This research pointed out most optimum combination of antiseptic treatment for surface sterilization of Napier grass explant is ethanol and sodium hypochlorite with the explant immersion time in sodium hypochlorite for 20 minutes while the results for the second objective could not be determined. The outcome of this research will be useful for the subsequent study of mutational breeding which can proceed to develop Pennisetum purpureum with the least anti-nutrient components while the best nutrient component is retained in order to improve the quality of our locally produced feed and reduce dependency on imported feed.