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SUMMARY
Agriculture con~ributes major part of world's food especially i i ~ the developing
world. Over 200 plant species are cultrvable ou~ of whicli rlce, wheat and maize make
70% ofthc total output. Legunles have very important attributes such as protein arid lipid
rich seeds and symbiotic nltrogen fixat~on, which qualifies them as best alternatii'e food
crops. Legumes lire broadly divided Into food and forage legumes out of wli~ch forage
legumes for111 major part. Chickpea is one of the most important leguminous, cool season.
alternative food crop cultivated prevalently in Asin I'acific region. Even though it lias
co~ivincing nutritional importance, its area ot'cult~vatio~l has been low anti i~iipro\ement
virtually stagnant. Conve~itional breeding lias not been an effective crop improvement
strateyp Ibr i.iiickpea and recclit advances in biotech~~ology s~rcli ;is plant t~ssue culture
and gc~lctic irailsl'ormatiun, paved tlie way for aliernntive crop Iniprovcment
metllodologies. 1'111h work \\as carr~ed out with principal object~ves of optimr~ation of
tissue culturc iariables n11d tra~ihfo~~lldt~or~ of selected explo~its by ujlilg genes fro111
Bacillirs 11iio.irigietisi~ Ui('ryL,lb ;itid soybeall trypsi11 inliib~tor (SUTI) geilrs io co11ti.r
resistance to ~l~licovctprr cu.~~go.(i or tile legli~iie pod borer. The work can be broadly
divided into tllree parts, I. So~liatic rnibryoge~lcsis, 2. 0rg;inogenrsis and 3. Genetic
transforniation.
S~iri(~iic e~~ibr):oge~~esis: Differo~it explnnts like mature embryo axis, parrs of
nlatilre embryo axls, leaflets, stell1 seg~~ie~its anti root segrnci~ts \\ere derived bum 111
vitro growl1 seedlings of different ages. Soinntic e~ubryos were induced by ilslng ?.1,5-T
and 2,4-D as principal growtli rcguiarors ill co~~lbinntioli wit11 Iiorn~oncs like hllletiil,
zeatin, TDZ and BAP. Efficient induction of sonl:itic embryos \\as observed and best