Abstract
Silver nitrate is a powerful tool for any tissue culture protocol as it is an inhibitor of ethylene action which negatively affects callus growth, shoot regeneration and somatic embryogenesis in vitro. Various types of abnormalities were reported by the treatment of heavy metals at the cell and tissue levels, affecting apical elongation zones of the root apex. In particular, Ag toxicity primarily targets the cell wall, cytoskeleton, nuclear materials and plasma membrane. The strong binding affinity of Ag with oxygen donor ligands affects retardation, cell division and growth (Sudhakar, 2001). The results of our study demonstrated that the addition of silver nitrate in culture medium influences both the morphogenetic reaction of explants and the cytogenetic structure of regenerated plants. The observations showed agradual decrease in mitotic index, with increasing concentration of the silver nitrate. This antimitotic effect may be due to the arrest of cell division due to changes at in the chromosomal morphology or spindle orientation. A thorough screening of the chromosomalabnormalities showed that the total number of abnormal cells increased with increasing concentrations of silver nitrate in a dose dependent manner