2.1. Materials
Fresh leaves and rhizomes of the seagrass (H. pinifolia (Miki)den Hartog) were collected from the Vellar estuary (11◦2930.5N;79◦4630.6E) southeast coast of India, during February 2011.The chemicals used for surface sterilization included ethanol andsodium hypochlorite (Merck Ltd., Mumbai, India) and plant growthregulators, antibiotics and all the other ingredients for mediapreparation and other chemicals for histological studies (Acridineorange, Osmium tetroxide and glutaraldehyde) were procured fromHi Media Laboratories Ltd. (Mumbai, India