High Frequency Plant Regeneration of a Dessert Banana Cv. Mehersagar for Commercial Exploitation

Banana cultivar `Mehersagar` is a dessert banana clones cultivated all over the country. For the purpose of the production of disease free plantlets suitable for large-scale cultivation in the field, a micropropagation protocol based on multiple shoot regeneration has been established. Highly proliferative cluster of multiple shoots are obtained by culturing shoot tips from ex vitro grown healthy suckers on MS medium with different concentrations and combinations of cytokinins (viz., BAP and KIN), auxins (viz., IBA, NAA and IAA) and coconut water (cw). The efficacy of these supplements on the rate of shoot multiplication was tested. Best results were obtained on MS+0.5 mg L-1 BAP+0.5 mg L-1 KIN+13% cw, where highest average number of shoots per explant was 8.2±0.236. When individual shootlets were separated and implanted in half strength MS medium with various concentrations of auxins, the better root formation were noted at 1.0 mg L-1 IBA with 6.10±0.359 roots per shoot. Then the rooted plantlets were transferred to polybags and about 90% of the acclimatized plantlets were survived when transferred to open field.