Elucidation of somaclonal variation in banana tissue culture

The aim of this study is to test the genetic variation caused by somaclonal variation which result from tissue culture process. The method proposed in this finding is Representational Difference Analysis (RDA). Three plants of Musa acuminala obtained from Kelantan Biotechnology Company Pt. Ltd. The explants were subcultured on medium supplemented with 0.1mg/1 of BAP. All the plants showed variations in terms of growth of shoot, leaves and browning of explants. The leaves from plants were extracted and the purity of genomic DNA was tested for O.D value at 260/280nm using UV spectrophotometer and electrophoresis process. The value of O.D ratios were 1.45, 1.15 and 0.98 for plant A. B and C respectively. Plant A was used as control plant and it showed some clearer bands compared to plant B and C. In order to testify the suitability of extracted genomic DNA for further molecular analysis, digestion process was done using restriction endonuclease, EcoRl. The result showed that the digestion process did not take place and there are several reasons which contribute to this matter. Hence, the extracted DNA could not be processed for advanced molecular processes such as ligation, amplification, hybridization and sequencing.