Study of enhancement of shoot regeneration derived from banana (Musa acuminata cv. Berangan) rhizomes under in vitro

This experiment was conducted to enhance shoot regeneration from banana (Musa acuminata cv. Berangan) rhizomes in vitro by using benzylaminopurine (BAP) and napthaleneacetic acid (NAA). Rhizome buds were used as explants and they were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) media supplemented with different concentrations of BAP (Omg/L, 5mg/L and 10mg/L) and 0.5 mg/L NAA for shoot regenerations. In this study, the highest number of shoot regeneration of Musa acuminata cv.Berangan during the initiation stage with an average regeneration of 1.67 number of shoot per explant was obtained from MS media supplemented with concentration of 5mg/L BAP + 0.5 NAA. Meanwhile, for culture survival rate (%), it showed MS media supplemented with concentration of 10mg/I BAP has higher survival rate which is 22.22 % compare to others. However, the results showed the use rhizome buds as an alternative explant material in banana tissue culture was unsuccessful because low survival rate due to contamination. Due to this result, double sterilization with 100% (v/v) sodium hypochlorite (the active ingredient is 10% sodium hypochlorite) mixed with a few drops of Tween 20 seems still not effective enough to reduce the contamination to the explants. Although, when double sterilization method is to be applied, length of immersion time of the explants in sodium hypochlorite solution was important to avoid the death of explant tissue. Further study on the enhancement of shoot regeneration derived from banana rhizomes under in vitro condition should be carried out but suitable protocol is needed in order to use rhizome as an alternative explant material for tissue culture that can be helpful in any cases where suckers of the cultivars are rare or unavailable in the future.