Efficient regeneration system applicable to five Musa cultivars

Banana (Musa spp.) is an important staple food, economic crop, and nutritional fruit worldwide. Hybridization is seriously hampered by the long generation time, polyploidy, and sterility of most cultivars. Establishment of an efficient regeneration and transformation system for banana is critical for their genetic improvement. An efficient and reproducible transformation system for banana using direct organogenesis was developed. Media containing benzylaminopurine (BA) combined with one of four other growth regulators was evaluated for the regeneration efficiency of five Musa cultivars and the ability to induce/support development of new banana shoots. The result indicated that the greatest number of shoots per explant for all five Musa cultivars was obtained using MS medium supplemented with 8.9 mmol·L⁻¹ BA and 9.1 mmol·L⁻¹ thidiazuron (TDZ). In 240–270 d, one immature male flower could regenerate between 380 and 456, 310–372, 200–240, 130–156, and 100–130 well-developed shoots for Gongjiao, Red banana, Rose banana, Baxi, and Xinglongnaijiao, respectively. Such a system will facilitate molecular breeding and functional genomics of banana.