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ESTABLISHMENT OF GENETIC FIDELITY OF IN-VITRO RAISED BANANA PLANTLETS

SAIFULLAH KHAN¹, BUSHRA SAEED^2* AND NAHEED KAUSER¹

Abstract: A simple and routine method for the analysis of tissue culture-derived banana plants for somaclonal variations is a prerequisite for precise monitoring of quality control during rapid mass micropropagation. This study reports on the use of RAPD-PCR and SSR for the detection of genetic variations in micropropagated banana plants. Thirteen varieties of the cultivated banana, procured from INIBAP, Belgium, were screened using RAPD-DNA markers. Only three RAPD primers (among 20 tested) were chosen as producing polymorphic DNA bands differentiating the investigated cultivars. Based on those identity markers, the genetic fidelity between various subculture levels were determined. Although minor morphological variations were recorded in the leaves of some clones, the developed RAPD and SSR profiles of different micropropagated clones were typical to that of the donor mother plants up till eight subculture levels.

¹Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology Division, HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, 75270, Karachi, Pakistan,

²Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan.