For production certified banana plants and virus tested from naturally infected plants, RT-PCR was
done to detect BMV and BBTV in shoot tips of banana cv. Williams. Meristem tip (apical dome) culture has
been frequently used to eliminate BMV and BBTV. It was found that the survival plants were 20 and 15%
while the virus free plants were 70 and 75% respectively. Two kind of therapeutic in vitro were applied. The
micropropagated shoots were exposed to 36, 38 and 40°C for 30 days. The best temperature that gave virus-free
plants was 36°C (100% for BBTV and 60% for BMV). On the other hand dry heat treatment of 40°C at one
week is useful in curing the infected rhizomes effectively. Two antiviral compounds,ribavirin and salicylic acid
at concentr ation 10 mg/L medium enhanced growth differentiation of the propagative meristem, while
decreasing of virus free plants percentage. On the other hand 30 mg/Lof two antiviral decrease the development
of shoot micropropagated plantlets and had a deleterious effect on the regeneration and growth of the
propagated shoots but increase of virus free plantlets, 90 with ribavirin and 93 and 90 with salicylic acid for
BBTV and BMV respectively. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fingerprints was used to
analyzesomaclonal variations in tissue culture-derived banana plants.RAPD analysis showed geneticvariations
of the analyzed plants (10 regenerates). The genetic variations in approximately 4% were detected in
6 subculture and mother plants. |