Abstract            Volume:11  Issue-10  Year-2023         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

Bananas (Musa spp.) are important fruit crops cultivated in more than 120 countries throughout the tropics and subtropics, which have a significant contribution to food security and income. Tissue culture of banana can solve the problem of shortage in quality planting material of banana. This study aimed to find the optimum ratio of 6-bezyl amino purine and indole-3 acetic acid for in vitro shoot proliferation in the Ethiopian banana variety, “Asmara-long type”. The plant is a widely cultivated variety in Arba Minch. Murashige and Skoog medium was used in the present study as it is the most commonly used plant tissue culture medium. This study covered three experiments. Firstly, it compared three surface sterilization procedures to control contamination. Secondly, it examined the effect of ascorbic acid in controlling lethal browning of shoot tip. Lastly, it investigated the impact of four different hormonal ratios on shoot tip proliferation. Based on the results it has been found that both sterilizations (NaOCl, NaOCl+0.1% HgCl₂ and 0.1% HgCl₂) methods were effective for surface sterilization of shoot tips of banana in preventing contamination. When there was 10mgl^-1 ascorbic acid in the media, there was no lethal browning of explants and media colour did not change. Among the four hormonal ratios tried, the ratio I i.e., 4 mgl^-1 6-benzyl amino purine and 0 mgl^-1 indole 3-acetic acid has been found to induce shoot growth in 50% of the explants. The culture protocols developed in this study provide a baseline for future work on micro propagation and genetic improvement of Ethiopian banana cultivars.

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