Gibberellic acid detection of dwarf offtypes in micropropagated Cavendish bananas

Abstract

Detection of dwarf offtypes produced by micropropagation of Cavendish bananas (Musa spp.) cultivars New Guinea Cavendish and Williams was achieved by spraying gibberellic acid (GA3) solution (289 pmol/L) onto deflasked plants and measuring various plantlet responses. The most useful identification criterion was elongation of the sheath of the first leaf to form after GA3 application. Elongation of this structure was about 2-fold greater in normal plants than observed in dwarfs. Similar measurements taken earlier during in vitro culture or later during plant establishment in soil were not as useful in discriminating between normals and dwarfs as the measurements made at deflasking. The similar GA3-induced elongation response of the dwarf offtype and that of the naturally occurring dwarf cultivar Dwarf Parfitt suggests that the mechanism for dwarfism could be the same in the 2 cases.