[01] Adane Gebeyehu, Bahir Dar University, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Plant Sciences Program, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.

The present study was conducted at the Tissue Culture Laboratory of Amhara Region Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI), Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, during the period from March to May 2012 to investigate the effect of different concentrations of BAP and NAA on virus free plant regeneration and shoot multiplication. The culture meristem grew into a green globular hard coat mass after 25 days and adventitious plantlets were developed from this ball like structure. Combinations of three levels of BAP (0.0, 2.5, and 5.0 mg/l) and three levels of NAA (0.0, 0.5, and 1.0 mg/l) were added separately to the media to study its effect on shoot proliferation. Among the different concentrations, 5.0 mg/l BAP + 0.5 mg/l NAA showed highest proliferation of 1.00, 1.5, 1.75 and 3.17 shoots per clump at 10, 20, 30 and 60 DAI, respectively. The longest shoot (0.42, 2.34, 2.64 and 3.46 cm shoots per plantlet) was produced with the concentration of 5.0 mg/l BAP + 0.5 mg/l NAA at 10, 20, 30 and 60 DAI respectively. The maximum number of leaves (2.33, 3.00, 3.33 and 4.33 leaves per explant at 10, 20, 30 and 60 DAI) produced on the medium supplemented with the same treatment. The second highest number of leaves (2.00, 2.67, 3.67 and 4.00 leaves per explant at 10, 20, 30 and 60 DAI) was produced on the medium supplemented with 5.0 mg/l BAP and 1.0 mg/l NAA. The longest leaves were produced by the concentration of 5.0 mg/l BAP + 0.5 mg/l NAA (1.43, 2.27, 2.80 and 3.23 cm) at 10, 20, 30 and 60 DAI respectively.

Banana, Regeneration, Micro Propagation, Plantlet

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