Altered response to biotic and abiotic stress in tissue culture-induced off-type plants of East African Highland Banana (Musa AAA East Africa)

Journal of Applied Sciences, 2008; 8 (15): 2703-2710This study was conducted to investigate black sigatoka disease and drought stress responses of off• type plants derived from shoot-tip micropropagation of East African highland banana (Musa AAA East Africa) landrace Uganda. Results showed that the off-type plants were more (p<0.05) tolerant to black sigatoka disease with the infection index of 17 .5% compared to 30.1 and 22.8% of the micropropagation (Ml') derived phenotypically normal plants and Conventional Propagation (CP) derived plants with no tissue culture history in their ancestry, respectively. On the contrary, the off-type plants were more (p<0.05) vulnerable to water stress with leaf senescence of 87.7% at soil water deficit of 630 millibars. The leaf senescence of the 1v1.P and CP derived plants at the same soil moisture deficit was 79.5 and 66.7%, respectively. During this stress period each off-type plant produced one sucker, while the true-to-type plants were unable to do so. Leaf structural analysis revealed that the off-type plants had higher (p<0.05) stomatal density of 16.0 mm-2 of the upper leaf surface. Conversely, the MP and CP derived plants had each 12.3 and 11.0 stomata mm ? of the leaf upper surface. Similarly, the off-type plant leaves were more hydrophobic with higher (p<0.05) epicuticular waxiness of 684.6 μg cm ". The epicuticular wax content of the 1v1.P and CP derived plant leaves was as low as 646.2 and 647.7 μg cm ", respectively. The water stressed off-type plant leaves exhibited higher (p