Agrobacterium-mediated In planta Transformation of
Hill Banana for Developing Resistance against
Banana Bunchy Top Virus
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Author:Selvarajan Ramasamy, Anuradha Chelliah, Raj Mohan R, Mary Sheeba Mohanraj
and Balasubramanian Velusamy
p-ISSN:0024-9602, e-ISSN:2582-5321, Vol:101, Issue:oct-dec
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.001218
Abstract
Banana viruses have had a major negative impact on the production of bananas worldwide.
Among banana viruses, Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) is one of the most destructive viral
diseases affecting Hill banana (AAB) which is known for its special flavor and long shelf life
and are unique to the lower Pulney hills of Tamil Nadu, India. In transgenics, Pathogen Derived
Resistance (PDR) approach is one of the potential strategies for developing virus resistance
in crops which has been proven to be difficult to obtain by conventional breeding. Here we
have reported a reproducible and efficient in planta transformation method via Agrobacterium-
mediated genetic transformation in banana. Three-month-old banana suckers were used as
explant and Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LBA4404 harboring the binary vector
pCAMBIA1301:bbtv rep was used in the co-cultivation. The presence and integration of the
gus and replicase genes into the banana genome were confirmed by GUS histochemical
assay, polymerase chain reaction and Southern blot hybridization. These results suggest
that the in planta Agrobacterium-mediated transformation protocol developed in this study
for stable integration of rep gene of BBTV is efficient and that this transformation system
could be widely adopted for routine transformation in banana for transferring genes.
Key words : Banana, Bunchy top, Decortication, Acetosyringone, GUS histochemical assay, In planta
transformation, Replicase gene