PRODUCTION OF BBTV-FREE PLANTS BY MICROPROPAGATION AND MACROPROPAGATION IN KISANGANI, DR CONGO

The Banana Bunchy Top Disease (BBTD), caused by the Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV), is one of the important banana diseases in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It drastically reduces the production and diversity of bananas. This study focused on the production of banana and plantain planting materials free of BBTV from plants infected by micro-propagation and macro-propagation. 15 suckers of cultivars Litete [plantain (Musa AAB), French type)], Libanga Likale [plantain (Musa AAB) False Horn type)] and Bluggoe (Musa ABB) were used for micro-propagation and 15 others for macro-propagation. These suckers were collected from banana mats with stages 4 or 5 of BBTD symptoms. The Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium augmented with 30 g glucose, vitamins, 1 μM of Indole Acetic Acid (IAA) and 10μM of 6-Benzyl aminopurine (BAP) was used for micro-propagation. The plants resulting from stem fragments was used for macro-propagation. After 5 subcultures in micro-propagation, the sanitation rate was 76.6% for Litete, 66.6% for Libanga Likale and 76.6% for Bluggoe. After macro-propagation, the rate was 27.5% for Litete, 6.6% for Libanga Likale and 73.3% for Bluggoe. These results indicate that the proliferation rate increases the chance to clean up infected planting material explaining why macro-propagation is less effcient than micro-propagation.