Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Banana CV Grand Naine : Characterization Of Elite Somaclonal Variants Identified From Field Grown Tissue Cultured Banana

Banana is one of the most fascinating and important of all the fruit crops. It is a large monocotyledonous herb that originated in Southeast Asia and belongs to the family Musaceae.In vitro propagation of banana cv. Grand Naine (Musa sp. 'AAA') is gaining importance in the banana industry. However, the occurrence of somaclonal variants is at present limiting the use of tissue cultures plants in spite of several advantages.By keeping these view Eleven elite germplasm were evaluated, Of all the elite somaclonal variants collected and evaluated, the variant GNV-04 was the tallest and significantly showed higher bunch weight (59.75 kg), bunch length (2.00m), number of hands per bunch (21.01) and number of fingers per hand (20.01) and was found very promising. RAPD markers were proved effective, precise and efficient for molecular characterization of morphologically field identified somaclonal variants of 'Grand Naine' banana.