don8t1

I have read all the conversations here and have greatly enjoyed it. I want to ask if anyone else here is endeavouring to insert a "color break" virus into clean banana plants.My efforts (unsucessful)have been to pulp Ae Ae tissue into the base of the corm of other non-vartiegated bananas.My premise is --When Agri-Starts mericloned Ae AE --the plants were NOT variegated. To me this indicated the color break was viral in origin . If true THEN why not inject Ae Ae pulp into the base of the corm of --for instance-- a Basjoo plant and produce variegated Basjoo??? So far NO success But perha
ps worth more effort.Don Hudson

Jack Daw

Just go on, but know, that variegation is genetic defect, not a viral infection.
Do keep us posted on your progress.

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Thnx to Marcel, Ante, Dr. Chiranjit Parmar and Francesco for the plants I've received.



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Gabe15

Some variegations are infact caused by viruses in the plant, but in the case Aeae it is not viral, but a somatic mutation that has taken place that causes the plant to become chimeric. The reason it cannot be successfully mass tissue cultured (there has been a few successes, but its still easier to grow from pups) is because the variegated tissue is spread across the meristem in such a manner that when you take a small piece of tissue to culture, it is very difficult to get all of the different chimeric tissue colors in one small piece that will continue to grow together.

Agri-Starts did infact produce 7 stable variegated Aeae from tissue culture over the course of 4 years, that of course was not economically feasible at all so they gave up.

I also know of some successful tissue cultured Aeae that stayed stable for 4 generations only before reverting to green.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.