In-field behavior of banana plants (Musa AA sp.) obtained after regeneration of cryopreserved embryogenic cell suspensions

This study describes the in-field behavior of bananas (Musa AA sp.) obtaine d after regeneration of cryopreserved embryogenic cell suspensions. Observa tions were focused on the classical vegetal development descriptors. We obs erved no significant differences between the cryopreserved-derived plants a nd the control plants with respect to the plant height and circumference, t he number of leaves, the number of fruits, the fruit length, the fruit diam eter and weight, the bunch weight and the date of harvest. During the first culture cycle, 2 out of 11 descriptors analyzed were however found to be d ifferent between the control and the cryopreserved suspensions derived plan ts. These were the number of nodal clusters of the inflorescence (usually c alled "hands") and the date of flowering. These differences were, however, quite minor as the two cases together amounted to only 2 % of the control v alue. During the second cycle of culture, no significant difference between the two groups of plants was found whatever the parameter analysed. These results suggest that, with the experimental conditions of the study, there is no difference at the agronomic level between plants produced from cryopr eserved embryogenic cell suspensions and control plants.