Selection and asexual inheritance of a dwarf variant of Cavendish banana resistant to race 4 of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense

Abstract

Summary. A dwarf variant (TC1-229) of banana resistant to race 4 of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense was identified from a tall, resistant Cavendish cultivar, ‘Tai Chiao No. 1’. This study showed that the dwarf characteristic of TC1-229 was retained over 4 clonal generations. Although 3% of tissue-cultured plants of TC1-229 were found to be a tall reversion, the dwarf characteristic of TC1-229 appears to be a relatively stable genetic trait. The average pseudostem height of TC1-229 in the plant crop was 229 cm which was about 62 cm shorter than its source plant. TC1-229 retained the resistance to fusarium wilt in a wide range of environments. Unlike Dwarf Cavendish, the leaf bases of TC1-229 were not crowded and the bunch stalk was normal, thus ‘choking’ was not observed. This study shows that the step-wise selection of beneficial traits by using somaclonal variation can be useful in banana improvement.