Conservation of Abaca (Musa textilis Nee). in vitro

Conservation of Abaca with minimal growth in vitro condition by culturing apical meristem in Murashige and Skoog's modified 1/2 MS medium was conducted. There were 10 treatments involved as the following : Treatment 1, 1/2 MS medium without sugar, Tr. 2, 3, 4 and 5, 1/2 MS medium with 15 g sucrose/l, 30 gm sucrose/l, 15 g mannitol/l and 30 g mannitol/l respectively.Tr. 6 to 10 were undertaken in similar procedure to Tr. 1 to 5, but 8 g agar/l were added on top of medium. CRD was employed in the experimental. After 365 days 1/2 MS medium with sucrose produced the highest survival rate while those without sugar or with mannitol had decreased survival rate with statistical difference. At the end of the test, the apical meristem in the medium with agar on top were found dead. Cryopreservation of apical meristem of Abaca in vitro by encapsulation-vitrification was another method to be employed. CRD was applied in the test. The concentrations of sucrose added in 1/2 MS medium were found to be statistical difference. 0.3 M sucrose to be the optimum concentration in preservation procedure, producing 78 percent shooting of averaged 0.5 cm height. The test on encapsulation-vitrification meristems dehydrated in PVS2 before cryopreservation at various times was undertaken as well. The 4*4 factorial in CRD was designed in the experiment. The optimum period of 20-30 min in cryopreservation of apical meristem of Abaca with no statistical difference was then noticed. Still the tissues preserved for 1 hr or 1 day were found not to be differed in growth, but developed faster than those of 30 day cryopreservation with statistical difference. Comparing both methods, The plantlets obtained from vitrification method and encapsulation-vitrification method were morphologically alike and were able to be transplanted into the outer environment with 90 percent and 91 percent survival of vitrification and encapsulation-vitrification respectively.