National Banana Research Program

The East African highland bananas (Musa spp. cv. EA-AAA), the most important staple food in Uganda, are susceptible to a range of pests and diseases. This has been attributed to a narrow genetic base of this banana group and thus the need to create a wide genetic base through development of resistant cultivars. The use of genetic transformation (engineering) approach has been identified as a potential option that could be utilised to facilitate and/or enhance the process of developing resistance cultivars. The objective is to establish an in vitro regeneration system for East African (EA-AAA) highland bananas. Cell suspensions are the material of choice for genetic transformation because of their regeneration capacity through somatic embryogenesis