Micropropagation of medicinally important enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman)  landraces

Abstract Cultivated enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) is commonly propagated vegetatively due to various reasons. This conventional mode of propagation is vulnerable to transmission of devastating diseases like bacterial wilt, and results in poor propagation rate. Most of the landraces used in traditional medicine are susceptible to diseases, and vulnerable to various other constraints. Micropropagation of two landraces (guarye and kibnar) used in traditional medicine was conducted using shoot tip explants on Murashige and Skoog medium. At the initiation stage, significantly highest systemic contamination (17.67%) was recorded on MS medium without antibiotics (cefotaxime) as compared to the treatments that contain 250 and 500 mg l-1 cefotaxime. The highest mean shoot number (8.8+1.40) per shoot tip was regenerated on MS medium containing 5.0 mgl-1 BAP in combination with 1.0 mg l-1 IBA. From the two enset landraces, higher mean shoot number (6.88) per shoot tip was obtained from guarye. The highest root number (3.0) per shoot was obtained from both full and half-strength MS medium containing 3.0 mgl-1 IBA and 2.0 mgl-1 IBA, respectively. The protocol can be employed for rapid propagation and conservation of the landraces as well as for its future genetic improvement using biotechnological tools.