Protocols for Micropropagation of Woody Trees and Fruits

CHAPTER 47
LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES AS AN EFFECTIVE
LIGHTING SOURCE FOR IN VITRO
BANANA CULTURE
D.T. NHUT 1* , N.T. DON 1 AND M. TANAKA 2
1 Da Lat Institute of Biology, 116 Xo Viet Nghe Tinh, Da Lat, Lam Dong, Viet Nam
2 Faculty of Agriculture, Kagawa University, Miki-cho, Kagawa 761-0795, Japan
*E-mail: duongtannhut@gmail.com
1. INTRODUCTION
Plantains and bananas (Musa spp.) are important staple crops in tropical and subtropical
countries. They are an excellent source of carbohydrates, minerals and
vitamins. Their trade also creates a considerable income as a cash crop. In vitro
propagated plants are an increasing material of choice because of disease control,
uniformity and rapid multiplication of elite genotypes. However, growers face
higher cost of production and pay up to five times more than for suckers, which
restricts the potential use of in vitro culture (Robinson, 1996).
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been demonstrated as an artificial flexible
lighting source, which has a significant effect on the biological processes. Numerous
studies have shown the effects of LEDs on plants such as elongation, axillary shoot
formation, leaf anatomy, and rhizogenesis (Hoenecke et al., 1992; Robin et al.,
1994a,b; Tennessen et al., 1994; Tripathy & Brown, 1995; Okamoto et al., 1996;
Tanaka et al., 1998) as well as on animals such as cellular proliferation, collagen
synthesis, growth factor metabolism in cells, cell growth enhancement, and cancer
treatment (Whelan et al., 2001; Eels et al., 2003; Schmidt et al., 2004). The LEDs
have a wide range of applications, such as a radiation source for plant production,
investigations on animal nerve system and cell growth, and other applications for
fishery and creative nature photographing, etc.
Light-emitting diodes as a radiation source for plants have attracted a considerable
interest in the recent years because of its vast commercial potential (Nhut,
2005). Bula et al. (1991) described the characteristic features of gallium aluminum
527
S.M. Jain and H. Häggman (eds.), Protocols for Micropropagation of Woody Trees and Fruits, 527–541.
© 2007 Springer.