Initiatives aiming at to reduce production costs and to improve the quality of plantlets are necessary in order to turn micropropagation commercially more feasible. The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of the environment on the growth and leaf anatomy of banana plantlets during in vitro elongating/rooting phase. Shoots of Caipira and Pacovan cultivars were cultivated in MS medium, supplemented with NAA (1 mg L-1) and agar (6 g L-1), submitted to sucrose concentrations of 15 g L-1 or 30 g L-1 under natural light of greenhouse or artificial light of growth chamber. Investigations on growth and leaf anatomy were carried out after 45 days. It was observed that natural light and 15 g L-1 sucrose for 'Caipira' or 30 g L-1 for Pacovan cultivars promote thicker of chlorophyllian parenchyma and increased stomatal density. Natural light as an alternative to fluorescent bulbs during the in vitro elongating/rooting phase reduces the production costs and improve anatomical charachteristics of leaves of micropropagated banana plants.
Musa spp.; natural light; in vitro rooting; sucrose
