International Journal of Agricultural Policy and Research Vol.5 (12), pp. 192-200, December 2017 Available online at https://www.journalissues.org/IJAPR/ https://doi.org/10.15739/IJAPR.17.023 Copyright © 2017 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article ISSN 2350-1561 Original Research Article Effect of drying plantain (Musa spp.) suckers prior to in vitro culture on reduction of lethal browning Received 3 November, 2017 Revised 5 December, 2017 Accepted 18 December, 2017 Published 29 December, 2017 Eustache T. Ade-Eyitatyo F. Agbadje* 1 , Arnaud Agbidinoukoun 1 , Martine Zandjanakou-Tachin 2 , Gilles Todjro Habib Cacaï 1 , Sètondji Serge Houedjissin 1 , and Corneille Ahanhanzo 1 1 Central Laboratory of plant Biotechnology and plants breeding, University of Abomey-Calavi(UAC), Benin. 2 School of Horticulture and Green Space Management (EHAEV), National University of Agriculture (UNA), Benin. *Corresponding Author Email: eustagbadje01@yahoo.fr Tel.: +229 97014050 This work aimed to evaluate the effect of drying plantain suckers on explants size, survival rate and browning intensity of plantain apices during in vitro culture. Three sets of suckers were used in the experiment. The first set used as a control and was not dried. The second set was dried under shade for 7 days and the third set was dried under shade for 14 days. Then explants were isolated. Comparative study was undertaken based on the immersion of explants in cysteine solution before in vitro culture. According to their size, two kinds of explants were isolated from each set (0.5 cm × 0.5 cm and 1 cm × 1 cm). The explants of 0.5 cm × 0.5 cm were introduced directly in culture after isolation. The explants of 1 cm × 1 cm were divided into two sub-sets. The explants isolated from the first sub-set were briefly immersed in 50 mg/l cysteine solution before in vitro culture. The second sub-set was introduced directly in the culture. The results showed that when the suckers are dried under shade for both of 7 and 14 days it reduced tissue browning and increased number of apices survived than the brief immersion of explants in 50 mg/l solution of cysteine. The response of explants varied with their sizes (0.5cm × 0.5 cm vs 1cm × 1 cm). Thus, explants with the size of 1 cm × 1 cm isolated from suckers dried for 7 days was the best treatment as 100% survival rate of material was observed during the four weeks of culture. As a result first subculture can be carried out after 4 weeks of culture instead of one to two weeks as recommended under other conditions. This method consumes less time and material, easy to perform and reduces the risk of loss of material during subcultures. Key words: browning intensity, suckers drying, banana and plantain tissue culture, apices survival INTRODUCTION Bananas and plantains are among the most important food crops in Central and Western Africa. They play an essential role in contributing to food security,generation of employment, diversification of income sources in rural and urban areas, gross domestic product (GDP) and poverty reduction (Nkendah and Akyeampong, 2003). Mostof banana cultivars produced seedless fruits. The traditional planting material consists of suckers produced by the mother plant in the fields. This natural propagation pathway is slow, laborious and produces small quantity and especially low phytosanitary planting material (Gandonou et al., 2012).In vitro propagation makes it possible to remove these constraints through mass production of plantlets (Rahman et al., 2013). Compared to conventional suckers, micro plantletsare more rapidly growing, larger, uniform and have ashorter production cycleand give ahigher yield (Sheela and Nair, 2006; Bhanusree et al., 2015). Mainproblems in banana and plantain tissue culture are browning/darkening of culture medium and the cut surfaces of theexplants, from initiation phase and during subcultures (Vuylsteke, 1998), browning of young leaves,