The Effectiveness of Antibiotics and Fungicide to Prevent Microbial Contamination in Musa paradisiaca Cv. Tanduk Culture

Abstract

Musa paradisiaca Cv. Tanduk (Banana) is an important cultivar in Malaysia, widely consumed due to high content of carbohydrates, minerals, vitamin B1, vitamin B2 and vitamin C. Despite high market demand, it is still challenging to obtain free-disease symptoms and high-quality seedlings. The micropropagation technique is an effective approach to overcoming these problems. However, micropropagation is limited by bacterial and fungal contamination, resulting in plantlet mortality. Thus, this study will isolate fungal and bacterial contaminants and determine the effectiveness of antimicrobial agents in preventing culture contamination. The banana explant suckers were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium, and contaminant microbes were isolated in Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) media and nutrient agar (NA). The effectiveness of gentamicin, ampicillin, cefotaxime, and chloramphenicol was evaluated with the disk diffusion method, and for carbendazim (fungicide) through the growth rate of isolated fungi in PDA media. Study successfully isolated three fungi and two Gram-negative bacteria. Results showed that gentamicin (50 mg/ml) exhibits the highest inhibition zones for white, rod-shaped (20 mm) and pink-red cocci (17 mm) isolated bacteria. Meanwhile, carbendazim (50 mg/ml) significantly suppressed the cottony, yeast-like fungal growth (16.67 mm). The combination of gentamicin (150 mg/ml) and chloramphenicol (50 mg/ml) into MS medium significantly suppresses the contamination in the banana culture. The findings highlight the importance of selecting appropriate antimicrobial types and their concentrations to improve banana plantlet regeneration. Moreover, the study demonstrated that optimized antibiotic combinations can effectively control contamination in banana tissue culture, thereby enhancing the sustainability of M. paradisiaca Cv. Tanduk farming through micropropagation.