Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for In vitro high throughput (HTP) phenotyping of banana for nematode resistance

Parasitic nematodes (PPNs) mainly Radopholus spp. also known as burrowing nematodes are a major biotic threat to banana production in most African banana-growing regions (Keshari, and Mallikarjun, 2022). They cause plant toppling because root damage weakens soil anchorage and disrupts mineral and water uptake from the soil resulting in poor yields (Avhad, 2023). Despite the adoption of various management options to avert the effects of nematode damage, cultivation of resistant genotypes developed through breeding, is the most effective and economical sustainable way (Menon, 2016). Hybrids produced in the breeding program require evaluation for their response to nematode infection and the most used technique was to evaluate the genotypes in a controlled environment within the screenhouse (in vivo). The in vivo technique requires a considerable amount of space, time, and materials, hence is very costly and time-consuming. We have developed a high throughput (HTP) technique for rapid in vitro evaluation of large numbers of genotypes