Biotechnology of banana (Musa spp.): multi-dimensional progress and prospect of in vitro-mediated system

Banana (Musa spp.), commonly known as 'Adam fig' and 'Fruit of wise man', is a commercial herbaceous tropical fruit, which governs its antiquity from ancient periods in the Indian and African subcontinent. All parts of the plant, i.e. stem, leaf, root, inflorescence, peel, fruit, and flower, have significant medicinal and nutritional values. Owing to its multitude of uses, it is known as 'Kalpavriksha' (plant of virtues). To combat multi-faceted issues related to traditional propagation, in vitro-based regeneration-cum-genetic improvement approaches become the trend of the hour. The present review illustrates various physico-chemical factors that are responsible for successful in vitro regeneration and acclimatization, protoplast culture, anther and microspore culture, cryopreservation and synthetic seed production, genetic transformation, mutagenesis, and nanotechnological and omics approaches. The key intent of this article is to present an insight on in vitro biotechnological research advances in the past decade, to identify the research gaps, unexplored areas, and major shortcomings associated with banana biotechnology and to highlight the potential approaches to mitigate them. Eventually, this review made salient conclusions and recommendations paving the way forward for the banana researchers to develop innovative ideas in order to enhance the propagation frequency and to ensure the genetic improvement of banana. KEY POINTS: • This review addresses biotechnological interventions in Banana (Musa spp.) for enhanced propagation and quality improvement. • Highlights factors influencing in vitro regeneration, conservation, and genetic transformation. • Provides novel ideas to harness the qualitative and quantitative genetic improvement.