Besides their use as target materials for genetic engineering,
somatic embryos can also be used for large-scale propagation
of plants and for production of synthetic seeds so that
elite plant materials can be supplied to the farmers at a very
low cost. Somatic embryogenesis has been successfully reported
in many banana cultivars (Ganapathi et al. 2001;
Morais-Lino et al. 2008). Currently, available protocols for
somatic embryogenesis using embryogenic cell suspension
cultures have several limitations such as low rates of embryo
germination, requirement to treat the explants with high