{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,15]],"date-time":"2026-01-15T00:19:52Z","timestamp":1768436392453,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"21","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,4]],"date-time":"2023-11-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1699056000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Big Ideas Challenge Popular Bank of Puerto Rico\/Hispanic Federation","award":["2021-77040-34872"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021-77040-34872"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000199","name":"USDA HSI STEM Award","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2021-77040-34872"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021-77040-34872"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000199","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Plants"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The genus Musa sp. contains commercially important fleshy fruit-producing plants, including plantains and bananas, with a strong potential for providing food security and sources of revenue to farmers. Concerns with the quality of vegetative tissues along with the possibility of the transmission of phytopathogens makes the availability of healthy plantlets limited for farmers. Micropropagation of plantains offers an alternative to producing large numbers of plantlets. However, conventional methods of micropropagation have high production costs and are labor-intensive. Recently, the temporary immersion bioreactor (TIB) has emerged as an alternative to conventional micropropagation (CM) methods. Our work utilized SEM microscopy (scanning electron microscope) and molecular and biochemical tools (qRT-PCR and ICP-OES) to characterize and compare the morphological properties, elemental composition, and photosynthetic gene expression of plantains cultured on TIB. Additionally, morphological features of growth and propagation rates were analyzed to compare outputs obtained from TIB and CM. Results showed higher growth and multiplication rates for plantlets cultivated in TIB. Gene expression analysis of selected photosynthetic genes demonstrated high transcript abundance of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) in plantain tissues obtained by TIB. Elemental composition analysis showed higher content of iron in plantains grown in TIB, suggesting a potential correlation with PEPC expression. These results demonstrate that micropropagation of Musa sp. via the liquid medium in TIB is an efficient and low-cost approach in comparison with solid media in CM.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/plants12213770","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,4]],"date-time":"2023-11-04T14:51:01Z","timestamp":1699109461000},"page":"3770","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Biochemical and Molecular Characterization of Musa sp. Cultured in Temporary Immersion Bioreactor"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Christopher A.","family":"Sambol\u00edn P\u00e9rez","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Sustainable Biotechnology, Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Barranquitas, PR 00794, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Rosalinda","family":"Aybar Batista","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Sustainable Biotechnology, Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Barranquitas, PR 00794, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sullymar","family":"Morales Marrero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Sustainable Biotechnology, Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Barranquitas, PR 00794, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dinorah","family":"Andino Santiago","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Natural, Computational and Exact Sciences, Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Ponce, PR 00715, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Axel","family":"Reyes Col\u00f3n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Sustainable Biotechnology, Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Barranquitas, PR 00794, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Juan A.","family":"Negr\u00f3n Berr\u00edos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Sustainable Biotechnology, Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Barranquitas, PR 00794, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"\u00c1ngel","family":"N\u00fa\u00f1ez Marrero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Sustainable Biotechnology, Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Barranquitas, PR 00794, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4666-9802","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alok","family":"Arun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Sustainable Biotechnology, Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Barranquitas, PR 00794, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"36","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scienta.2013.12.028","article-title":"The combined effects of phenylurea and gibberellins on quality maintenance and shelf life extension of banana fruit during storage","volume":"167","author":"Huang","year":"2014","journal-title":"Sci. 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