Deciphering the genetic identity and fidelity of banana through inter simple sequence repeats fingerprinting

Abstract

Bananas and plantains are a major staple food and export product in many countries. The success and pace of progress of crop-improvement program depend to a large extent on the availability of diverse germplasm and information on their characteristics. Somaclonal variation in the tissue culture is a common phenomenon which makes it mandatory to monitor for genetic stability of plants. Present study aimed to assess the genetic identity of 16 different banana varieties and true-to-type conformity of micro-propagated banana. In the present investigation, genetic relationships of 16 bananas, including some exotic varieties, were assessed based on inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR). Out of 26 ISSR primers screened, 18 ISSR primers were produced totally 2168 clear, reproducible and scorable band classes resulting in a total of 1608 polymorphic bands. The number of scorable bands for ISSR primers varied from 1 [(AC)8 YT] to 13 [(GA)8 YC and (AG)8 YT], with an average of 7
bands per primer. Cluster analysis classified varieties into clusters, showing similarities for evaluated banana. Further, micro-propagated banana plantlets of Musa acuminata cv. Bantala and cv. Grand Naine that were developed from suckers were screened for genetic variation, if any, using ISSR markers. Similarly, the mother maintained in the field was also subjected for genetic analysis, where the banding patterns for each primer was highly uniform and monomorphic to the field grown mother clone from which the culture had been established. The preset study demonstrated the utility of ISSR markers in assessing both genetic variability among 16 different banana varieties and genetic uniformity of micro-propagated banana. Further, our study confirmed the true-totype  nature of micro-propagated clones.