Genetic relationship among Musa genotypes revealed by microsatellite markers

A banana germplasm was established containing 44 Musa genotypes collected from various locations in Malaysia. To detect their genetic variation and to rule out duplicates among cultivar, microsatellite markers were used in their analysis. The microsatellite profiles of 44 Musa genotypes of various origins were detected by 130 alleles at nine microsatellite loci. Genetic distances and relationships were determined with one locus designated as MaOCEN08 being most polymorphic. The highest percentage of similarity observed was 43%. This was between Musa sp. cv. Raja and Musa sp. cv. Mas and this indicated that these two genotypes are the closest relatives. The analysis also revealed that an unknown cultivar was 100% dissimilar from the rest of the Musa genotypes. It was therefore concluded that all accessions in the germplasm collection are of different genotypes and none are duplicates. Seven clusters were established to group the genotype, whereby the groupings did not imply their ploidy levels.Key words: Banana, germplasm, microsatellites, plantain, genetic relationship