Abstract

Screening of micropropagated banana (Musa spp.) cv. Grand Naine for somaclonal variants was carried out in the open field. The total detected variants were 26 somaclones (in addition to the normal plant) and were grouped into eight groups according to their morphological and yield characteristics. Sequence Related Amplified Polymorphism (SRAP) and Target Region Amplified Polymorphism (TRAP) techniques were used to study the differences among banana cv. Grand Naine and 26 somaclonal variants of the cultivar. SRAP markers amplified 1463 fragments while 841 fragments were resulted from TRAP markers. The somaclones “double bunching from peduncle”, “Giant plant” and “weak plant” somaclones were clustered with Grand Naine according to SRAP markers while “empty peduncle”, “horizontal bunch” and “angled bunch” somaclones clustered with Grand Naine using TRAP markers. According to principal coordinate analysis with SRAP markers, “pale green”, “black”, “wavy margins”, “double bunch from stem” and “vertical upward bunch” segregated from other variants; whereas, “pale green”, “black” and “vertical upward bunch” segregated from other variants using TRAP marker data. Although these markers were able to distinguish some of the somaclones derived from micropropagation of Grand Naine, additional markers would be needed to identify mutations generation during tissue culture propagation of banana.

Key words: Banana, sequence related amplified polymorphism, target region amplified polymorphism, cluster analysis, principal coordinate analysis, genetic diversity.