Abstract

A.A. Shaibu

Little systematic work has been done on productivity, breeding and diversity studies in Musa species. It
is highly cross-pollinated and is known for continued seedling propagation, and this study has
described the reality of wide genetic variability offering significant scope for selecting superior
genotypes and provides a sound scientific basis. Few attempts have been directed to improve Musa
species due to its complex genetic structure and characterize it at molecular level. Understanding the
genetic relationship and variation is important for efficient parental selection for the development of
improved cultivar. Restriction site variation in 3 selective primer combination sequences amplified
using the AFLP polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, were examined by digesting each fragment
with restriction endonucleases. The analysis of the three primers combined genetic data generated 285
polymorphic bands, and average number of bands per assay was 95. The three primer pairs clearly
define two lines between Borneo (maternal parent) and SF 247 (paternal parent). The 285 polymorphic
bands scored across the parents and their hybrids were used to generate Jaccard’s similarity
coefficients which were analysed phenetically. The UPGMA analysis defined 2, 3 and 2 clusters for the
individual primers that diverged at different phenol levels, ranging from 0.56 to 0.98 with base pairs
ranging from 50 to 800 bp size. Each primer combination varied at 21, 11 and 22% with 11, 14 and 26
polymorphic bands. Cluster analysis using the unweighted pairgroup method of mathematical averages
(UPGMA) separated the two parents into distinct groupings based on the genome classification. Some
of the hybrids formed loose clustering, indicating high genetic diversity in the group.