Studies on the origin and diversification of Indian wild banana (Musa balbisiana) using arbitrarily amplified DNA markers

Musa balbisiana is one of the progenitors of present-day bananas.. The B genome from M. balbisiana has been a rich source of genes conferring resistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses, yet studies on this species are very limited. The present study analysed 29 pure M. balbisiana types (BB), collected from the Indian mainland and from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, using RAPD markers. The total number of amplified fragments was 48, of which 39 showed polymorphism. A tree matrix based on these DNA markers was constructed using NTSYS software. The results clearly distinguished two clusters, one containing accessions from the Indian sub-continent, and the other, accessions from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The dissimilarity between these two clusters was more than 65%. From the results, we propose that M. balbisiana originated from one location, North Eastern India, but now has three distinguishable areas of diversity including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.