DETECTING GENETIC DIVERSITY IN DIPLOID BANANAS USING PCR AND PRIMERS FROM A HIGHLY REPETITIVE DNA-SEQUENCE

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect polymorphisms among 29 diploid clones of Musa acuminata Colla. from Papua New Guinea. Primer sequences were derived from a 520 bp highly repetitive DNA sequence isolated from M. acuminata ssp. malaccensis. Primers, used individually, detected a total of 48 polymorphisms that were scored as unit characters and used to generate a Jaccard's similarity index. Principal coordinate analysis (PCO) was used to cluster clones and the unweighted paired-group method of analysis (UPGMA) was used to compute genetic distance among the materials examined. The abundance of diversity within the PNG diploids examined reflects the extreme genetic variability within the M. acuminata gene pool. PCR, utilizing primers from a highly repetitive sequence, is a rapid means of detecting genetic diversity in M. acuminata.