Annotation:
This project will contribute to the conservation and use of genetic diversity of bananas and plantains. The investigations
will include all accessions held in the global gene bank as well as the accessions which will be newly introduced to the
bank. The experiments will be performed using the recently established genotyping platform, and will include flow
cytometric estimation of ploidy and genome size, and analysis using 19 microsatellite (SSR) markers. The accessions,
which will not give clear results after SSR genotyping, will be used for sequence analysis of ITS locus. This complex
approach will result in detailed description of genetic diversity and facilitate identification of mixed and mixoploid
accessions in the gene bank. The results will shed light on the evolution and genomic constitution of edible banana clones
and characterize genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships within the family Musaceae.
