A New Seeded Diploid Accession of <i>Musa laterita</i> of Section <i>Rhodochlamys</i> From Gangtok, Sikkim, India with Morphology, Chromosome Number and Genome Size

Abstract

Bananas provide a vital food source for growing populations in many countries that used as a staple food and played an important role in poverty alleviation in many of the underdeveloped countries. To increase the productivity of cultivated banana against growing pest and disease pressure under changing environmental conditions, wild banana needs to explore for their disease resistance and climate resilience gene pool. Musa laterita, a wild species of Gangtok of Indian occurrence was described for the first time morphologically, compared with the existing two accessions of Musa Germplasm Information System (MGIS) data and found different in 18 morphological characters against the recorded 117 morphological data as Simmonds (1962) morphological index suggesting its genome of AB. This species has upright inflorescence and very small 7.6-8.9 cm seeded fingers (yellow-skinned after ripening with sweet pulp) on 2-3 hands (4 to 5 finger each). The somatic chromosome number recorded was 2n=22 with total chromosome length and volume was 42.6 µm and 18.8 µm 3 respectively in the karyotype. The flowcytometric analysis confirmed the 2C DNA content for the first time was 1.302 pg and calculated genome size of 637 Mbp. Detailed genomic characterization of diploid seeded wild banana could be used as a progenitor in the banana breeding program for crop improvement by introgressing the wild diseaseresistant traits in cultivated banana for their conservation and sustainable utilization.