Diversity and morphological characterization of Musa spp. in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo constitutes an area where the East African Highland bananas (Musa-AAA-EA) and plantains (Musa-AAB) meet. However, Musa diversity in this region has never been characterized nor represented in national or international collections, yet increasing human activities and build-up of pests and diseases, especially Xanthomonas wilt of banana and banana bunchy top disease, could negatively affect this diversity. This study assessed, collected and morphologically characterized on-farm Musa diversity in the North Kivu and Ituri provinces. Musa accessions collected were added to the UCG-Butembo in situ field collection. A total of 90 and 150 farms were assessed, respectively, in the North Kivu and Ituri provinces. High Musa variability was observed in both provinces. Forty-one cultivars (six presumed new) were identified in Ituri Province compared to 38 cultivars (13 presumed new) in North Kivu Province. Nineteen cultivars occurred in both provinces. Beni and Lubero territories in North Kivu and Mambasa territory in Ituri Province had greater Musa diversity, varying between 27 and 38 cultivars, approximately double of the number of cultivars observed in the other territories. Twenty-three of the 34 Musa descriptors contributed more to the discrimination of the cultivars identified across the provinces and were therefore used for grouping the cultivars using principal component analysis (PCA). The Morisita index of similarity between Ituri Province and North Kivu Province territories was less than 0.5, suggesting dissimilarity in diversity between these sites. Six cultivars: 'Kirisirya', 'Pakuma', 'Nziravahima', 'Vuhindi', 'Tundu' and 'Kisubi musa' were reportedly at risk of genetic erosion.

Analysis of agro-morphological diversity among plantains (Musa species AAB) in Benin Republic, West Africa

“…Subject to molecular characterization to elucidate this synonymy, it is clear that clusters 2 and 4 (Figure 4 and Table 2) included more accessions with names varying very little between sociolinguistic groups. These results are similar to that of the work by Sivirihauma et al (2017b) in Ituri (DRC) where 14.4% French type, 44.5% False horn and 0.5% True horn were recorded in a collection.…”

“…In fact, morphological traits have been used over the past 70 years in the study of Musa diversity (Adheka et al, 2018). Several studies carried out on agro-morphological characterization have successfully classified plantain cultivars in several countries (Amoutchi et al, 2020;Batte et al, 2018;Sivirihauma, et al, 2017b). Those studies indicated that a wide range of morphological traits could be a relevant tool for germplasm identification and selection.…”

Pro‐vitamin A carotenoid content of 48 plantain (Musa AAB genome) cultivars sourced from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

“…Field experiments were established in September 2010 at the Catholic University of Graben's (UCG) regional Musa germplasm collection at Butembo (1815 m a.s.l., 00.11786° N, 29.2587° E) in North Kivu province, for assessment of plantain cultivar yield and pro‐vitamin A content. Butembo has sandy clay soils with pH 5.7, 5.1% organic carbon (OC), 0.26% nitrogen, 10.6 mg kg −1 of available phosphorus and 1.14 cmol(+) kg −1 of potassium . The site had a mean annual rainfall of 1036 mm and a mean annual temperature of 19 °C.…”

“…28,49,50 This region also has a high variability in its soils, including volcanic soils, alluvial soils, naturally weathered deep and humus-rich rock soils. 28 This study was conducted on 48 different local plantain cultivars (AAB), previously collected through a Musa germplasm survey covering three districts in North Kivu province and five in Ituri province of eastern DR Congo ( Table 2, 51 ). It is estimated that the plantains used in this study represent about 30% of the known plantain diversity across DR Congo.…”

“…Butembo has sandy clay soils with pH 5.7, 5.1% organic carbon (OC), 0.26% nitrogen, 10.6 mg kg −1 of available phosphorus and 1.14 cmol(+) kg −1 of potassium. 51 The site had a mean annual rainfall of 1036 mm and a mean annual temperature of 19 ∘ C.…”