IntroductionBanana (Musa L. species (Musaceae)) is considered as an important food-fruit crop and is cultivated commercially in more than 120 countries. India is a major banana producing nation with an area of 0.79 million hectares and productivity of 28.4 metric tonnes per hectare (NHB, 2011). A wide range of diploids, triploids (2n = 3x = 33), and tetraploid cultivars/landraces of banana are known that have evolved from interspecific hybrids of the 2 wild diploid species, Musa acuminate Colla (contributing ' A' genome) and Musa balbisiana Colla (contributing 'B' genome). Despite botanical homogeneity, plantains manifest wide and unique phenotypic variability regarding plant size, bunch type, bunch and fruit orientation, fruit apex shape, pseudostem, and fruit color. Nendran (Musa AAB group) is one of the leading banana cultivars belonging to the plantain subgroup and is one of the most prized plantain varieties of India. However, biodiversity in the Nendran cultivar is complex and is represented by clones distinguishable by variation in plant stature, bunch, fruit morphology, and degree of development of the male phase (Menon et al., 2002). Therefore, the present study was carried out with the objective to characterize variability in plantain ecotypes of banana using molecular markers. The development and application of molecular markers provide powerful tools to reveal polymorphism, are robust to detect genetic variability (Simmons et al., 2007), and are not influenced by environment or developmental stages of the plant, thus making them an ideal tool for genetic relationship studies. However, the potential usefulness of Abstract: Twelve plantain ecotypes were characterized for molecular variability using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. Out of the 60 RAPD and 40 ISSR primers tested, 16 RAPD and 14 ISSR primers were found polymorphic, and were used for molecular profiling of the plantain ecotypes. The average number of bands per primer, average number of polymorphic bands per primer, mean polymorphic information content (PIC) value, resolving power (Rp), and marker indices (MI) for RAPD primers were 8.63, 3.25, 0.87, 15.49, and 2.86, whereas the respective values for the ISSR assay were 7.93, 4.14, 0.85, 12.49, and 3.55. The genetic similarity coefficient was calculated using the Jaccard coefficient. The unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA)-based clustering pattern remained more or less similar for RAPD, ISSR, and combined RAPD and ISSR data. Clustering was strongly supported by high bootstrap values. The genotypes Njockkon and Changalikodan (similarity coefficient > 0.94) and Manjeri Nendran (a) and Manjeri Nendran (b) (similarity coefficient > 0.89) were more closely related than the other ecotypes. The principal component analysis (PCA) showed results similar to those of the dendrogram. The results revealed that ISSR would be a better tool than RAPD for evaluation of genetic diversity in plantain ecotypes. Further, huge variab...