Musa species in mainland Southeast Asia: From wild to domesticate.

Many species are defined in the Musa section within its natural diversification area in Southeast Asia. However, their actual number remains debated as botanical characterisation, distribution and intraspecific variability are still poorly known, compromising their preservation and their exploitation as crop wild relatives of cultivated forms. To address the underexplored Musa diversity in mainland Southeast Asia, at the northern edge of the natural range, 208 specimens were collected in Vietnam, Laos and China, mainly belonging to Musa balbisiana, M.

Hybridization, missing wild ancestors and the domestication of cultivated diploid bananas.

Hybridization and introgressions are important evolutionary forces in plants. They contribute to the domestication of many species, including understudied clonal crops. Here, we examine their role in the domestication of a clonal crop of outmost importance, banana ( ssp.

Genome ancestry mosaics reveal multiple and cryptic contributors to cultivated banana.

Hybridizations between closely related species commonly occur in the domestication process of many crops. Banana cultivars are derived from such hybridizations between species and subspecies of the Musa genus that have diverged in various tropical Southeast Asian regions and archipelagos. Among the diploid and triploid hybrids generated, those with seedless parthenocarpic fruits were selected by humans and thereafter dispersed through vegetative propagation.

East African diploid and triploid bananas: a genetic complex transported from South-East Asia.

Background And Aims: Besides bananas belonging to the AAA triploid Mutika subgroup, which predominates in the Great Lakes countries, other AAA triploids as well as edible AA diploids, locally of considerable cultural weight, are cultivated in East Africa and in the nearby Indian Ocean islands as far as Madagascar. All these varieties call for the genetic identification and characterization of their interrelations on account of their regional socio-economic significance and their potential for banana breeding strategies.

Methods: An extensive sampling of all traditional bananas in East Africa and near Indian Ocean islands was genotyped with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, with particular emphasis on the diploid forms and on the bananas of the Indian Ocean islands, which remain poorly characterized.