ABSTRACT
Bananas and plantains are members of a monocotyledonous family of giant perennial herbs that grow throughout the humid tropics and subtropics. Because most of the cultivars and landraces important for human uses are parthenocarpic and do not produce seeds, they are propagated vegetatively. Traditionally, bananas and plantains were maintained and conserved in situ on home, village or farm gardens (Saad and Rao, 2001; Daniells et al., 2016; Ocimati et al., 2016) where the livelihood of these farmers still depends on the availability of a wide range of cultivars that are adapted to local environmental conditions and for a variety of uses. Over the past decades, banana diversity has been in decline, and concerted action at a global level has been needed to establish and maintain genebanks to conserve and better utilise the genetic diversity inherent in the genus Musa. Recently it has been estimated that Musa germplasm is conserved in about 60 national collections hosting more than 6000 accessions (Channelière et al., 2011). These are represented by
field, in vitro and cryopreserved genebanks and comprise a wide range of morphological and genetic diversity in Musa.
