Bananas (Musa spp.) are one of the most highly consumed fruits globally, grown in the tropical and sub-tropical regions. We evaluated 856 Musa accessions from the breeding programs of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture of Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda; the National Agricultural Research Organization of Uganda; the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa); and the National Research Centre for Banana of India. Accessions from the in vitro gene bank at the International Transit Centre in Belgium were included to provide a baseline of available global diversity. A total of 16,903 informative single nucleotide polymorphism markers were used to estimate and characterize the genetic diversity and population structure and identify overlaps and unique material among the breeding programs. Analysis of molecular variance displayed low genetic variation among accessions and diploids and a higher variation among tetraploids (p < 0.001). Structure analysis revealed two major clusters corresponding to genomic composition. The results indicate that there is potential for the banana breeding programs to increase the diversity in their breeding materials and should exploit this potential for parental improvement and to enhance genetic gains in future breeding efforts.

https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20497

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Violet Akechhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2330-0682

Rony Swennenhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-5258-9043

Brigitte Uwimanahttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-7460-9001

Delphine Amahhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-5706-8773

Allen Brownhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4468-5932

https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20497

Biotech and Plant Breeding

Agronomy; Banana; Biodiversity; Food Security; Plant Breeding; Plant Production

Bananas; Genetic Diversity; Population; Germplasm; Breeding

Africa; East Africa; West Africa

Nigeria; Tanzania; Uganda

Eastern Africa Hub; Headquarters and Western Africa Hub

Plant Genome