Abstract:
Banana plays an important role as a widely consumed fruit in Sri Lanka.
“Kolikuttu” (AAB) is one of the most highly priced dessert cultivars in the local
market. Being a traditional cultivar, “Kolikuttu” shows some apparent
morphological variation in the field but its genetic variation that could be used for
genetic improvement has not been identified in depth. “Kolikuttu” is highly
susceptible to Fusarium wilt. Fourteen Kolikuttu accessions showing variation in
morphology and tolerance to Fusarium wilt were collected from different locations
in Sri Lanka. DNA extracted from young leaves was subjected to PCR using six
SSR (Microsatellite) primers. PCR products were separated by Polyacrylamide Gel
Electrophoresis and bands were detected by Silver Nitrate Staining. Then bands
were scored and statistically analyzed by using POPGENE 1.32 version and their
genetic distance matrix and a dendrogram were derived. Out of 19 SSR alleles
amplified, 12 were polymorphic resulting 63% loci polymorphism. Based on the
dendrogram three different Kolikuttu ’ accessions were clustered separately. The
three accessions could be considered as different genotypes were “Athdath Puwalu”
(genetic distances with the accession 11 is 0. 1112), the accession collected from
Telijjawila (genetic distances with the accession 13 is 0.1719) and accession
collected from Angunakolapelassa which was not affected by Fusarium wilt for a
long time.
