Ploidy investigation of bananas (Musa spp.) from the National Banana Germplasm Collection at Rubona–Rwanda by flow cytometry

Bananas (Musa spp.) are important staple and income-generating crops for millions of people in the highlands of East and Central Africa. This region is considered as a secondary center of banana diversity. The determination of ploidy level in different germplasms is important for better management of genetic diversity and is required before starting concerted breeding programmes. The use of reliable and high-resolution methods such as flow cytometry is recommended. In our study, flow cytometry was used on 89 frozen leaf accessions from the National Banana Germplasm collection at Rubona–Rwanda. Our results indicate that the ploidy level of 65 Highland banana clones analysed, is triploid, as was previously reported using morphological characteristics. However, the clones ‘Pomme’, ‘Kamaramasenge’, ‘Gisubi kayinja’, ‘Gisubi kagongo’, and ‘Dibis’ previously classified in National Banana Germplasm collection at Rubona as diploid, diploid, diploid, triploid, and tetraploid, respectively, were found to be triploid, triploid, triploid, diploid and triploid. These results should therefore, have great significance in banana germplasm management, for breeding programmes as well as for the Musa Germplasm Information System (MGIS).