Biotechnology, 2008; 7 (3): 578-581
This study was conducted to determine chromosome number and 2C nuclear DNA content in tissue culture induced off-type banana (Musa AAA East Africa) landrace Uganda with tolerance black sigatoka disease, susceptibility to water stress, sparsely black-blotched pseudostems, taller pseudostems, late fruit maturation, altered inflorescence and higher fruit dry matter content. The off-type banana appeared to have higher (p<0.05) frequency of31 and 32 chromosomes at 15.1 and 13.6%, respectively. Conversely, the frequency of 31 and 32 chromosomes was 12.0 and 9.6% for the micropropagation (.MP) derived phenotypically normal plants and 11.8 and 9.5% for the Conventionally Propagation (CP) derived plants with no tissue culture history. Moreover, the off-type banana had lower (p<0.05) leaf2C nuclear DNA amount of 1.72 pg, whilst the .MP and CP derived plants had 1.81 and 1.82 pg, respectively.