Evaluation of banana germplasm and genetic analysis of an F1 population for resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense race 1

Fusarium wilt of bananas (Musaspp.), caused byFusarium oxysporumf. sp.cubense(Foc) causes up to 100% yield loss in bananas.Focrace 1 in particular is very devastating to dessert bananas in Uganda. One of the effective control strategies for the disease is the development of resistant cultivars through breeding. The objectives of this study were to identify suitable banana germplasm for generating a segregating population for resistance toFocrace 1 and understand the mode of inheritance of resistance toFocrace 1. Twenty-two banana accessions sourced from the National Agricultural Research Organisation in Uganda were challenged withFocrace 1 in a screen house experiment. Monyet, resistant toFocrace 1 and Kokopo, susceptible, were selected and crossed to generate 142 F1genotypes. These F1genotypes were also challenged withFocrace 1 in a screen house experiment. Data were collected on rhizome discoloration index (RDI), leaf symptom index (LSI) and pseudo-stem splitting (PSS), and analysed for variability. The banana accessions evaluated showed varying degrees of resistance toFocrace 1. Segregation ratios for resistant versus susceptible progenies fitted 13:3 (χ2 = 0.12,P = 0.73) for RDI and 11:5 (χ2= 3.04,P = 0.08) for PSS. Estimated broad sense heritability was 27.8% for RDI, 13.9% for LSI and 14.7% for PSS. The results suggest that resistance toFocrace 1 in banana is controlled by at least two dominant genes with epistatic interaction and that heritability of resistance toFocrace 1 is low inMusaspp.