Microsatellites were used to investigate the genetic diversity and relationships among 14 Chinese main banana cultivars (Musa spp.) and 33 introduced accessions from International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP). Ten out of 47 microsatellite primer pairs amplified reproducible and discrete DNA bands, revealing a total of 92 alleles. The average number of alleles amplified by per primer was 9.2, ranging from 5 to 15. The sizes of PCR products were between 75bp and 310bp. The genetic similarity among the cultivars was estimated by the Jaccard coefficient，and the similarity value was between 0.1 and 1. Relationships among the cultivars were evaluated using the unweighted pair-grouping with arithmetic average (UPGMA) clustering. The dendrogram showed that the introduced accessions presented higher levels of genetic diversity than the main cultivars. All the cultivars tested could not be discriminated by the 10 primers.
