Musa acuminata is a diploid wild species of banana. Bananas are perennial monocotyledonous herbs of the order Zingiberales to which ginger and cardamom also belong.

Bananas are very important for food security in many tropical and subtropical countries and a large range of types can be found, including those used as vegetables and as fruits.

While domestication involved hybridization between diverse species and subspecies, much of the current production relies on clones derived from one triploid genotype - Cavendish.

Banana cultivars are derived mainly from either Musa acuminata and/or Musa balbisiana. They are sometimes diploid but are generally triploid. The genome sequenced was from DH-Pahang, a double-haploid Musa acuminata genotype of the subspecies malaccensis that contributed one of the three Musa acuminata genomes of Cavendish. Musa acuminata has a haploid chromosome number of 11, containing 390 Mb with 36,000 protein encoding genes.