Bananas belong to the Musaceae family and are among the tallest monocotyledons. Main dessert banana cultivars are triploid, highly sterile, parthenocarpic and atonally propagated. They are susceptible to several diseases that seriously threaten plantations. In order to better understand banana genetics, more knowledge must be gained about their genomes. This would help to develop new improvement strategies. Major aims of the molecular studies, in progress at CIRAD at present, are the construction of genetic maps, a better understanding of chromosome structural differentiation in Musa, the analysis of quantitative characters as well as a comprehensive study of molecular genetic diversity. A first genetic linkage map based on RFLP markers has already been published by our lab (Fauré et al., 1993, TAG 87 : 517-526). In order to saturate this map for QTL analysis, we checked the banana genome for VNTR markers. We report here preliminary results on dinucleotide microsatellite sequences in the banana genome. Microsatellite gene tagging and targeting are discussed.