Banana genome sequence significant step for scientists, producers and consumers

It’s been ten years of waiting, but the news that the banana genome has been sequenced has been worth it.

The sequencing of one of the founding genomes of cultivated bananas, the wild species Musa acuminata, and its assembling into a high-quality reference sequence was carried out by the French International Research Centre CIRAD  [2] and the French National Sequencing Centre Genoscope  [3]. This work is a huge step towards understanding the genetics of and improving banana varieties, and was done within the framework of the Global Musa Genomics Consortium  [4]. The results have just been published today in the journal Nature.

Emile Frison, Director General of Bioversity International, says this work is significant for scientists, producers and consumers. “The publication of the sequence of the banana genome is a major achievement for a crop that is still neglected by research, despite the fact it is the staple food for hundreds of millions of people in the tropics.”

The importance of bananas goes far beyond being just a tasty snack for the global market. It is the fourth most important food crop among least developed countries in terms of tonnes of production with the vast majority eaten locally. Bananas are also a vital source of income for smallholder farmers in the tropics, who produce 85 percent of the world’s supply.

The genetic information revealed by the sequencing project will help scientists exploit the qualities of crop diversity – such as resistance to diseases, pests and droughts – an increasingly urgent task as climatic changes threaten food security and livelihoods for poor rural communities.

“Scientists now have the template that will make future sequencing of other varieties quicker and more cost effective to carry out,” explains Bioversity bioinformatics scientist, Mathieu Rouard, co-author on the paper who contributed analyses. “The availability of the Musa gene catalogue will also help localize and identify genes of agronomic interest, a process that will be facilitated by the availability of dedicated bioinformatics tools on the SouthGreen platform  [5].”

For Bioversity, the availability of a reference sequence opens up the possibility of resequencing the majority of the accessions maintained at the International Transit Centre  [6], the world’s largest collection of bananas. In the meantime, partners at the Catholic University of Leuven and IITA have started evaluating a subset of ITC accessions for their tolerance to drought. “Comparing the genetic and phenotypic information will make it possible to identify genetic markers associated with these traits,” said Nicolas Roux, Bioversity Genetic Resources Senior Scientist and co-author on the paper. Using these markers to screen the collection will reduce the number of accessions that need to be evaluated in costly field trials.

Read more:

Nature article: The banana (Musa acuminata) genome and the evolution of monocotyledonous plants  [7]

Infomus@: First glimpse at the banana genome   [8]