Opportunities for bridging the gap between genomics and genetic improvement in Musa spp

Abstract

Banana (Musa spp.) represents one of the most important commodity crops in the world. They are important as an export crop but also play a major role in local food security in developing countries. Banana is susceptible to an everincreasing range of pests and diseases requiring increased use of pesticides that have adverse environmental and health impacts and threaten the sustainability of the crop. There is an urgent need to develop improved banana cultivars with a wider range of pest and disease resistance. In addition, new cultivars better adapted to the environment (i.e. tolerant to abiotic constraints) and which satisfy consumer needs are also needed. Breeding programmes aiming at broadening the genetic basis and providing new genes of interest face many obstacles (e.g. low fertility, structural heterozygosity, polyploidy). The Global Musa Genomics Consortium (http://www.musagenomics.org) an international network of investigators committed to understanding genomic evolution in relation to biotic and abiotic stresses in a polyploid, vegetatively propagated crop and also to provide meaningful insights for the plant community. Indeed, Musa lies taxonomically within the monocots, although distant from the grass family (Graminiaceae), in a position that is important for comparative and evolutionary genomics. The Consortium currently brings together expertise from 40 institutions in 24 countries. Members are committed to close collaboration and agree to share materials and resources, including sequence data and enabling technologies. Wherever possible, the products of the Consortium are placed in the public domain. With the soon-to-be-available Musa acuminata sequence, it is essential that the community be ready to use this information as efficiently as possible. This paper summarises the discussions and recommendations of participants at a workshop held during this Symposium to address the gap between genomics and breeding and suggest a number of collaborative areas of work to accelerate Musa breeding efforts around the world.