Scientists have sequenced the complete genome of the banana, an important crop in developing countries that provides a fruit widely enjoyed the world over and is a staple food in some of the poorest parts of the globe.
The draft sequence provided “a crucial stepping-stone for genetic improvement of banana,” observed Angélique D’Hont, a French agricultural research scientist, and colleagues from a number of other countries in a paper that is being published this week in the scientific journal Nature.
The sequence represented, they said, “a major advance in the quest to unravel the complex genetics of this vital crop, whose breeding is particularly challenging.”
Pests and diseases were an “imminent danger” for global banana production. Having access to the entire gene repertoire of the plant held the key to identifying those responsible for disease resistance as well as ones for other important traits such as fruit quality, they added.
The completion of the genome sequence was important for India, the world's largest producer of bananas, according to P. Padmesh of the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. However, most of the country's production was consumed locally and exports amounted to only 0.5 per cent of the world trade in the fruit.
The potential for export was huge if India could increase its productivity both in terms of quantity and quality, he told The Hindu in an email. As most of the present day cultivated varieties were susceptible to fungal, bacterial and viral diseases, it was necessary to develop disease-resistant varieties.
The international team has sequenced the genome of DH-Pahang (Musa acuminata), a banana popular in south-east Asia and which is able to resist the devastating Panama disease fungus that has been spreading in Asia.
If the genes that provide such resistance could be characterised, they could be transferred to other cultivated varieties, noted Dr. Padmesh.
The genome that has been sequenced ran to 523 million ‘bases,’ the chemical units that make up DNA and encode the genetic information. Transposable elements — the ‘jumping genes’ that can relocate themselves to other places in the genome from time to time — accounted for almost half of those bases.
Bananas that are cultivated, unlike their wild relatives, are seedless and develop without going through a process of pollination, fertilisation and seed production. These domesticated forms are therefore propagated by using a part of the parent plant. As a result, the offspring are genetically similar to the parent. Such similarity can allow disease-causing organisms to rampage through a crop.
The transposable elements in the banana genome therefore provide a major natural source of genetic variation, noted Dr. Padmesh.
Keywords: banana genome, genome sequencing, agricultural research
This is enormous achievement for nations, whose population is consumed banana as a staple food.the banana genome sequencing has made possible for developing disease resistant varieties against fungal,bacterial and viral infections.genome sequencing has increased hopes for enhancement of qualitative characters such as taste and quantitative characters including carbohydrates,fats and proteins contents.
Our prime minister recently asked why Indian science was lagging behind even the
chinese. This landmark discover itself is an example why. NO INDIAN INSTITUTIONS
WERE INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT ?
We will wait for one of the institutions abroad to work on chikungunya or malaria and
solve our problems.
@Pratiga, Venkat - I agree with you. We should protect all the
indigenous varieties of banana because they each are different in
taste, texture and sweetness and if we had only one variety
available in the supermarket we'd all be poorer for it.
But I think it is a mistake to label the newer genetically-
modified varieties of bananas as "unnatural". In fact, all our
indigenous varieties - pachai, malai, poovam and so on -
themselves have been genetically modified by us humans through
thousands of years of artificial selection, specifically
selecting for size, color, sweetness and taste. Google "wild
banana" and you'll see the sort of banana - tasteless, shriveled,
unpalatable - that nature came up with on its own. All the other
wonderful varieties had to wait until man came along and nudged
nature in the right direction.
"Pests and diseases were an “imminent danger” for global banana
production". Wonder where the journalist has lifted this line from.
Pests and diseases are part of every crop. Banana has been grown for a
long time now, and its varieties have evolved through natural
selection. Pests and diseases are part of every crop. The solution to
the same is not to modify the crop but to modify the environment in a
manner so as to protect the crop from the pests, which the farmers are
doing extremely efficiently. Its like suggesting that we all shift to
Mars as Earth is being subject to Global Warming, rather than try to
reverse the problem!
Very well said by Pritiga. Yelaki, Peyam, Poovam, Malai, Karpura, Pachai are some of the varieties of banana we used to have - so tasty they were. Now, slowy it seems to be disappearing. (In US there is only one: big yellow tasteless fruit. We shouldn't go that way) Don't kill the banana varieties. Don't kill nature.
The banana genome sequence is just a new road with signs and flags,
whoever, it is a great step. Scientists will unravel the gene functions
and compare to other species through sinteny and homeology comparisons.
After that they should be able to tune desirable genes to our interests.
That's why germplasm preservation is of utmost importance... This
reasoning is valid to any living species, naturally.
It is good to understand the nature and improve on it. But we should
make sure that native varieties should not be extinct.
Congrats to the group, But Long way to go!!!!
useless research. The idea is to get rid of all nice varieties and keep producing in bulk
quantitiew tasteless fruit that looks like a rock and can be shipped longer and kept longer in
storage with no aroma compounds or phenolics. How many of you have seen the green or
pacchai vazhai pazham in TN. The research drove it to extinction, They will do the same to
all other varieties. The farmers wont profit also. The sellers like super markets can carry it
longer and you pay the cost. Genome sequencing can be done to avoid harmful genetic
disorders but not to create varieties for stupid reasons. Mankind willay for all this.
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