Resequencing of banana germplasm from The Eden Project

Bananas and plantains (Musa species) are vital for food security in many tropical and subtropical countries and the most popular fruit in industrialized countries. Although ‘Cavendish’ bananas dominate the world export trade, hundreds of different banana and plantain cultivars are grown for local consumption. In fact, there are about 1,000 types of banana: sweet, savoury, round, bent, straight, green, yellow, pink, silvery, even spotted and striped. Its health benefits include reducing appetite and sugar craving, fighting obesity, improving muscle endurance, and reducing bad cholesterol in humans.Genome sequencing and resequencing open a window into the genetics of crop plants, for example revealing genetic variation that can be exploited as markers for accelerated breeding, genes potentially encoding traits such as disease resistance, as well as more fundamental insights into the biologyA handful of reference genome sequences (Droc et al., 2013) are available for representative varieties of Musa acuminata (Martin et al., 2013), Musa balbisiana (Davey et al., 2013) the progenitor species contributing the ‘A’ and ‘B’ genomes found in cultivated hybrids, and also the species Musa itinerans (Wu et al., 2016). However, there are many gaps in our knowledge of genetic differences within and among Musa species.The Eden Project Musa collection is an important long-term repository of diverse banana germplasm, including 45 accessions (as listed in Annex A) from several species representing a diverse range of phenotypes such as fruit morphology. To fully leverage this valuable resource it is important to genetically characterise its content.