The new study, conducted by an international team coordinated by the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), has revealed that mainland Southeast Asia is the primary center of diversification for the Musa, which includes Bananas.
This study provides insights into the evolutionary history of cultivated bananas and offers valuable understanding for future conservation and breeding programs.
The study published in PLOS ONE involves extensive fieldwork on more than 200 specimens belonging to the species Musa Balbisiana, M. itinerant, M. Acuminata, and M. Yunnanensis from China, Vietnam, and Laos. Among this genus, Musa acuminata and M. Balbisiana are recognized as the two main progenitors of almost all major groups of bananas grown today.
Bananas are key crops in all subtropical areas, with over 140 million tonnes of global production. They fulfill the needs of the international sweet market and the domestic need for consumption.
Bananas are mostly cultivated as edible fruits. This domestication, which started around 7000 years ago, has interbreed Bananas with related plants, reducing their diversity. The sterility of bananas is a direct result of the domestication process.
The domesticated banana cultivars cannot reproduce through seeds due to their sterility and need to rely on vegetative propagation. Also, the cultivates from vegetative propagation are highly susceptible to diseases and pests, which can be devastating for banana plantations and threaten food security.
The genetic diversity found in wild banana species offers a potential solution to this issue. However, it is essential to have a thorough knowledge of the ancestral forms to select the most suitable wild forms according to breeding objectives. For instance, Musa Yunnanensis and M. Acuminata Subsp. Burmannica are the most strictly wild forms. Meanwhile, M. Itinerans is actively gathered in the wild, resulting in geographically structured diversity.
“Our findings underscore the need for immediate action to protect these genetic resources. If we lose these wild relatives, we risk losing the genetic diversity that is crucial for the resilience and sustainability of banana crops worldwide,” says Dr. Christophe Jenny, the lead author of the study.
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The lack of precise geographical ranges of Musa species has compromised both in situ and ex situ conservation of these species. Also, it prevented the use of wild forms in breeding programs. Therefore, the study has urged to gather more information on distribution and intraspecific variability.
“This is the first time such a degree of diversity has been described between wild species of the genus Musa, or within each species. Until now, that biodiversity has only been very partially represented in the main ex situ collections worldwide”, says Christophe Jenny, a CIRAD geneticist who coordinated the study.
The study has also drawn attention to conserving wild banana habitats. To demonstrate the severity, even the geographical location of the study was seriously affected by deforestation and biodiversity loss due to the destruction of natural habitats.
“We urgently need to be able to protect these threatened species and to preserve their potential to be used as wild parents of the cultivated forms of bananas.”, Jenny continued.
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Journal Reference
- Jenny, C., Sachter-Smith, G., Breton, C., Rivallan, R., Jacquemoud-Collet, P., Dubois, C., Chabannes, M., Lý, S., Haevermans, T., Triệu, D., Insisiengmay, O., Zhang, T., Caruana, L., Sardos, J., & Perrier, X. (2024). Musa species in mainland Southeast Asia: From wild to domesticate. PLOS ONE, 19(10), e0307592. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307592