| description |
Banana (Musa) is one of the most important crops grown in tropical and sub-tropical areas. Cavendish, the most widely grown banana cultivar, is a triploid derived from an intra-species cross. Cavendish is relatively resistant to Race 1 of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Cubense (Foc1) which caused wide spread Panama disease during 1960s but is susceptible to Race 4 of Foc (Foc4) which has been causing epidemics in large areas of banana fields in Asia and Australia in the last decade and is threatening world banana production. The genome of the diploid species Musa acuminata (AA) which is the ancestor of a majority of cultivated banana has recently been sequenced. Availability of banana transcriptomes will be highly useful for improving banana genome annotation and assembly and for banana biological research. |