OCT 03, 2019 1:30 PM PDT

Application of Genome Editing for Improving Banana with Disease Resistance

Speaker
  • Leena Tripathi, PhD

    Principal Scientist and Deputy Director, East Africa Hub Country Representative, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
    BIOGRAPHY

Abstract

Banana (Musa spp.) is one of the major staple food crops grown in over 140 countries in the subtropics and tropics with annual global production of around 148 million metric, feeding about 500 million people. It is a valuable food security and cash crop as it can be cultivated in diverse environments and produces fruits throughout the year in favourable weather conditions. Its production is largely constrained by diseases and pests in addition to other factors like declining soil fertility, narrow genetic diversity in germplasm, and inadequate availability of clean planting material. There is need to develop banana varieties with multiple and durable resistance to combat biotic stresses. Modern breeding tools, including genome editing, can be applied for the improvement of banana bypassing the natural bottlenecks of traditional breeding. Intensive efforts using genetic modification have been made to develop improved banana varieties with resistance to biotic stresses. Genome editing, an emerging powerful tool, can be applied for developing durable resistance to diseases. CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing has been lately established for banana, paving the way for functional genomics allowing identification of genes associated with disease resistant trait, which could be used for the improvement of banana. The genome editing research at IITA for improvement of banana will be presented during this seminar.


OCT 03, 2019 1:30 PM PDT

Application of Genome Editing for Improving Banana with Disease Resistance