August 9, 2012 Journal article Open Access

The banana (Musa acuminata) genome and the evolution of monocotyledonous plants

Gaëtan Droc; Adriana Alberti; Philippe Francois; Rémy Habas; Patrick Wincker; Patrick Wincker; Patrick Wincker; Jaroslav Dolezel; Mouna Jeridi; Cyril Jourda; E. Hribova; Thomas Wicker; Kamel Jabbari; Kamel Jabbari; Kamel Jabbari; Julie Leclercq; Cees Waalwijk; Olivier Panaud; Benjamin Noel; Marlã̈ne Souquet; Manuel Ruiz; Didier Mbéguié-A-Mbéguié; Margot Correa; Nicolas Roux; Saravanaraj Ayyampalayam; Ronan Rivallan; Spencer Brown; Françoise Carreel; Maria Bernard; Andrzej Kilian; Jose Barbosa; Olivier Jaillon; Olivier Jaillon; Olivier Jaillon; Olivier Garsmeur; Jean-Marc Aury; Ange-Marie Risterucci; Julie Poulain; Karine Labadie; Xavier Argout; Steeve Joseph; Pat Heslop-Harrison; Jean-Christophe Glaszmann; Ana Maria Rocha de Almeida; Mathieu Rouard; Jean Weissenbach; Jean Weissenbach; Jean Weissenbach; Stéphanie Bocs; Juliette Lengellé; Nabila Yahiaoui; Eric Lyons; Anne Dievart; Corinne Da Silva; Marguerite Rodier-Goud; Dheema Burthia; Céline Cardi; Michael Freeling; Angélique D'Hont; Claire Poiron; Valentin Guignon; Valentin Guignon; Matthieu Chabannes; Frédéric Bakry; Christophe Jenny; Franc-Christophe Baurens; Michael R. McKain; Miguel A. Dita; Francis Quetier; Diane Burgess; Jim Leebens-Mack; Gert H. J. Kema

International audience; Bananas (Musa spp.), including dessert and cooking types, are giant perennial monocotyledonous herbs of the order Zingiberales, a sister group to the well-studied Poales, which include cereals. Bananas are vital for food security in many tropical and subtropical countries and the most popular fruit in industrialized countries. The Musa domestication process started some 7,000 years ago in Southeast Asia. It involved hybridizations between diverse species and subspecies, fostered by human migrations, and selection of diploid and triploid seedless, parthenocarpic hybrids thereafter widely dispersed by vegetative propagation. Half of the current production relies on somaclones derived from a single triploid genotype (Cavendish). Pests and diseases have gradually become adapted, representing an imminent danger for global banana production. Here we describe the draft sequence of the 523-megabase genome of a Musa acuminata doubled-haploid genotype, providing a crucial stepping-stone for genetic improvement of banana. We detected three rounds of whole-genome duplications in the Musa lineage, independently of those previously described in the Poales lineage and the one we detected in the Arecales lineage. This first monocotyledon high-continuity whole-genome sequence reported outside Poales represents an essential bridge for comparative genome analysis in plants. As such, it clarifies commelinid-monocotyledon phylogenetic relationships, reveals Poaceae-specific features and has led to the discovery of conserved non-coding sequences predating monocotyledon-eudicotyledon divergence.