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Genetic engineering in Banana and Plantain

Sivalingam Elayabalan and Kalaiponmani Kalaimughilan

Bananas are one among the world’s leading food crops, after rice, wheat and maize. Almost ninety percent of production is consumed in the production areas, especially in the poorest countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. In certain regions, pureed banana is the first solid food given to infants. Bananas contribute to reducing food insecurity in producer country populations. Their composition, which includes high carbohydrates and minerals, makes them a staple calorie resource for over 500 million inhabitants of tropical countries. Considering the nutrition aspect, it is the world’s leading fruit crop, and in terms of economical value it is ranked as fifth economically important agricultural crop in world trade. In the global production of banana India contributes 29.19% as leading country.

Bananas face numerous environmental challenges, particularly with fungal, bacterial as well as the major threatening disease like banana bunchy top virus. The problem is further aggravated by the limited diversity of banana cultivars around the world. Conventional breeding methods have limited success due to low female fertility, sterility, ploidy levels and poor seed set, besides the process is time consuming. These problems point to the necessity of developing alternate strategies for banana improvement through advancement of biotechnology tools like tissue culture and transgenic technology to improve the bananas. In this regard I will be discussing the current status of Banana improvement using biotechnology and future prospects.