Scope of collecting wild Musa species germplasm

Description

The value of Crop Wild Relatives as sources of new genes that can help secure crop production is increasingly recognized. In banana (Musa spp.), past collecting and conservation efforts focused mainly on the two direct ancestors of cultivated bananas, M. acuminata Colla and M. balbisiana Colla. However, more than 70 taxa of wild Musa species exist in the wild and hold through their diversity and the different habitats they occupy high capacity for adaptation. This chapter presents how much wild banana diversity has been underexplored in the past and how the clonal propagation of the banana crop has prevented the efficient collecting and conservation of wild Musa species. The change in focus from the collection of single clonal individuals to seed populations are presented and practical issues linked to collecting populations are discussed within the scope of wild Musa species reproductive biology.

Table of contents

1 Introduction 2 Genetic vulnerability of banana plantations 3 The importance of crop wild relatives 4 Which wild Musa species to collect 5 How to collect wild Musa species 6 Theoretical and practical issues in collecting wild bananas 7 On the importance of capturing passport data and making them publicly available 8 Conclusion 9 Where to look for further information 10 References