Unlocking the banana pangenome: harnessing genetic diversity

Abstract

This research provides a comprehensive exploration of the banana pangenome, aiming to enhance sustainable cultivation and resilience against diseases like Fusarium Tropical Race 4 and Black Sigatoka. Using KeyGene’s expertise in generating long-read data in combination with our data science capabilities, we reveal an extensive perspective on banana genetic diversity. Our unique approach leverages the untapped genetic diversity in the wild, initiated through a strategic alliance with Yelloway, the banana breeding company. Using long and highly accurate duplex data, Pore-C, and reference-based scaffolding, we now report on the generation of phased T2T reference genomes of diploid accessions, representing four subspecies. In addition, we generated draft reference genomes of another 50 accessions. Combined with publicly available reference genomes, this harnesses for the first time an extensive banana pangenome, enriching our understanding of genomic diversity for banana accessions. Our advanced data science capabilities and KeyPan tools facilitated genome comparison within ~60 accessions, enabling identification of genomic loci for disease resistance and other desirable characteristics. This milestone in banana breeding, along with our refined variation calling methods, serves as a crucial resource for marker development, gene discovery, and data visualization using CropPedia®. We anticipate that these technologies and our integrative approach will drive a paradigm shift in banana breeding, bringing a future with more resilient and sustainable banana cultivars.

Biography

Alexander Wittenberg is a Genomics Scientist at KeyGene, where he is currently responsible for scouting new genomics technologies and is involved in the development of innovative sequence-based technologies within KeyGene’s Genome Insights crop innovation platform. He also works closely with R&D and business development departments within KeyGene to translate these technologies to the market for KeyGene’s partners.