PAG Asia 2013

March 17 - 19, 2013

Banana Genomics for food security and biofortification

Banana is apart from the world’s favorite fruit a staple crop to millions of people throughout the tropics. All edible bananas are seedless and usually have triploid genomes, which significantly complicates conventional breeding. Cultivated bananas include desert bananas (AAA), cooking bananas (AAA or ABB) and plantain (AAB) that have narrow genetic bases and the vast majority of current domesticated bananas has not been genetically improved. They are therefore prone to a wide variety of pests and diseases, including Panama disease that caused an iconic epidemic in Latin America in the previous century and currently threatens the crop and all its diversity in South-East Asia. As the fourth most important food crop, biofortification with provitamin A and microelements is an important strategy to prevent micronutrient deficiencies such as vitamin A deficiency and iron deficiency anemia. This workshop brings the latest on strategies to cope with these problems and sustain banana production.