In an article entitled, “The banana (Musa acuminata) genome and the evolution of monocotyledonous plants,” published online on the 11th July issue of Nature, Angélique D’Hont and 63 associates belonging to 17 transcontinental institutes have described the most elaborate genomic picture of bananas ever made and have shown its genomic relationships with the remaining monocotyledons. The authors have discovered that in the
evolutionary history of banana three rounds of whole genome duplication had taken place. In this article they have described the draft sequence of the 523-megabase (one megabase is equal to 1 million nucleotides and roughly equal to 1 cM genome) of a Musa acuminata doubled-haploid genotype. Equipped with this knowledge the banana breeders
through a consortium may be able to bring about considerable improvement in taste, disease- such as Fusarium wilt (most destructive banana diseases in recorded history) and pest resistance and longer shelf life etc.