A Novel Banana Mutant " RF 1" (Musa spp. ABB, Pisang Awak Subgroup) for Improved Agronomic Traits and Enhanced Cold Tolerance and Disease Resistance

Xiaoyi Wang; Anbang Wang; Yujia Li; Yi Xu; Qing Wei; Jiashui Wang; Fei Lin; Deyong Gong; Fei Liu; Yanting Wang; Liangcai Peng; Jingyang Li

doi:10.3389/fpls.2021.730718

A Novel Banana Mutant " RF 1" (Musa spp. ABB, Pisang Awak Subgroup) for Improved Agronomic Traits and Enhanced Cold Tolerance and Disease Resistance

Front Plant Sci. 2021 Sep 23:12:730718. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.730718. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Xiaoyi Wang¹, Anbang Wang¹, Yujia Li¹, Yi Xu¹, Qing Wei¹, Jiashui Wang¹, Fei Lin¹, Deyong Gong², Fei Liu³, Yanting Wang³, Liangcai Peng³, Jingyang Li^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Hainan Banana Healthy Seedling Propagation Engineering Research Center, Haikou Experimental Station, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, China.
² The Fruit Tree Research Center, Institute of Subtropical Crops, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinyi, China.
³ Biomass and Bioenergy Research Centre, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

Banana is a major fruit crop grown in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. Among cultivars, "FenJiao, FJ" (Musa spp. ABB, Pisang Awak subgroup) is a popular variety of bananas, due to its better sugar-acid blend and relatively small fruit shape. However, because the traditional FJ variety grows relatively high in height, it is vulnerable to lodging and unsuitable for harvesting. In this study, we sought desirable banana mutants by carrying out ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) mutagenesis with the FJ cultivar. After the FJ shoot tips had been treated with 0.8% (v/v) EMS for 4 h, we obtained a stably inherited mutant, here called "ReFen 1" (RF1), and also observed a semi-dwarfing phenotype. Compared with the wild type (FJ), this RF1 mutant featured consistently improved agronomic traits during 5-year field experiments conducted in three distinct locations in China. Notably, the RF1 plants showed significantly enhanced cold tolerance and Sigatoka disease resistance, mainly due to a substantially increased soluble content of sugar and greater starch accumulation along with reduced cellulose deposition. Therefore, this study not only demonstrated how a powerful genetic strategy can be used in fruit crop breeding but also provided insight into the identification of novel genes for agronomic trait improvement in bananas and beyond.

Keywords: Pisang Awak (ABB); agronomic traits; banana breeding; cold tolerance; ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS)-mutagenesis; semi-dwarfing; sigatoka disease resistance; “ReFen 1” mutant.