Banana breeding

1. www.iita.orgA member of CGIAR consortium
Brigitte Uwimana
Postdoc Banana Breeder
IITA Uganda
Banana Breeding
in IITA
Ibadan, September 9, 2015

2. www.iita.orgA member of CGIAR consortium
On behalf of…

3. www.iita.orgA member of CGIAR consortium
• Banana: members of the genus Musa
• Categories: cooking, beer/juice, dessert,
ornamental and fiber bananas
• Banana breeding in IITA: important for Africa
– Matooke
– Mchare
– Plantains
Banana

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Constraints
Black SigatokaFusarium wilt Nematode Weevil
BXW
 Banana streak virus
 Banana bunchy top virus
 Drought

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Current
(t/ha)
Potential
(t/ha)
Matooke 5 to 30 70
Plantain 7.8 20
Yield potential

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Three types of banana in three locations
Arusha (Tanzania) Sendusu/Namulonge
(Uganda)
Ibadan (Nigeria)
Mchare: AA Matooke: AAA Plantains: AAB

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Breeding objectives
Arusha (Tanzania) Sendusu/Namulonge
(Uganda)
Ibadan (Nigeria)
Mchare Matooke Plantains
Yield Yield Yield
Earliness, plant stature Earliness, plant stature Earliness, plant stature
Quality Quality Quality
Fusarium wilt Black Sigatoka Black Sigatoka
Black Sigatoka Weevil Weevil
Nematode Nematode

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Three locations
Mchare: Northern Tanzania, Southern Kenya
Matooke: Eastern Africa (400-600 kg/person/year in Uganda)
Plantains: Central and Western Africa

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Arusha
• Irrigation is a must
• Possibility of drought experiments

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Arusha

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• Hosted by NM-AIST
• 12 ha of land
• Offices
• TC lab
• Molecular lab
TC lab ready in 1 week
Installation of an irrigation system required
Arusha: at NM-AIST
Free of charge

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Now:
• Started in 2012
• 1.5 ha for pollination
• 2 ha for germplasm maintenance
(collection, mapping populations, NARITAs)
• 0.5 ha for EET
• 0.2 ha for experiments
Arusha

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Sendusu/Namulonge

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Sendusu/Namulonge

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• Started 20 years ago
• Hosted by NARO
• 4 ha for pollination
• 4 ha for EETs
• 1 ha for PYTs
• 2 ha for GS (training population)
• 1 ha other (demonstration, heterosis)
Sendusu/Namulonge

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Ibadan

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• Re-started in 2012
• 2 ha
– Pollination
– Breeding collection
– EET
– other experiments
Ibadan

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Conventional breeding: slow and expensive
3x4x
2x
2x3x
10 – 17 years

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Conventional breeding: slow and expensive
Playing with ploidy
Parthenocarpy
Unpredictable seed production (3x)
Poor seed/embryo germination
Field Tissue culture
Screenhouse Field
First selection after 1-2 years
99.9% of the hybrids discarded in
EET
1 plant per 6 m2

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• QTL analysis in diploid populations
– Fusarium wilt
– Weevil
– Nematode
• Genomic selection
– Yield
– Agronomic traits
• GWAS
– Drought
– Parthenocarpy
Speeding up selection

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• Gene expression
– Drought, parthenocarpy
• Genomics
– Sequencing of matooke and plantain breeding
material (100 accessions each): AOCC, ICRAF
• Others
– Flower biology
– Vit.A and, vit. C, Potassium
– Chromosome doubling
– Heterosis
Speeding up selection

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• Data collected using tablets (Excel)
• Field Book app being tested in Ibadan
• Field note books for pollination
• Back-up done on computers every week
• Previous data on pollination digitalized
(Namulonge)
 Previous breeding data in Onne lost
 No efficient method of back-up (on-line)
 No BMS
 Musabase started
Data management

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Project title Budget Duration Source
CRP-RTB 67,000 2015 CRP-RTB
(W1/2)
CRP-RTB Complementary project 100,000 2015
(2015 –2016)
CRP-RTB
(W1/2)
CRP-A4NH 10,000 2015 CRP-A4NH
Improvement of banana for smallholder
farmers in the Great Lakes Region of
Africa
13 M 2014 - 2019 BMGF (W3)
Identification of pVAC-rich plantain
varieties, hybrids and orange-fleshed
diploids
96,000 2015
(2014 – 2017)
HarvestPlus
(W3)
Exchange of banana and plantain
varieties and hybrids between IITA and
EMBRAPA
78,000 2013 -2015 MarketPlace
(W3)
On-going projects

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• Rony Swennen: Senior Breeder (50%)
• Allan Brown: Breeder, Tanzania
• Brigitte Uwimana: Postdoc breeder, Uganda
• Delphine Amah: Regional breeding manager, Ibadan
Staff: breeders

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Staff
Arusha
(Tanzania)
Sendusu/Namulonge
(Uganda)
Ibadan (Nigeria)
Mchare Matooke Plantains
Research
supervisor/associ
ate
1 1 2
Field assistant 3 8 2
TC lab technician 2 2 1
Molec.
lab/cytogenetic
technician
1 - -
Driver - 0.5 -
PhD students 3 4 1

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• Genetic Resources Center
• Germplasm Health Unit
• Nutrition Lab
• Bioscience Center
George Mahuku: Pathology Danny Coyne: Nematology,
BMGF Project management
IITA collaborators

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Partners
NARS CGIAR
institutions
Adv. Research
Institutes
Private
NARO (Uganda):
Host, breeding,
genetic studies,
pests and diseases
Bioversity:
regional testing,
drought
EMBRAPA
(Brazil): breeding,
Foc
CBS (Arusha,
Tanzania): large
scale multiplication
ARI (Tanzania):
nematode
AOCC:
sequencing
IGD,
Cornell(USA):
genotyping
Crop Bioscience
(Kampala,
Uganda): large
scale multiplication
WAAPP – NCOS
(West Africa):
evaluation of
hybrids
BTI, Cornell
(USA): database
management
CIRAD:
dwarfness in
banana

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Partners (ctnd)
Universities
NM-AIST(Arusha, Tanzania): Host
Institute of Experimental Botany, Palacky University (Czech Republic):
GS studies
Stellenbosch University (South Africa): Foc
University of Queensland (Australia): Foc
University of the Free State (South Africa): Vit A
KU Leuven (Belgium): flower biology, drought
University of Malaya (Malaysia): Foc
SLU (Sweden): Nematode, weevil, heterosis
Royal Holloway University of London (UK): Metabolomics
Makerere University (Uganda): Flower biology

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Achievement: 27 NARITAs
NARITA 1
NARITA 5
NARITA 7
NARITA 19
3x 4x 3x
NARITA 17
Going for MET in Tanzania and Uganda in 2015

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Achievement: 27 NARITAs
NARITA 1
NARITA 5
NARITA 7
NARITA 19
NARITA 17
• 21 for cooking, 5 for juice
• All resistant to black Sigatoka
• Yield: 9 to 38 t/ha
• 20 significantly higher than Mbwazirume (11
t/ha)
Going for MET in Tanzania and Uganda in
2015

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• Yield increase up to 225%
• All resistant to black Sigatoka
• Short growth cycle
7 of them in MET in Ivory Cost, Comoros
and DRC
Achievement: 16 PITAs

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• First EETs in Arusha and Ibadan
• Chromosome doubling of 2x in Ibadan
First 4x in the field
4x x 2x crosses
Hybrids in EET
• Protocol for metabolomics optimized
Achievement

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• Complicated germplasm exchange
• Sendusu/Namulonge:
• TC, molecular, nematology labs all hosted
in one very small building
• No offices
Building in need of some work
Generator in need of servicing
Key constraints

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• Under-staffed
• Fencing of the fields
• Irrigation system: Arusha, Sendusu, Ibadan
• Germplasm identity
Bar-coding
• Data back-up and storage
• Unreliable internet
• Access to journals (Tanzania and Uganda)
• Maintenance of hybrids/mapping populations
Cryo-preservation
Key constraints

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• Breeding:
– New and superior lines developed in the three groups of
banana
– Nutritional quality: Vit A and C, Potassium
– Flower biology understood
– Heterotic parental combinations identified
– Chromosome doubling adopted in IITA East Africa and
NARO
• Pests and diseases:
– Efficient bioassays developed for fast screening
– Breeding material tested for resistance to major pests
and diseases
Future plans

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• Genetic and genomic studies
– GS models developed for yield and agronomic traits
– QTLs governing major traits identified (weevil, nematode,
Foc, BS, drought)
– MAS applied for those traits
– Diversity, chromosome structure
– Gene discovery
• Musabase functional
• NARITAs and PITAs tested and selected in MET
Future plans

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• IITA banana
breeding team
• IITA collaborators
• Partners
• W3 donors
• RTB
Acknowledgements