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Source: "The Evolution of The Banana, Star of The Western Fruit Bowl" by Rosie Mestel

The genome of the banana was recently sequenced, revealing some interesting evolutionary features of the banana. The banana genome contains duplicated sections that are shared with other unrelated plant species, as well as remnants of virus DNA. Notably, the banana genome has duplicated its entire set of chromosomes three times, including two duplications around 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs went extinct. Scientists believe these duplications provided genetic stability and adaptability during periods of climate change. The modern banana was formed through hybridization and polyploidization of wild banana species in Southeast Asia over thousands of years.

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75 views2 pages

Source: "The Evolution of The Banana, Star of The Western Fruit Bowl" by Rosie Mestel

The genome of the banana was recently sequenced, revealing some interesting evolutionary features of the banana. The banana genome contains duplicated sections that are shared with other unrelated plant species, as well as remnants of virus DNA. Notably, the banana genome has duplicated its entire set of chromosomes three times, including two duplications around 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs went extinct. Scientists believe these duplications provided genetic stability and adaptability during periods of climate change. The modern banana was formed through hybridization and polyploidization of wild banana species in Southeast Asia over thousands of years.

Uploaded by

Marija Jovanović
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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"The evolution of the banana, star of the Western fruit bowl" By Rosie Mestel

Source
Did you hear? The genome of the banana has been sequenced, an important
development in scientist's efforts to produce better bananas.

A look at that genome has revealed curious things, said Pat Heslop-Harrison, a
plant geneticist at the University of Leicester in England who was a coauthor of
the report published this week in the journal Nature.

For example, there are regions of the banana genome that don't seem to be
involved in making proteins but are shared by many different species of plants,
far beyond bananas. What, he wonders, are they doing?

There are remnants of bits of banana streak virus spliced into the banana
genome (too broken-up to cause disease, however).

There are whole sets of DNA repeats that plants normally have but bananas do
not. And, intriguingly, three times since this genus of giant herbs took an
evolutionary turn away from its relatives -- the grasses -- it has duplicated its
entire set of chromosomes.

Two of the doublings took place at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary 65 million


years ago, back when the dinosaurs and lots of other species went extinct,
Heslop-Harrison noted.

Duplications like this are known to have happened in other plant groups at this
same time but haven't occurred since, Heslop-Harrison said. Scientists don't
know why, but they believe having extra copies of genes may have imparted
some stability to plants during a time of rapid climate change after an asteroid hit
Earth.

Having more than one gene of each type means that if one gene of a set loses
function, the plant still has another one that works. And there's more room for
adaptability to new circumstances, because one gene could be altered and co-
opted for new purposes and there would still be the other one left to perform the
original job.

"Perhaps it's the reason [bananas have] done so well in the subsequent millions
of years," Heslop-Harrison said. "One can ask, will changes occurring in the
world's climate now mean there's going to be a whole set of new genome
duplications that will enable plants to survive? We don't know that, but it's
interesting to consider."
The banana genome sequenced by the French scientists was from the Pahang,
a wild Malaysian banana of the species Musa acuminata. It's a key species in the
complicated evolution of the bananas and plantains people eat around the world,
including the Cavendish banana that we buy at the supermarket.

The sterile Cavendish is a so-called triploid: It has three sets of chromosomes


instead of the normal two. One of those genomes came from Pahang. The others
came from other subspecies of Musa acuminata.

The changes occurred stepwise, and went something like this:


Thousands of years ago, two wild banana species from different parts of the
islands of Southeast Asia were brought into the same range by people. They
formed hybrids. A bit like mules, the hybrids were vigorous but fairly sterile.
The hybrids were kept going without sex through propagation of their shoots.
At some point, the hybrids developed the ability to set fruit without being
fertilized.
Then (for most bananas, including the Cavendish) came another chance event
that caused the hybrids to end up with three sets of chromosomes. Every now
and again, the few viable eggs and pollen that they made would mistakenly
contain two sets of chromosomes instead of just one.

When a double-chromosome pollen combined with a single-chromosome egg (or


vice versa), the result was a hopelessly sterile plant with even more vigorous
fruit.

Events like this happened more than once and sometimes included other types
of ancestral banana species.

Some scientists, in fact, have made a whole study of banana domestication and
movement around the world. They've pieced the story together using quite
different strands of information, including the genomes of wild and cultivated
bananas, the microscopic relics of banana leaf material found at archaeological
sites, and even the word for "banana" in different languages.

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