Identifying new resistance genes for Panama Tropical Race 4 (BA21000)
What's it all about?
This investment is identifying new genetic material associated with Panama Tropical Race 4 resistance with the aim of developing a range of molecular markers to support plant breeding research for Australian banana growers.
Molecular marker-assisted selection is used in breeding programs to allow genotypic selection at early generations, reducing the amount of phenotyping required. In a banana breeding program, this will reduce labour and workload to improve screening efficiency and will also reduce the space and time requirements that typically constrain widescale pathogen screening.
The molecular markers generated through this program will be used to screen germplasm in international breeding programs to identify lines and varieties with enhanced resistance to Fusarium wilt, for ultimate use by Australian banana growers.
During this milestone period, two key research activities have been achieved to contribute to the development of genetic resources to identify additional sources of Fusarium resistance from germplasm:
- 278 F2 seeds have been obtained from susceptible Malaccensis plant and the FW resistant line Calcutta 4.
- 109 plants in tissue culture had embryo culture and multiplication performed on them.
This project is a strategic levy investment in the Hort Innovation Banana Fund