Combating Fusarium wilt of banana by developing cultivars with resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4

Fusarium wilt is seriously threatening the sustainable development of the banana industry in China. Breeding resistant cultivars is the only viable strategy to manage this disease. An evaluation system based on rhizome discoloration during infection was used to evaluate the resistance levels of 48 cultivars and wild species. Six East African highland banana cultivars were confirmed to be highly resistant to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 (Foc TR4). Physical and chemical mutagenesis breeding pipelines were established, where 39 progenies with moderate resistance or tolerance to Foc TR4 were selected. Moreover, our research group also developed CRISPR/Cas9 mediated gene editing technology for banana. Albino plants were obtained from target gene MaPDS editing, and some candidate susceptibility genes in transcriptome data are now being investigated. Several resistant cultivars bred by our group have been planted widely in the growing regions where Fusarium wilt is a serious constraint, which can effectively alleviate the economic losses caused by this disease.