A Method to Predict Banana Pseudostem’s Strength at Seedling Stage

Banana industry played important roles in Chinese economics. Banana production was always affected heavily by typhoon. Selecting new cultivars with high strength was the basic way to resolve this problem. If the selecting work was performed at mature stage, it will need large area and much labor. If this work can be done at seedling stage, this process will be simplified significantly. We found that banana plants that had high strength at seedling stage always had high strength at mature stage. The physical strength of seedling pseudostem was closely related with pseudostem diameter, lignin content and the expression of 4-coumarate:CoA ligase gene Mu4CL15. Those seedlings whose pseudostem had bigger diameter, more lignin content and higher expression of Mu4CL15 always had higher strength to resist lodging. Through screening plants whose pseudostem had bigger diameter, more lignin content and higher expression of Mu4CL15, plants with high-strength pseudostem can be selected. Using this method, thousands of seedlings can be identified in short time. This process does not need large area and much labor. If this method was applied, the process of breeding new cultivars of banana with high resistance to lodging will be accelerated.