| Established | 2011 |
|---|---|
| Location | |
Membership | Global |
Parent organization | Coordinated by Bioversity International |
| Website | musanet |
MusaNet is a global network of scientists and other stakeholders working on banana (Musa spp.) genetic resources. Founded in 2011 and coordinated by Bioversity International, it has over 100 individual members representing various banana research institutes and organizations.
MusaNet aims to optimize the conservation and use of Musa genetic resources by coordinating and strengthening the conservation and related research efforts of a worldwide network of public and private sector stakeholders.
The vision of MusaNet is "a world in which Musa genetic diversity is valued, secured and supporting all life."
The mission of MusaNet is "To build upon existing strengths in the global, regional and national collections by bringing people to optimize the effort to conserve, add value and promote the use and safe distribution of a wide range of Musa genetic diversity as a foundation for further breeding or direct use by farmers."
MusaNet is committed to overseeing the further development and monitoring of the implementation of The Global Strategy for the Conservation and Use of Musa Genetic Resources (MusaNet 2016) [1] by meeting the following objectives:
Members of MusaNet belong to one or more of the five thematic research groups focused on the following subjects: Diversity, Conservation, Evaluation, Genomics and Information. Each of these thematic groups has elected a Chair and Co-chair to represent the group at monthly Expert Committee meetings and has developed objectives and a workplan for the next 10 years.
Also present in the Expert Committee are representatives of the four regional banana networks - BAPNET (Asia and the Pacific), BARNESA (Eastern and Southern Africa), Innovate Plantain (Western and Central Africa) and MUSALAC (Latin America and the Caribbean), which geographically cover all the banana producing countries. A representative from the information platform ProMusa is also present at the meetings.
Part of the Diversity Thematic Group, the Taxonomic Advisory Group (TAG) comprises 12 experts that work together on particular projects concerning banana taxonomy, such as developing morphological field descriptors and verifying the genetic integrity of banana germplasm.
Membership to MusaNet is based on individuals, not institutes, and is solicited by thematic group Chairs and Co-chairs. Members are active in banana genetic resources-related research with a commitment to fruitful collaboration and knowledge exchange.
There are more than 60 banana ex situ collections worldwide located mostly in banana producing countries. The majority of the collections are supported by national funding to conserve banana diversity and conduct related research. Detailed information of the collections can be found on the MusaNet website.
Projects in MusaNet are developed within and among the five thematic groups.
Some recent activities carried out by MusaNet members are:
The Musa Germplasm Information System (MGIS) [4] is closely linked with the Information Thematic Group activities. It contains accession-level information of germplasm held in many Musa collections.
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguishing them from dessert bananas. The fruit is variable in size, color, and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind, which may be green, yellow, red, purple, or brown when ripe. The fruits grow upward in clusters near the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible seedless (parthenocarp) bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of most cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, and Musa × paradisiaca for the hybrid Musa acuminata × M. balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific name for this hybrid, Musa sapientum, is no longer used.
A seed bank stores seeds to preserve genetic diversity; hence it is a type of gene bank. There are many reasons to store seeds. One is to preserve the genes that plant breeders need to increase yield, disease resistance, drought tolerance, nutritional quality, taste, etc. of crops. Another is to forestall loss of genetic diversity in rare or imperiled plant species in an effort to conserve biodiversity ex situ. Many plants that were used centuries ago by humans are used less frequently now; seed banks offer a way to preserve that historical and cultural value. Collections of seeds stored at constant low temperature and low moisture are guarded against loss of genetic resources that are otherwise maintained in situ or in field collections. These alternative "living" collections can be damaged by natural disasters, outbreaks of disease, or war. Seed banks are considered seed libraries, containing valuable information about evolved strategies to combat plant stress, and can be used to create genetically modified versions of existing seeds. The work of seed banks often span decades and even centuries. Most seed banks are publicly funded and seeds are usually available for research that benefits the public.
Ex situ conservation is the process of protecting an endangered species, variety or breed, of plant or animal outside its natural habitat. For example, by removing part of the population from a threatened habitat and placing it in a new location, an artificial environment which is similar to the natural habitat of the respective animal and within the care of humans, such as a zoological park or wildlife sanctuary. The degree to which humans control or modify the natural dynamics of the managed population varies widely, and this may include alteration of living environments, reproductive patterns, access to resources, and protection from predation and mortality.
In situ conservation is the on-site conservation or the conservation of genetic resources in natural populations of plant or animal species, such as forest genetic resources in natural populations of tree species. This process protects the inhabitants and ensures the sustainability of the environment and ecosystem.
Agricultural biodiversity or agrobiodiversity is a subset of general biodiversity pertaining to agriculture. It can be defined as "the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels that sustain the ecosystem structures, functions and processes in and around production systems, and that provide food and non-food agricultural products.” It is managed by farmers, pastoralists, fishers and forest dwellers, agrobiodiversity provides stability, adaptability and resilience and constitutes a key element of the livelihood strategies of rural communities throughout the world. Agrobiodiversity is central to sustainable food systems and sustainable diets. The use of agricultural biodiversity can contribute to food security, nutrition security, and livelihood security, and it is critical for climate adaptation and climate mitigation.
Germplasm are genetic resources such as seeds, tissues, and DNA sequences that are maintained for the purpose of animal and plant breeding, conservation efforts, agriculture, and other research uses. These resources may take the form of seed collections stored in seed banks, trees growing in nurseries, animal breeding lines maintained in animal breeding programs or gene banks. Germplasm collections can range from collections of wild species to elite, domesticated breeding lines that have undergone extensive human selection. Germplasm collection is important for the maintenance of biological diversity, food security, and conservation efforts.
Musa is one of three genera in the family Musaceae. The genus includes 83 species of flowering plants producing edible bananas and plantains. Though they grow as high as trees, banana and plantain plants are not woody and their apparent "stem" is made up of the bases of the huge leaf stalks. Thus, they are technically gigantic herbaceous plants. Musa species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the giant leopard moth and other Hypercompe species, including H. albescens, H. eridanus, and H. icasia.
Gene banks are a type of biorepository that preserves genetic material. For plants, this is done by in vitro storage, freezing cuttings from the plant, or stocking the seeds. For animals, this is done by the freezing of sperm and eggs in zoological freezers until further need. With corals, fragments are taken and stored in water tanks under controlled conditions. Genetic material in a 'gene bank' is preserved in a variety of ways, such as freezing at -196 °C in liquid nitrogen, being placed in artificial ecosystems, or put in controlled nutrient media.
The Crop Trust, officially known as the Global Crop Diversity Trust, is an international nonprofit organization with a secretariat in Bonn, Germany. Its mission is to conserve and make available the world's crop diversity for food security.
Bioversity International is a global research-for-development organization that delivers scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to use and safeguard agricultural biodiversity to attain global food- and nutrition security, working with partners in low-income countries in different regions where agricultural biodiversity can contribute to improved nutrition, resilience, productivity and climate change adaptation.
A crop wild relative (CWR) is a wild plant closely related to a domesticated plant. It may be a wild ancestor of the domesticated (cultivated) plant or another closely related taxon.
Crop diversity or crop biodiversity is the variety and variability of crops, plants used in agriculture, including their genetic and phenotypic characteristics. It is a subset of a specific element of agricultural biodiversity. Over the past 50 years, there has been a major decline in two components of crop diversity; genetic diversity within each crop and the number of species commonly grown.
Musa acuminata is a species of banana native to Southern Asia, its range comprising the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Many of the modern edible dessert bananas are from this species, although some are hybrids with Musa balbisiana. First cultivated by humans around 10 kya, it is one of the early examples of domesticated plants.
Forest genetic resources or foresttree genetic resources are genetic resources of forest shrub and tree species. Forest genetic resources are essential for forest-depending communities who rely for a substantial part of their livelihoods on timber and non-timber forest products for food security, domestic use and income generation. These resources are also the basis for large-scale wood production in planted forests to satisfy the worldwide need for timber and paper. Genetic resources of several important timber, fruit and other non-timber tree species are conserved ex situ in genebanks or maintained in field collections. Nevertheless, in situ conservation in forests and on farms is in the case of most tree species the most important measure to protect their genetic resources.
The World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg), previously known as the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC), is an international, nonprofit institute for vegetable research and development. It was founded in 1971 in Shanhua, southern Taiwan, by the Asian Development Bank, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United States and South Vietnam.
The U.S. National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) is a network of institutions and agencies led by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the effort to conserve and facilitate the use of the genetic diversity of agriculturally important plants and their wild relatives.
ProMusa was the name originally given to a global program on banana improvement set up by INIBAP in 1997. In 2007, it was restructured as a knowledge-sharing platform coordinated by Bioversity International. It was dissolved in 2021.
John Trevor Williams was a British plant geneticist who was instrumental in the creation of plant gene banks.
Plant genetic resources describe the variability within plants that comes from human and natural selection over millennia. Their intrinsic value mainly concerns agricultural crops.
