title: Insights into the Musa genome: syntenic relationships to rice and between Musa species.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Musa species (Zingiberaceae, Zingiberales) including bananas and plantains are collectively the fourth most important crop in developing countries. Knowledge concerning Musa genome structure and the origin of distinct cultivars has greatly increased over the last few years. Until now, however, no large-scale analyses of Musa genomic sequence have been conducted. This study compares genomic sequence in two Musa species with orthologous regions in the rice genome.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We produced 1.4 Mb of Musa sequence from 13 BAC clones, annotated and analyzed them along with 4 previously sequenced BACs. The 443 predicted genes revealed that Zingiberales genes share GC content and distribution characteristics with eudicot and Poaceae genomes. Comparison with rice revealed microsynteny regions that have persisted since the divergence of the Commelinid orders Poales and Zingiberales at least 117 Mya. The previously hypothesized large-scale duplication event in the common ancestor of major cereal lineages within the Poaceae was verified. The divergence time distributions for Musa-Zingiber (Zingiberaceae, Zingiberales) orthologs and paralogs provide strong evidence for a large-scale duplication event in the Musa lineage after its divergence from the Zingiberaceae approximately 61 Mya. Comparisons of genomic regions from M. acuminata and M. balbisiana revealed highly conserved genome structure, and indicated that these genomes diverged circa 4.6 Mya.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results point to the utility of comparative analyses between distantly-related monocot species such as rice and Musa for improving our understanding of monocot genome evolution. Sequencing the genome of M. acuminata would provide a strong foundation for comparative genomics in the monocots. In addition a genome sequence would aid genomic and genetic analyses of cultivated Musa polyploid genotypes in research aimed at localizing and cloning genes controlling important agronomic traits for breeding purposes.
authors.affiliation: French Agricultural Research Center for International Development, UMR 1096, Avenue Agropolis, TA40/03, FR-34398, Montpellier, Cedex 5, France. magali.lescot@igs.cnrs-mrs.fr
authors.forename: Magali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lescot
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Piffanelli
authors.forename: Ana Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Ciampi
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ruiz
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Blanc
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leebens-Mack
authors.forename: Felipe R
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: Candice M R
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Angélique
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: D'Hont
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Garsmeur
authors.forename: Alberto D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Vilarinhos
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kanamori
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Catherine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Ronning
authors.forename: Foo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cheung
authors.forename: Brian J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Haas
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Althoff
authors.forename: Tammy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Arbogast
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hine
authors.forename: Georgios J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Pappas
authors.forename: Takuji
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Manoel T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.forename: Robert N G
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Jean-Christophe
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Glaszmann
authors.forename: Christopher D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Town
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics; D001482:Base Composition; D022202:Chromosomes, Artificial, Bacterial; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D020440:Gene Duplication; D017343:Genes, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D018745:Genome, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D028521:Musa / Q000145:classification* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D012275:Oryza / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics; D045868:Sorghum / Q000235:genetics; D013045:Species Specificity; D026801:Synteny / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D018076:DNA, Complementary