Banana chromosomes coloured by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). © IEB

• Characterizing Musa diversity. A global initiative is in place to harmonize Musa taxonomy for use by the banana research community. In turn, this will help curators make decisions regarding the rationalization of their own collection. The data generated by the field verification and molecular characterization of the accessions at the International Transit Centre (ITC) will serve as a reference to collections worldwide.

• Updating the Musa Germplasm Information System. The Musa Germplasm Information System (MGIS) is a database that contains detailed and standardized information on Musa accessions stored in a range of genebanks around the world. Centralizing the data facilitates the identification of duplicates and unique accessions as well as gaps, in addition to highlighting classification problems.

• Coordinating the Global Musa Genomics Consortium. The Consortium encourages regular exchange of information between its members, facilitates the development of an Internet-based platform linking databases and assists the management committee in organizing meetings, approaching potential donors and recruiting new partners. The products generated from these activities are kept at the Global Musa Genome Resources Center in the Czech Republic, and made available to researchers through material transfer agreements.

• Assessing the value of wild and cultivated diversity. The existing diversity of wild and cultivated Musa presents traits that could potentially be valuable to a range of users, but which have not been systematically assessed. In a first step to address this caveat, Bioversity is leading a project to evaluate Musa cultivars for provitamin A carotenoids in the framework of the HarvestPlus Challenge Programme to address human micronutrient deficiencies.