Screening of Triploid Banana Population Under Natural and Controlled Black Sigatoka Disease for Genomic Selection.

Black sigatoka disease (BSD) is the most important foliar threat in banana production, and breeding efforts against it should take advantage of genomic selection (GS), which has become one of the most explored tools to increase genetic gain, save time, and reduce selection costs. To evaluate the potential of GS in banana for BSD, 210 triploid accessions were obtained from the African Banana and Plantain Research Center to constitute a training population. The variability in the population was assessed at the phenotypic level using BSD- and agronomic-related traits and at the molecular level using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).

Georeferenced phylogenetic analysis of a global collection of wild and cultivated species.

The geographical origin of watermelon () remains debated. While a first hypothesis suggests the center of origin to be West Africa, where the endemic sister species thrives, a second hypothesis suggests northeastern Africa where the white-fleshed Sudanese Kordophan melon is cultivated. In this study, we infer biogeographical and haplotype genealogy for , and using noncoding cpDNA sequences (T-L and F32 regions) from a global collection of 135 accessions.