Modelling and genomics resources to enhance exploitation of the sustainable and diverse Ethiopian starch crop Enset and support livelihoods

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Enset is a large perennial herbaceous plant similar in form to the related banana. It is distributed across central, eastern and southern Africa, a crop in the banana (Musaceae) family, and currently provides a food source for ~20 million people in Ethiopia alone via its corm and stem base supplying dietary starch. It also supplies fibres, medicines, animal fodder, a key food source for bees, is culturally significant and stabilises soils. Enset is potentially very important as a climate-smart crop for the future because of its apparent ability to withstand long periods (>5 years) of drought. However, little is currently known about its biology, including the genetic variation of both wild and cultivated forms, its fruiting biology, soil fungal associations or ability to withstand pests and diseases. We seek to promote enset as a source of dietary starch build collaborative UK/African research strengths in four principal ways:1) Gathering a range of data from across its distribution in Ethiopia including the physical traits of enset alongside information about the local climate and soil in each area sampled and data from farmer interviews. This will then be used to create a data resource via computer models that will generate the understanding to underpin breeding, food security and supply of products and enhanced government policy in this crop.2) Studying enset in the field so that its flowering, fruiting and seed production is fully understood to assist in developing a breeding programme.3) Unravelling the genome of the banana family, and especially enset, to understand overall diversity patterns and discovering the genes associated desirable characteristics such as control of flowering, disease resistance and root and corm development.4) Surveying the occurrence of disease-causing organisms in the field to discover non-susceptible populations and varieties for genetic study and conservation at in-country seed banks and living plant collections with those displaying other useful traits.These research activities will help improve security of food supply and help to plan for and breed varieties that can withstand climate change and disease. They will prevent enset being supplanted by a global crop such as maize, reducing the diversity of both agriculture and diets. It will be protected as a source of pharmaceutical products and potentially could be more widely grown in Africa as a source of starch for food, biofuel or industry. It is already a low input crop in terms of fertilisers and pesticides and research can make it lower still. We also plan to unlock the value of wild forms as sources of key traits and the genes that underpin them for breeding into cultivated plants such as drought resistance or formation of suckers so plants can be divided vegetatively. The research we plan to undertake helps the UK and the global community to meet its obligations under the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Most importantly, the project will support improvement of people's standards of living within five years by providing disease free planting material through tissue culture methods and methods to identify (and therefore help treat) diseases or remove diseased plants.