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

香蕉是一种大型多年生草本植物，其形状与相关的香蕉相似。它分布在非洲中部、东部和南部，是香蕉（Musaceae）家族的一种作物，目前仅在埃塞俄比亚就为约2000万人提供了食物来源，其球茎和茎基提供膳食淀粉。它还提供纤维、药品、动物饲料（蜜蜂的主要食物来源），具有重要的文化意义，并能稳定土壤。作为未来的气候智能型作物，恩斯特可能非常重要，因为它明显能够承受长时间（50 - 50年）的干旱。然而，目前对其生物学知之甚少，包括野生和栽培形式的遗传变异，其结果生物学，土壤真菌关联或抵御病虫害的能力。我们寻求促进enset作为膳食淀粉的来源，以四种主要方式建立英国/非洲合作研究优势：1)收集其在埃塞俄比亚分布的一系列数据，包括enset的物理特征，以及每个采样地区的当地气候和土壤信息以及农民访谈数据。然后，这将用于通过计算机模型创建一个数据资源，该数据资源将产生理解，以支持育种、粮食安全和产品供应以及加强政府对这种作物的政策。2)在田间研究菊科植物，以便充分了解其开花、结果和种子的生产情况，以协助制定育种计划。3)揭示香蕉家族的基因组，特别是enset，以了解总体多样性模式，并发现与开花、抗病、根和球茎发育等理想特征相关的基因。4)实地调查致病生物的发生情况，发现不易受影响的种群和品种，以便在国内种子库和活植物收藏中进行遗传研究和保存，并显示其他有用性状。这些研究活动将有助于改善粮食供应安全，并有助于规划和培育能够抵御气候变化和疾病的品种。它们将防止玉米等全球性作物取代玉米，从而减少农业和饮食的多样性。它将作为一种医药产品的来源而受到保护，并且有可能在非洲作为食品、生物燃料或工业淀粉的来源得到更广泛的种植。在化肥和农药方面，它已经是一种低投入的作物，研究可以使它更低。我们还计划解锁野生形式的价值，作为关键性状和基因的来源，这些基因支撑着它们繁殖成栽培植物，如抗旱性或形成吸盘，这样植物就可以进行营养划分。我们计划开展的研究将有助于英国和国际社会履行联合国可持续发展目标规定的义务。最重要的是，该项目将通过组织培养方法和识别（从而帮助治疗）疾病或去除病株的方法，提供无病种植材料，在五年内支持人们生活水平的提高。

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.