| Bananas are one of the most important tropical fruit crops, and are monocotyledonous plants in the genus Musa of the family Musaceae. Globally, bananas are also the fourth most important staple food after rice, wheat, and maize. Cultivated bananas, comprising dessert and cooking types, are mostly triploids with complicated genetic background. Research on origin and domestication of cultivated bananas are essential for the success of breeding schemes. In recent years, great progress has been made in molecular phylogenetics and evolution of banana plants, providing valuable information to facilitate further uses in the design of breeding strategies. This review summarized the recent revision of the sectional taxonomy of the wild species, the common and widespread cultivated bananas and their characteristics as well, encompassing 18 cultivated types in 7 genomic groups. Moreover, we concluded the recent updates on the origins of the most important cultivated groups including AAA, AAB, ABB and AB, the evolutionary biology of wild M. acuminata subspecies and the existence of undefined ancestral genepools which both contributed to the diversity of the cultivated bananas. Besides, we prospect the future research to shed lights on the complex origins of the cultivated bananas. This review, to the authors' best knowledge, is the first to systematically summarize the recent advances in the origins and domestication of the cultivated bananas, which would contribute to seek elite germplasm or novel gene resources for Musa genetics and breeding. |
