High-Throughput sequencing: A tool to curb banana diseases of quarantine importance

Abstract

The number of plant diseases of economic importance is rapidly growing, and their status is shifting from minor to major diseases. To restrict the transboundary spread of these diseases quarantine plays an important role. Many diseases that affect banana fall under either domestic or international quarantines. The use of High-Throughput sequencing (HTS) technology is transforming research and trying to address the problem of banana diseases. HTS tools are widely used in genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, and metagenomics. The main benefits of HTS that make it a promising tool for further research are its applicability, sensitivity, and ease of use when working with large genomic datasets. HTS has been widely used in the precise, rapid, and early detection of Fusarium wilt of banana, including TR4, Banana mosaic, and Moko disease of banana, etc. HTS tools like Illumina, PacBio, Oxford Nanopore, and MiSeq pyrosequencing have also been used in the evolutionary study of Ralstonia solanancearum phylotypes, Banana viral diseases, delineating the Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense TR4 (Foc TR4) race etiology in Panama wilt. Several studies showed the applicability of HTS tools in unravelling the mechanism of resistance, host specificity, and identification of resistance genes of banana diseases which helped in the development of integrated management strategies. This review will provide a close insight into the importance and application of HTS technology in various banana diseases of quarantine importance and the future scope of these tools to explore new possibilities of research to manage these diseases. © Koninklijke Nederlandse Planteziektenkundige Vereniging 2025.