Genomics of Pineapple, Crowning The King of Tropical Fruits

Abstract

Pineapple [Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.] is the third most important tropical fruit in world production after banana and citrus. Nevertheless, and despite its commercial importance, very little genomics research has been performed in this crop. Development of molecular markers has been reported recently to study genetic relationships among the different Ananas species and with other members of the Bromeliaceae family. Results from those studies suggest that the existing classification of the seven Ananas species needs to be reconsidered.A basic pineap- ple genetic map is available, although it needs to be developed with the addition of additionalmarkers.Medium scale expressed sequence tag (EST) projects have been undertaken using developing fruits and nematode-infested roots as tissue sources. A bioinformatic resource providing sequence and functional information on all EST clones has been developed. Finally, pineapple microarrays containing in excess of 9,000 EST clones have been produced.Although research in pineapple genomics is taking momentum,muchmore is needed before the tools developed can be used for the benefit of the industry.An international collaborative effort to develop additional molecularmarkers and perhaps a genome sequencing initiative is needed.