Cocoyam genomics: present status and future perspectives

Cocoyams (Colocasia esculenta and Xanthosoma sagittifolium) are functional food crops grown in many agroecologicalzones around the world. The crop is mostly cultivated by subsistence farmers and serves as food andsource of income for millions of people. Based on importance, it ranks third among the root and tuber cropsgrown in sub-Sahara Africa. Despite its cultural importance, world production and yield continue to dwindle. Inaddition to the several physiological and biological constraints contributing to production decline, cocoyamresearch is underfunded to the point of neglect. There is very little understanding of the complexities of cocoyamgenetics and its genome which has severely hampered conventional efforts at improving the crop. Compared tocrops like yam and cassava, cocoyam genomic research is limited. Despite this, over the years, moleculartechnologies have been applied in cocoyam research to develop molecular markers, genetic linkage maps,conduct functional genomic analysis and develop molecular diagnostic tools. Cocoyam transformation andtissue culture protocols have been developed for certain cocoyam varieties. These tools have provided a betterunderstanding of the crops origins, genetic diversity within available germplasm and the pathogens that affect it,rapid detection of major diseases, conservation and genetic improvement of complex traits including diseaseresistance and improved yields. With reducing costs in next-generation sequencing, further efforts need to bedirected towards funding genomic research that allows for novel gene discovery, molecular pathway analysis,genetic engineering and molecular breeding in non-model organisms like cocoyam.