Drought is a major abiotic stress affecting banana production worldwide, leading to yield losses of up to 65%. Consequently, numerous efforts to understand and mitigate drought effects that include developing tolerant crop varieties are ongoing in several banana breeding programmes. The breeding efforts, however, have been greatly slowed down by inherent banana problems (polyploidy and male or female sterility) and complexity of drought tolerance (reportedly controlled by several genes). This review summarizes the pertinent research findings on water requirements of banana for its proper growth and productivity, symptoms of drought‐sensitive varieties and field management strategies to cope with drought stress. The coping strategies deployed by resistant cultivars include high assimilation rates and water retention capacity as well as minor losses in leaf area and gaseous exchange. Reduced bunch weight, leaf chlorosis, wilting and strangled birth are underlined to be directly associated with drought susceptibility. Integration of conventional, molecular breeding and biotechnological tools as well as exploitation of the existing banana genetic diversity presents a huge opportunity for successful banana improvement.

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香蕉（Musa spp。）的抗旱性研究进展

干旱是影响全世界香蕉生产的主要非生物胁迫，导致单产损失高达65％。因此，在一些香蕉育种计划中，人们正在进行许多努力来理解和减轻干旱的影响，包括发展耐性作物品种。但是，由于固有的香蕉问题（多倍性和雄性或雌性不育）和耐旱性的复杂性（据报道受几个基因控制），育种工作已大大减慢。这篇综述总结了有关香蕉适当生长和生产力所需水分，干旱敏感品种的症状以及应对干旱胁迫的田间管理策略的相关研究发现。抗性品种采用的应对策略包括高同化率和保水能力，以及叶片面积和气体交换的较小损失。强调减轻束重，叶片萎黄，萎和扼杀出生与干旱敏感性直接相关。常规，分子育种和生物技术工具的整合以及对现有香蕉遗传多样性的利用为成功改良香蕉提供了巨大的机会。