The bananas we eat are under threat of extinction due to a disease known as Fusarium wilt. (Image credit: RHJ via Getty Images)
A new study has led scientists to make significant progress in the fight to save the world's bananas from a devastating disease that threatens their existence.
The bananas known as Cavendish are threatened with extinction by Fusarium wilt, a disease that has already wiped out other banana varieties and severely impacted their production in the 1950s.
However, a new study has found that the strain of the disease threatening bananas today is not a descendant of the strain that caused widespread damage in the 20th century, and there may be ways to control its spread.
The findings, published Friday (August 16) in the journal Nature Microbiology, could help prevent a looming “banana apocalypse,” the University of Massachusetts Amherst said in a statement.
“The banana we eat today is different from the banana your grandparents ate,” said senior study author Li-Jun Ma, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “Old banana varieties like Gros Michel almost disappeared after the first fusarium outbreak in the 1950s.”
There are many species of wild bananas, and we cultivate different varieties. Today, the most common banana in stores is the Cavendish, a species of Musa acuminata. According to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the UK, this variety accounts for almost all of the world's banana exports.
Banana plant affected by Fusarium wilt.
The Cavendish was bred to be resistant to a strain of Fusarium wilt that had wiped out the Gros Michel banana. However, a new outbreak of the disease hit the Cavendish in the 1990s, and the variety has been under threat ever since. Like bananas themselves, Fusarium wilt has many variants, each affecting different plant species, the statement said.
When scientists analyzed 36 strains of Fusarium from around the world, they found that the one causing the current outbreak uses genes that produce fungal nitric oxide to attack hosts. The team doesn’t know exactly how these genes help infect Cavendish bananas. However, they did find that the disease’s virulence — its ability to harm its host — was reduced when the genes were eliminated.
Sourse: www.livescience.com
