Bananas have long been threatened by a pathogenic fungus that could lead to their disappearance, but recently a quality has been discovered that can resist this killer bacterium that destroys all plantations.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himBananas have long been threatened by a pathogenic fungus which could lead to their demise, but a quality has recently been discovered that can resist this killer bacterium that destroys all plantations.
Already a year ago, we told you about the danger of the exotic fruit par excellence, if everyone agrees that bananas are economic and they are found all over the world, few know that within a decade, we will not be able to eat them anymore.
The plants are facing a disease called Panama Disease Tropical Race 4 (TR4) that originated in South Asia and Australia, but has also spread rapidly to Africa and the Middle East.
It happens that when the TR4 reaches a plantation, there is nothing left to do because of the disease it is contagious and difficult to stem. Infected banana trees are cut down and so are the plantations decimated.
Panama disease had been studied by researchers at the University of California at Davis who had analyzed the genome of the parasites that have become in recent years, they are much more aggressive.
The advance of this and other diseases, therefore, is bringing an industry of 100 million tons a year to its knees. To make matters worse, Cavendish bananas, the most common ones, all come from the same original plant and are basically clones with the same genome, which makes it easier for pests to attack.
But now experts have discovered a new species of banana, the Musa Acuminata which would be immune to TR4. In this sense, a project has been undertaken to identify the genes that help this species to resist the disease and then insert them into the Cavendish species.
The experiments paid off and the procedure could soon be used to grow bananas that are resistant to the killer bacterium. Doing so could prevent the Cavendish from doing the same fate as the Gros michel disappeared in the XNUMXs from another strain of disease.
Banana ranks fourth as the world's staple food, with 140 million tons of fruit produced annually in subtropical and tropical regions.
We talked about the killer fungus that destroys bananas here:
- BANANAS ARE RISK OF EXTINGUISHING WITHIN 10 YEARS DUE TO A MUSHROOM
- BANANAS IN RISK OF EXTINCTION DUE TO A PEST KILLER?
There seems to be a glimmer of light, but the goal now is to find an affordable way on a global scale to make the experimental project a reality, without resorting to intensive farming.
Dominella Trunfio
