The most common banana is endangered due to a fungus

You may soon have nothing but a smile on your face in the morning. Because the future of your breakfast banana is far from guaranteed. Market economics website Insider is sounding the alarm. There are more than 1,000 varieties of bananas in the world, but approximately 47% of bananas consumed by humans are Cavendish bananas (Musa acuminata, its scientific name). And the latter is in particular danger, according to scientists.

Every year, people around the world eat more than 100 billion bananas. This fruit, so prized by our fellow humans, is under threat from a fungus that could wipe out Cavendish bananas from the face of the Earth. This fungal disease causes plants to wilt by affecting their vascular system and reducing the amount of water they absorb from the soil. The infection was named Panama disease tropical race 4 (TR4).

The infection, otherwise called “TR4”, begins in the roots of the banana plant and then spreads, gradually destroying the plant’s ability to absorb water and carry out photosynthesis. Until the tree dies. This is a variant of an old disease that affected banana plants in the 1950s. This predecessor, called “tropical race 1”, began infecting bananas in 1876. Michel” was still the most popular, which forced banana growers around the world to look for a new variety. Gros Michel was “the main export banana of the first half of the last century,” James Dale, professor and director of the banana biotechnology program at Queensland University of Technology, reminds Insider.

Will history repeat itself?

The Cavendish banana was introduced in 1947 when banana plantations began to wither to correct the planned end of the Gros Michel. But now history is repeating itself almost 80 years later.

To avoid this, scientists have been working for several years. Several teams are working to develop a TR4-resistant Cavendish variety or a replacement variety, developing a genetically modified version of ‘Cavendish’.

This is possible thanks to CRISPR-Cas9, a precise technique that allows scientists to modify and remove sections of DNA, allowing the fungal disease to be completely eradicated, as New Scientist explained. A team of researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is also developing a genetically modified Cavendish banana variety called QCAV-4. QCAV-4 bananas have been grown in Australia’s Northern Territory for over six years and have proven highly resistant to Panama disease (TR4).

Rescue of the Cavendish

But these are not the only solutions. Another research group, led by scientists from the University of Cambridge, is studying grafting as a possible solution to saving the Cavendish banana.

Another group from the Taiwan Banana Research Institute is trying to use a form of natural selection. The researchers took Cavendish plants and exposed them to TR4. A small portion of the seedlings that perform best are then subjected to additional experiments to eventually help the Cavendish develop and become resistant to TR4 without genetic modification. “The disease progresses slowly, so we have at least ten years before its consequences become radical,” the Australian scientist told the specialist journal.

According to James Dale, the real solution is to mass produce and sell more than one variety of banana, since the more genetically diverse bananas are, the less likely they are to be susceptible to disease, he said. A solution that could also have economic benefits. “Apples are a perfect example. Today, if I go into any supermarket in the United States, I will find from five to 30 varieties of apples,” analyzes journalist Dan Koppel, author of the book “Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World.”

This reduces the risk of disease, offers consumers more variety and, as a result, “apple growers make a lot more money from it,” he added. However, there are fewer varieties of bananas, and it is not certain that consumers will rediscover the taste of their favorite banana.