Researchers have made a significant breakthrough in the fight to save the world’s bananas from a potentially devastating disease, according to a recent study.
The bananas we typically eat, known as Cavendish bananas, are currently under threat from a disease called fusarium wilt.
This disease has already wiped out other types of bananas and caused major damage to banana production in the 1950s.
The team’s findings, published Friday (Aug. 16) in the journal Nature Microbiology, could help avert an impending “banana apocalypse,” according to a statement from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“The kind of banana we eat today is not the same as the one your grandparents ate,” study senior author Li-Jun Ma, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said in the statement.
“Those old ones, the Gros Michel bananas, are functionally extinct, victims of the first Fusarium outbreak in the 1950s.”
Most of the world’s banana exports come from the Cavendish variety, which was originally bred to resist that old strain of fusarium wilt.
However, a new strain emerged in the 1990s, and it has been a threat ever since. This new strain uses genes that produce something called fungal nitric oxide to attack banana plants.
Interestingly, the researchers found that when these genes were removed, the disease became less harmful, which could be a clue to stopping it.
But while this research is promising, Ma warns that the real issue is monocropping—growing the same crop year after year. As long as we rely on just one type of banana, they’ll be at risk.
Ma suggests mixing it up a bit: “Next time you’re shopping for bananas, try some different varieties that might be available in your local specialty foods store.”
So, if you want to help save bananas, maybe start by taking a walk on the wild banana side and expand your fruit horizons.