If we ’re not careful , the banana could suffer the same fate as the fogey . Recent estimates presage that the spherical banana industry could meet a total collapse in as little as 5 year metre due to a thin-skinned fungal disease . But there is some hope – genetic scientist have been tirelessly act upon on the problem in a bid to understand this fungus and economise the menial banana tree from ruin .
The banana ’s plight staunch from three variant of Sigatoka fungous disease , which destroys the banana works ’s leave of absence and can rend through whole plantations . It ’s advancing at such a rate , the globular banana industry could be squash in 5 to 10 days clip if the state of affairs stay on the same .
The most common variety of banana you ’ll find in the grocery memory is the Cavendish banana . Unlike many plants , they ’re maturate from shoot cutting of other bananas , not source . This imply that all Cavendish bananas are clone that have the same genotype . Therefore , they all share the exact same susceptibility to diseases , allowing them to spread like wildfire .
luckily , scientists fromUniversity of California , Davis , might have warded off the “ banana armageddon ” by examine the genetic science of the fungi . Their findings are published in the on-line journalPLOS Genetics .
“ We have evidence that two of the three most serious banana tree fungal disease have become more virulent by increasing their power to manipulate the banana ’s metabolic tract and make use of its nutrients,”saidlead investigator Ioannis Stergiopoulos , a plant diagnostician from UC Davis .
“ This parallel change in metabolism of the pathogen and the server plant has been leave out until now and may defend a ‘ molecular fingermark ’ of the adaption unconscious process , ” he say . “ It is really a wake - up call to the research community of interests . "
Effects of the devastate calamitous Sigatoka fungus in Quindió , Colombia . Neil Palmer / CIAT / Flickr(CC BY - SA 2.0 )
For the first time , they have manage to sequence the genomes of all three Sigatoka strains : yellow Sigatoka , eumusae riffle spot , and black Sigatoka .
“ Now , for the first clock time , we know the genomic footing of virulency in these fungal diseases and the normal by which these pathogen have evolved , ” said Stergiopoulos .
They discovered that the complex of diseases first shuts down the works ’s immune organisation and change the metabolism of the fungus to match that of the host . It then produces enzyme to break down the cell walls so it can feed off the plant ’s carbohydrates .
More enquiry needs to be done , but our increase knowledge of the fungous diseases could mean the banana tree ’s doom may just be averted .
