The Urgent Quest To Find Banana’s “Mystery Ancestors”

Scitech Daily ^ | NOVEMBER 16, 2022 | By FRONTIERS

[BipolarBob]

The breed of bananas we eat today are not the kind we ate when we were kids.

[Red Badger]

Banana PING!...............

[Red Badger]

There were Red bananas for sale when I was a kid in grocery stores. Now it’s only in specialty places like Whole Foods.................

[Tell It Right]

Bananna PuddING!

[nickcarraway]

Banana producer screwed up one time and now they’re screwing up again. Didn’t they learn anything?

[BenLurkin]

They “split”

[Fungi]

Back in the 1950s, the most popular banana cultivar, called the Gros Michel, was wiped out by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum, f. sp.cubense . Apparently, this banana was much tastier but when it was wiped out, growers were forced to use the now-standard (and blander) Cavendish variety. Researchers are trying to breed a new resistant Gros Michel to replace the Cavendish if it does get wiped out.

[ConservativeMind]

Uh, the plantain.

[ifinnegan]

“Breeders need to understand the genetic make-up of today’s domesticated diploid bananas for their crosses between cultivars, and this study is a major first step toward the characterization in great detail of many of these cultivars.”

I don’t think this is true at all. Empiricism trumps theory and is more efficient and effective.

I’m for sequencing all genomes, but this reasoning is hand waving.

Rudolph Boysen came up with the best tasting berry, and Walter Knott cultivated it, without knowing any genomic data.

[Larry Lucido]

[Larry Lucido]

I prefer Bananco, but Gorilla's Choice is also a good brand.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

#5: "Bananna PuddING!"

Sorry, but you misspelled ‘Nanner’. Hope this helps!

[Governor Dinwiddie]

#10: "… cultivated it, without knowing any genomic data."

I tend to agree with you. But genetics has it's place. It's like that oddball specialty wrench at the bottom of your toolbox which you only use every couple of years.

[Pelham]

The Cavendish banana cultivar that we now have is itself threatened with destruction:

https://tinyurl.com/4kbx2dv2

“Unfortunately, the disease that causes fusarium wilt has mutated and now the Cavendish crop is no longer immune. It too is being decimated by fungal disease.

‘This fungus is a complete nightmare,’ said Dr Aurelio Ciancio, from the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection at the National Research Council of Italy in Bari.

‘Producers are worried because it’s spreading quickly around the world,’ he said.

Ciancio is the coordinator of the MUSA research project. ‘Traditional control measures are limited and this fungus is clearly capable of killing plants at speed,’ he said.

Funded by the EU and working with partners from Europe, Africa and Latin America, MUSA spent four years investigating the use of bio-controls, or natural agents in plant defence.

Banana bugbear

The banana’s bugbear is dubbed Tropical Race 4 (TR4) also known as Panama 4. First identified in Taiwan in 1990, the mould causes fusarium wilt in the Cavendish cultivar. Entering through the roots, it chokes off the plant’s energy supply, killing it from within.

[Hot Tabasco]

Sorry, but you misspelled ‘Nanner’. Hope this helps!

Not to me, I understood perfectly what he meant.......

[Verginius Rufus]

Regrettably, Canaan Banana is no longer alive to offer his insights.

[z3n]

I’m sure there’s an mRNA shot they can give the plants that will be both safe and effective against the fungus

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

If you need more specialists on bananas, call ex-Tallahassee Fl. Mayor Gillum, Peter “The Banana Secretary”, and former Rep. Barney’s Frank for advise. /sarcasm, I think!

[Red Badger]