The fight to save the banana just got more challenging. A fungus that threatens the world’s most popular fruit is spreading, according to a new study. And it’s doing so despite massive efforts to stop it.
At risk is the sweet “Cavendish” banana sold in North America and Europe. But that's not all. There are 400 edible varieties of banana, and many of them also are susceptible to killing by Panama disease. (That's the name of the disease that this fungus causes.) Indeed, many of those other types of bananas are important sources of food for millions of people outside the United States and Europe.
The killer fungus is known as Tropical Race 4, or TR4 for short. It's the fourth type of fungus to cause Panama disease that scientists have identified. It spreads slowly but easily, wiping out banana crops wherever it goes.
To date, TR4 has shown up in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia. It’s reached the Philippines and southern Africa. And it has been discovered in the Middle East and Asian countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Pakistan.
For their new study, Gert Kema and his team examined fungi from each of these locations. Kema is a plant pathologist at Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands. (A pathologist studies disease.) The researchers wanted to identify strains of TR4 infecting the plants. So they analyzed TR4 DNA from bananas in those countries.
