The virulent banana-killing disease that quietly stalked through East and Southeast Asia since the 1960s is now on a global conquest. Since 2013, the lethal fungus
has jumped continents, ravaging crops in South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Australia.
It’s clear the strategies for containing the spread of Panama disease, as it’s known, aren’t working. And since the fungus can’t be killed, it’s likely only a matter of time before it lands in Latin America, where some more than three-fifths of the planet’s exported bananas are grown. In other words, the days of the iconic yellow fruit are numbered.
This latest bit of grim news about the fate of the banana comes in
a new study in PLOS Pathogens. Tracing the genetic makeup of the fungus found in the various afflicted places, the research team’s analysis confirmed that t
he perpetrator is a single clone of Panama disease called “Tropical Race 4,” says Gert Kema, banana expert at Wageningen University and Research Center, who co-authored the study.
http://qz.com/559579/the-worlds-favo...to-extinction/
Not my favorite fruit
