Bananas To Be Extinct In 10 Years?

[SteveC]

Somes scientists from France are claiming that two fungal diseases could wipe out bananas worldwide within 10 years unless something drastic is done. Because the bananas grown are sterile, they can't reproduce to mutate and fight off the diseases. The whole story is here. What will Tea find to eat?

 

[blakerwry]

i like bananas... i guess if these fungi do get too common we will have to go to wild bananas instead of the domesticated kind we have become acustomed to.

 

[timwhit]

The story doesn't mention anything about humans artificially causing mutations in bananas in order to make them more impervious to these fungi. I’m sure something like this is possible and could be completed in the next ten years.

 

[Buck]

What are they to do in Queensland?

 

[Cliptin]

Whew! Someone is on the case.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991037

 

[blakerwry]

The sequence could be of great value to breeders and scientists, who have struggled to overcome the banana's weird characteristics. For example, the classic Cavendish variety exported to Western countries - which is thought to have originated as a natural hybrid thousands of years ago - has three sets of chromosomes instead of two and so cannot reproduce sexually.

"Half the world's edible bananas, including the Cavendish, are entirely sterile, and you can't breed them at all," says Frison. Instead, they are propagated by taking the plantlets that appear at the base of old banana plants each year.

The thought of bananas having sex makes me silly

http://etrata.home.attbi.com/flash/banana.swf