A fungal disease complex threatens to wipe out the world’s bananas. Researchers have found a new lethal threat to the banana that could make the popular fruit extinct in 5 to 10 years. New York Post reports: According to plant pathologist Ioannis Stergiopoulos, a fast-advancing disease compound, known as the Sigatoka complex, could be a lethal threat to the world’s banana supply. The Sigatoka complex is made up of three fungal diseases — yellow Sigatoka, eumusae leaf spot and black Sigatoka. Of the three, black Sigatoka poses the greatest risk to the 100 million tonnes (about 110 million U.S. tons) of bananas grown annually in almost 120 countries. To understand how the fungi attack, Stergiopoulos sequenced the genomes of eumusae leaf spot and black Sigatoka, and then compared results with the previously sequenced yellow Sigatoka genome. What he found was the three fungal diseases not only shut down the immune system of the banana tree, but the metabolism of the fungi also adapted to match that of the host plant. This means the fungi can produce enzymes to break down the plant’s cell walls to feed on its sugars and other carbohydrates. We have demonstrated that two of the three [...]
