Fungus Threatens Global Supply of Bananas Details Alert sent: No Sites: PH Publish date: Fri 2013-Dec-20 Author: Amy Doot Channel: Pests/diseases Text (summary): You love eating bananas from the supermarket, right? Well, you better get your fix and load up because a fungal infection in threatening to wipe out the yellow fruit that we all take for granted. According to Scientific American, strains of a particular soil fungus – Fusarium oxysporum f. sp.cubense, or Foc – has infected bananas exported from Mozambique and Jordan. If this fungus spreads, it will eventually critically threaten the popular Cavendish banana (the beloved banana we find on our supermarket shelves). The fungus, which has been found on several plantations in the Middle East and southeast Africa, causes the incurable Panama disease, AKA Fusarium wilt, that rots bananas. In a similar incident to the Foc fungus, during the 1950s, another strain of the banana fungus nearly wiped out the Gros Michel cultivar (a banana just as common as the Cavendish variety). Scientists fear the Foc fungus would eventually spread around the world and wipe out the Cavendish supply, just as the previous strain did to the Gros Michel banana. Read more: ieatgrass.com [English Locations Location Coordinates Zoom Relevance Show on map Costa Rica, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil 23.4167°S 54.65°W 0.231 Mozambique 18.25°S 35°E 0.135 Eastern Province, Sri Lanka 6.776°N 81.7076°E 0.129 Discovery Discoveries: Discovery method: Robot discovered URL: http://ieatgrass.com/2013/12/fungus-threatens-global-supply-of-bananas/ Original language: English Original title: Fungus Threatens Global Supply of Bananas | I Eat Grass Original text (summary): You love eating bananas from the supermarket, right? Well, you better get your fix and load up because a fungal infection in threatening to wipe out the yellow fruit that we all take for granted. According to Scientific American, strains of a particular soil fungus – Fusarium oxysporum f. sp.cubense, or Foc – has infected bananas exported from Mozambique and Jordan. If this fungus spreads, it will eventually critically threaten the popular Cavendish banana (the beloved banana we find on our supermarket shelves). The fungus, which has been found on several plantations in the Middle East and southeast Africa, causes the incurable Panama disease, AKA Fusarium wilt, that rots bananas. In a similar incident to the Foc fungus, during the 1950s, another strain of the banana fungus nearly wiped out the Gros Michel cultivar (a banana just as common as the Cavendish variety). Scientists fear the Foc fungus would eventually spread around the world and wipe out the Cavendish supply, just as the previous strain did to the Gros Michel banana.
