Good old Bananas could become extinct in five years

The good old tasty and nutritious bananas might become a thing of past, just like dinosaurs in just 5-10 years, due to e to fast-advancing fungal diseases, scientists have warned.

One of the most popular and eaten fruit on the planet faces existential threat revealed researchers at the University of California, Davis. Three fungal diseases have evolved becoming a lethal threat to the world's bananas, reported PTI.

"We have demonstrated that two of the three most serious banana fungal diseases have become more virulent by increasing their ability to manipulate the banana's metabolic pathways and make use of its nutrients," said Ioannis Stergiopoulos, from UC Davis.

"This parallel change in metabolism of the pathogen and the host plant has been overlooked until now and may represent a 'molecular fingerprint' of the adaption process," he said.

The disease called the Sigatoka complex is made up of three fungal diseases i.e. yellow Sigatoka, eumusae leaf spot and black Sigatoka, reported news.com.au.

The black Sigatoka poses the greatest risk out of the three, affecting the 100 million tonnes of bananas grown annually in most parts of the world, proving catastrophic for the millions of farmers that grow them.

“It is really a wake-up call to the research community to look at similar mechanisms between pathogens and their plant hosts.”

Now, how to combat the threat? The New Daily reported, the farmers need to make 50 fungicide applications to their banana crops each year to control the disease.

“Thirty to 35 per cent of banana production cost is in fungicide applications,” Mr Stergiopoulos said. “Because many farmers can’t afford the fungicide, they grow bananas of lesser quality, which bring them less income,” he added.

Cavendish banana one found in most markets is the most susceptible to the disease, informed researchers. As Cavendish bananas are grown from shoot cuttings, indicating that all trees originated from a single plant, i.e. a disease capable of wiping out one plant could destroy them all.