Fungus Threatens Top Banana in Jordan and Mozambique

                           

Author: Declan Butler

Date: December 11th, 2013

Link: http://www.nature.com/news/fungus-threatens-top-banana-1.14336

                                                            Summary:

            A type of fungus that kills the main variety of export banana, mainly Cavendish bananas, has been found in Jordan and Mozambique. This disease is caused by strains of a soil fungus called Fusarium oxysporum. These strains spread very slowly, but are almost impossible to eliminate in the soil. This fungus was first discovered in Asia, and soon spread to countries including Taiwan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Nobody is quite sure as to how the fungus arrived in Jordan or Mozambiue, but it may have been brought over by immigrants from Asia that brought contaminated soil. There have been limitations as to genetically engineering the banana to become fully resistant to this fungus, but researchers have discovered that the wild Asian banana Musa acuminata malaccensis seems to be resistant. They are now experimenting and putting  its genes into the Cavendish banana. 

                                                   Relevance:

                      This relates to out study of microbes. specifically fungi. We learned that fungi can be harmful to some plants and be in symbiotic relationships with others. This is an example of how a fungus can harm a plant. This article also relates to our study of molecular genetics. We learned about how organisms can be genetically modified to improve upon their quality or to gain a resistance to a specific disease. In this case, researchers are trying to genitcally modify the Cavendish banana in order to make it resistant to the fungus that it is facing.