Avenger. The world's most popular fruit is facing extinction, and scientists are racing to use gene-editing to save it. Close. ORIGINAL POST: July 28, 2015 at 6:26 p.m. Bananas are in … Rumor: Bananas will be extinct within ten years. Back in the 1950s. Cultivation of the original banana is believed to pre-date rice. (1) They sent DNA … While the banana thrived in Africa, its origins are said to be of East Asia and Oceania. The original banana is believed to have been cultivated about 1000 years ago. by Natasha Frost February 28, 2018. The banana is an edible fruit, which is technically a berry, and popular throughout the world Not only is it a multi-billion dollar industry, but Cavendish bananas are also an important source of nourishment for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Which means, they’re all sterile, and each new banana plant has to be manually planted from a cutting of existing banana roots. Hundreds of varieties of wild bananas are believed to exist, but as i09.com noted earlier this year, “many of these varieties are so different as to be almost unrecognizable, others are finicky about how they grow, still others are almost impossible to transport, some need to be cooked before they are eaten ... [and] then there’s the question of how safe these new varieties would even be.”. Pollination spreading the disease? The world's most popular fruit is facing extinction, and scientists are racing to use gene-editing to save it. Enter: the Cavendish, a banana cultivar resistant to the fungal plague. Your Favorite Banana Is Facing Extinction As Deadly Fungus Spreads. Over time, the original banana became extinct, and we currently have a mutation of the early banana. Back then, the most popular type of banana was the Gros Michel, so to combat the risk of infection to that type of banana, large growers like Chiquita and Dole switched to … The banana tree forms rhizomes that form into a little tree known as a pup that can be removed and planted elsewhere. Production switched at the last minute to the now-current Cavendish cultivar. Explained. BANANAS as we know them could become extinct due numerous factors like climate change, insect infestations, poor soil quality and plant pathogens. Apr 22, 2019 #4 Oh no :( Mammoth Jones. A new study has confirmed that bananas, the world's favorite fruit, is in fact going extinct. Archived. Apr 22, 2019 #6 Soon bananas will be $10 and out of touch rich lady will be vindicated. Lady's Finger bananas are smaller and sweeter than the ubiquitous longer, … We are located in San Diego, California and have a variety always on hand. Bananas - one of the world's top five staple foods - may become extinct in just 5 to 10 years due to fast-advancing fungal diseases, scientists have warned. The Cavendish is a monoculture, which means the plants are all clones of one another and have no genetic diversity. To succeed, they'll need to … The world’s favourite fruit could be at serious risk of becoming extinct. Scientists believe that saving them is crucial to saving the existence of bananas worldwide. The yellow sweet banana is a mutant strain of the cooking banana, discovered in 1836 by Jamaican Jean Francois Poujot, who found one of the banana trees on his plantation was bearing yellow fruit rather than green or red. Much of the world's bananas are of the Cavendish variety, which is endangered by a strain of Panama disease. And unlike in the 1950s, there is no successor, no banana variety that lives up to the taste, transportability and ability to grow in monoculture. In this case, the flavor is sweeter than before, and its aroma is more like the sweet banana. The original banana was different from current sweet yellow bananas. “It has a more robust taste,” said Dan Koeppel, author of “Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World” of the yummier yellow fruit. As Quartz explains, “since they can’t sexually reproduce, they also can’t evolve, leaving them defenseless against disease.” The same was true of the Gros Michel, which is how that entire species was essentially wiped out. That explains how the Cavendish -- the blander banana we now eat -- grew in prominence. Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you. Gros Michel Bananas are NOT extinct. In a 2008 op-ed for The New York Times, author Dan Koeppel said humans may need to admit defeat in the face of Panama disease's steady spread, and prepare to say goodbye to the beloved banana. In fact, the original banana was different in nearly every way. After tasting them, he realized that unlike original bananas, they were sweet in their raw state. These specimens were initially established in Samoa in 1838, and from there the plant spread to Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii and Australia, as well as the original home of the banana… The banana is grown in the tropics, and, though it is most widely consumed in those regions, it is valued worldwide for its flavor, nutritional value, and availability throughout the year. What We Can Learn From the Near-Death of the Banana. A little bit yes, but mostly no. The species was declared commercially extinct 1965, and with the banana industry in crisis, growers made the shift to the world’s current banana du … The banana grows in Madagascar where there are reportedly only five mature trees left existing in the wild. Since 2013, however, Tropical Race 4 has spread to areas in several continents, including parts of South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia despite efforts to contain the disease, the study said. Read more. The original banana has been cultivated and used since ancient times, even pre-dating the cultivation of rice. Upon tasting the new discovery, he found it to be sweet in its raw state, without the need for cooking. Full #banana #infographic at http://t.co/KIcJeJ5zc4 pic.twitter.com/UvRYjV86kt via @FAOwbf, Four countries make up over 50% of the total value of #banana exports http://t.co/KIcJeJ5zc4 pic.twitter.com/SDqcP8w25I v @FAOwbf. A condition known as Fusarium wilt or Panama disease was wiping out whole plantations in the world’s major banana-producing countries of Latin America. The original banana was the Gros Michel. Rumor: Bananas will be extinct within ten years. Quite a few have gone extinct over the decades, actually, mostly unexportable, local varieties. 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