Australia: Researchers embrace a wild banana hunt

BANANA researchers are going back in time, in a manner of speaking, to help fortify the fruit from future threats. An international expedition ventured to North Queensland to collect wild banana samples with an aim of bolster crops against pathogens such as Fusarium wilt and banana bunchy top virus (BBTV). The expedition team included Belgian scientists Steven Janssens of Meise Botanic Garden and Bart Panis of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and the International Musa Germplasm Transit Centre (ITC), part of CGIAR (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research). University of Queensland researcher Associate Professor John Thomas said the scientists were hunting wild banana species as a potential source of resistance to pathogens and to understand and conserve the genetic diversity of these native species. Dr Thomas said 95 per cent of Australian banana production occurs in tropical north Queensland and is threatened by BBTV, while Fusarium wilt is ...