UK: Novel technique could revolutionize agriculture and save banana crops

Published Jan 5, 2022

Tridge summary

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a method to combat the 'Panama disease', which is threatening the global banana industry by successfully grafting two banana species together. This technique, which involves fusing embryonic tissue from monocot grasses, is a major breakthrough as bananas are seedless plants and the procedure was previously considered impossible due to the lack of a specific tissue in grass-like plants. This method could potentially result in banana plants with new traits such as pest and disease resistance, and has been shown to be effective in various monocotyledonous crop plants including pineapple, banana, onion, tequila agave, and date palm.

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Original content

Scientists at the University of Cambridge found a way to combat the "Panama disease", which is affecting the world's banana crops. It consists of combining two species of this plant, according to an article in the journal Nature. Banana is the fourth largest food crop in the world after wheat, rice and corn in terms of production, and the largest exporters of the fruit include Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica and Guatemala. 99% of the bananas sold globally are of the type called Cavendish, which is susceptible to a deadly fungus called Tropical Race 4 or "Panama disease", which has been spreading for more than three decades and which, if not contained, it could ruin this industry worth about $ 25 billion annually. Procedure "impossible" Because bananas are seedless plants, the technique used by scientists has been to graft the sprout of one plant onto the root of another, so that they continue to grow together as one. This procedure was considered impossible, but the team of ...

Source: PEagronoticias