Bananas may soon be extinct

[Blobfish]

Sorry to all those Monkeys out there , but this sad news was bought to my attention today..

What can us Humans do to save the Banana.. Any suggestions from budding scientists out there..

No more Banana cake..or Bananas in a Sundae

Bananas could be extinct in five years because of a fast-advancing disease compound.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sc...5eea1d3dcd0a3b

According to plant pathologist Ioannis Stergiopoulos, a fast-advancing disease compound, known as the Sigatoka complex, could be a lethal threat to the world’s banana supply.

The Sigatoka complex is made up of three fungal diseases — yellow Sigatoka, eumusae leaf spot and black Sigatoka.

Of the three, black Sigatoka poses the greatest risk to the 100 million tonnes of bananas grown annually in almost 120 countries.

To understand how the fungi attack, Mr Stergiopoulos sequenced the genomes of eumusae leaf spot and black Sigatoka, and then compared results with the previously sequenced yellow Sigatoka genome.

What he found was the three fungal diseases not only shut down the immune system of the banana tree, but the metabolism of the fungi also adapted to match that of the host plant.

This means the fungi can produce enzymes to break down the plant’s cell walls to feed on its sugars and other carbohydrates.

“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 path ways and make use of its nutrients,” he toldDigg.

“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 adaptation process.

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

[XDurionX]

Hooray for fungicides.

[socialmaker]

The Gros Michel banana almost went extinct and we adapted to the newer Cavendish one and we will adapt to the next string that's more resistant but in the meantime we get smaller, less tastier bananas

[Deleted]

What can us Humans do to save the Banana.. Any suggestions from budding scientists out there..

We need to stop fucking with the programme and eating them upside down. This absolutely has to have something to do with it. The monkey gods are punishing us for our idiocy.

[Ghostmcghosty]

According to plant pathologist Ioannis Stergiopoulos, a fast-advancing disease compound, known as the Sigatoka complex, could be a lethal threat to the world’s banana supply.

Oh, just alarmist news then? Okay.

Each time an article starts with "So and so could be extinct in "This much time" if we don't do something" I usually see whatever they talk about being fine 10 years after the fact.

The one exception is endangered species like the White Rhino. Other than that, it will be fine.

[Blobfish]

The one exception is endangered species like the White Rhino. Other than that, it will be fine.

Australia is taking in 80 White Rhino refugees
to help protect them from poaching.

http://www.australiangeographic.com....o-save-species

China man will pay top dollar for White Rhino horn, as he believes it will make his dick harder
And as China has got more wealthy, more White Rhino are being killed

[shadowmouse]

The story is something of a mixed bag and has been going around for awhile... long enough that bananas should be extinct. Here's a fact check: http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/bananas.asp

Edit: An interesting article with more details: http://grist.org/food/good-news-bana...re-in-trouble/

[Reeve]

Australia is taking in 80 White Rhino refugees
to help protect them from poaching.

http://www.australiangeographic.com....o-save-species

China man will pay top dollar for White Rhino horn, as he believes it will make his dick harder
And as China has got more wealthy, more White Rhino are being killed

Amazing what people will do in the pursuit of making their dicks hard.

[Heladys]

What are those you-know-who people gonna do when they no longer have bananas to point to and note how well they fit a hand?

[Aggrophobic]

It'll do ok and your monkeys will be ok. It's unlikely that monkeys even eat thoes bananas as they are no doubt shot if the get into a plantation and wild forms of banana is not something most people want to eat anyway.

[Orlong]

Fine by me. Bananas are disgusting!!

[Xirrohon]

We can already grow them and clone them and stuff. It's not an issue.

Pretty much this^^ Nobody ever eats an "organic" banana now-a-days, they just dont really exist. Like another poster said, we will most likely create some new kind of banana that is more resistant.

[Akani]

All bananas in every supermarket are all genetically identical clones. Fairly obvious considering they were bred to be seedless. A disease wiping them out isn't a looming disaster, it's an inevitable result of us being to lazy to pick out the seeds. It would only be a big issue if we didn't have other breeds of bananas to switch to, which we do. Fake problem that we made has a real solution that we made decades ago. This is not news.

[Shalcker]

I think title should be "Bananas will soon be extinct again". It'll be less then 100 years since their last extinction that forced changing them to different strain we're using to this day.

Btw, reports say that previous banana was strictly superior to current banana in flavour. Maybe with current advances in science we can actually make old one work once current one is extinct.

[Akani]

Pretty much this^^ Nobody ever eats an "organic" banana now-a-days, they just dont really exist. Like another poster said, we will most likely create some new kind of banana that is more resistant.

Genetic modification is unnecessary for cloning Cavendish bananas. Growers simply use vegetative reproduction to clone them, which is much cheaper and perfectly "organic". Genetic modification is also unnecessary for breeding a new cultivar of bananas, as the natural way is faster and cheaper.

[Zoey141]

Jackfruit to the rescue! Is this the super fruit that can solve our world's hunger issue?
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...-food-security

[Netherspark]

The Gros Michel banana almost went extinct and we adapted to the newer Cavendish one and we will adapt to the next string that's more resistant but in the meantime we get smaller, less tastier bananas

There are no more viable strains. All current comercial bananas are offshots of the same strain and are just as susceptible to all three fungus above, plus the panama disease as well.

We would have to start from scratch with wild bananas, and spend decades cultivating them to be edible.

We can already grow them and clone them and stuff. It's not an issue.

Cloning is what caused the problem. The plants cannot adapt to resist the infection because there is no genetic diversity and no mutation - we have effectively stopped their evolution, and in doing so doomed them to extinction.

[Deleted]

Those poor bananas, we killed them all.

[Akani]

There are no more viable strains. All current comercial bananas are offshots of the same strain and are just as susceptible to all three fungus above, plus the panama disease as well.

We would have to start from scratch with wild bananas, and spend decades cultivating them to be edible.

Most of the bananas on this list are perfectly edible. Several were specifically cultivated to replace the Cavendish. The Goldfinger is also specifically resistant to the black sigatoka the OP thinks is a big deal.

[Blade Wolf]

What am i gonna shove up my ass then?! Apples or pears?!?