RALEIGH, N.C. – Bananas are the world’s most popular fruit, but an untreatable fungus is threatening to destroy most of the world’s crop, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- The Cavendish banana is facing extinction due to an untreatable disease
- Researchers are working to build a genetically resistant plant
- The last place where Cavendish bananas are grown is South America
Found in lunch boxes and snack bowls all over the world, the Cavendish banana is the most popular fruit and one of the most nutritious. But it’s facing extinction from what’s recognized as one of the most aggressive and destructive diseases in agriculture — Fusarium TR4. It lives in the soil and infects the circulatory system of banana plants, rotting them from the inside out.
“We need to give nature a little help here, it can’t do it all on its own on the timetable that it needs to happen,” said Todd Rands, the CEO of Elo Life Systems.
Elo, a company based in Raleigh, is working to save the banana through gene editing. Elo has been hired by Dole to build a disease-resistant banana plant.
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