'Apocalypse' of the Banana

This is a banana. Really. It’s the original, wild-type banana.

As you’ve noticed, unlike the original, the bananas we eat are nearly seedless. The black specks you see are the remnants of the seeds; however, they are not viable. To propagate bananas involve removing and transplanting part of the underground stem called a corm. Usually this is done by carefully removing a sucker (a vertical shoot that develops from the base of the banana pseudostem) with some roots intact. When using vegetative parts such as suckers for propagation, there is a risk of transmitting diseases especially the devastating Panama disease. Another method of propagation would be to use tissue culture. This method is preferred since it ensures disease-free planting material. Either way, it is still a form of cloning.

Rumor has it that the banana is becoming extinct. Extinction wouldn’t exactly be the word to describe the banana’s fate. Like most cultivated crop plants, such as the corn, soybean, and rice, bananas lack genetic diversity. Organisms lacking biodiversity is doomed to succumb to diseases.

It is not the first time this has happened. In the 1950s, the Gros Michel banana was known as the ‘banana.’ Later, it was wiped out by the Panama disease, a fungus which attacks the roots of the banana plant. Gros Michel was replaced by the Vietnamese Cavendish banana, the kind we all eat with our sundaes.

There are at least 300 varieties of bananas grown around the world-- in India, Ecuador, Philippines, Costa Rica, and Colombia, for example. However, not all varieties may be accepted as the same fruit. Each species has its own degree of sweetness and texture. There are even ones that taste like apples.

There are many ways for scientists to deal with this problem. Some are working with the hundreds of other kinds of bananas to find a hybrid replacement. Others are working with the Cavendish and attempting to use biotechnology to manipulate the genetics of the Cavendish in order to produce a more disease resistant fruit. The Cavendish may or may not suffer the same fate as the Gros Michel. In any case, we may lose the Cavendish, but the banana will go on.