PHILADELPHIA � The next time you order a banana split or sip on a banana daiquiri by the poolside, make sure you savor the sweet taste of the popular yellow fruit, because it may go the path of the mighty dinosaurs - extinction. That's right, the crescent-shaped fruit, which is one of the largest agricultural products in the world, is in for the fight of its life against a plague of pests and diseases.
The banana's biggest foe is Black Sigatoka, a fungal disease that affects the fruit's all-important leaf area, causing premature ripening and reducing the productive life of the banana. Huge banana plantations all over the world would feel the impact if the banana slipped off the face of the Earth.
Dr. James Pierce, associate professor of genetics and biotechnology at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, says the banana is unlike most other native or wild fruits, and this uniqueness is at the root of the problem. The type of banana to which we are accustomed - big, yellow, sweet and seedless - is different than wild bananas, which are smaller, have seeds and not much fruit.
The bananas that we see in the supermarket are generated from a single cultivar that is generated from two different species that are joined together, called a hybrid. According to Pierce, one of the banana's distinctions among fruits is the fact that it is a triploid, instead of a diploid, meaning that they have three sets of chromosomes, instead of two as most other fruits have. This is where the problem lies.
"Because the bananas we eat are triploids, they can only be grown, not through sexual reproduction, but asexually," says Pierce. "Since bananas are sterile, they are basically cloned and are bred to be these beautiful yellow fruits that are sweet, have no seeds and last very long. There is no variety since there is no sexual reproduction. Bananas have the same genotype or genes, and are essentially identical clones."
So is the banana as we know it doomed? Some researchers claim the delicious, yellow fruit could become extinct within the next 10 years. Pierce says the amount of money and pesticides needed to preserve the banana against the Black Sigatoka is growing. "Plants have to use lots of fungicides because this fungus, like many microorganisms, is becoming resistant to the chemicals' effects," he says.
Pierce believes the answer may be two words that many consumers are nervous to associate with their food - genetic engineering. He says scientists and researchers will need to develop measures via genetics to help the banana against disease and pests. If not, it could be devastating to consumers, particularly in third-world countries, who rely so heavily on its nutrition and abundance.
"This is a genetic problem," says Pierce. "Hopefully, there are biotech companies that are looking to tinker the genetic information of bananas to help us grow new genotypes that are resistant to the parasite, but still contain the same characteristics in the bananas that are in supermarkets and in our kitchens. "There's been a big backlash over genetically modifying foods," adds Pierce, "but what will people do if there are no more bananas and the only way to save them is through genetic engineering? That is the question everyone may have to answer."
