Clashing clones: how Panama disease is killing the banana

Cavendish bananas saved the entire banana industry a century ago. The then most planted variety “Gros Michel” was being wiped out by the soil-borne fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum. The fungus was causing Panama disease, severe and progressive wilting and that eventually lead to plant death. The extinction of the first popular banana was a blow to the developing export trade, to growers and all associated workers and lead to huge societal unrest and economic collapse.

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