Finding wild cultivars to fight Banana wilt disease!

By Jungmi  Choi

Banana production has suffered from fungal soil-pathogen disease (Fusarium Oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 [Foc-TR4]).  There have been many attempts to eradicate the disease and finding wild cultivars resistant to the disease is one of them.  Li et al., used eight genotypes of wild banana cultivars to test resistance to the disease in greenhouses and in wild fields.  Most cultivars demonstrated varied levels of resistance to the Fusarium depending upon the environment.  However, two cultivars (M. basjoo and M. itinerans) were not affected by the disease and showed no rhizome discoloration (which is a symptom of the disease).  These cultivars will be valuable genetic resources to fight Fusarium.

 

(From Li et al., 2015) Rhizome discoloration when inoculated with Fusarium. Scale: 0 - no symptoms, 1 - initial yellowing, 2 - yellowing of all of the lower leaves with partial yellowing of upper leaves, 3 - yellowing of all the leaves followed by the plant death.

Article from;

W.M Li, M. Dita, W. Wu, G.B. Hu, J.H. Xie and X.J. Ge. (2015) Resistance sources to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 in banana wild relatives. Plant pathology. 64, 1061-1067.