The banana apocalypse is near, but UMass Amherst biologists might have found a key to their survival

The bananas in your supermarket and that you eat for breakfast are facing functional extinction due to the disease Fusarium wilt of banana (FWB) caused by a fungal pathogen called Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense (Foc) tropical race 4 (TR4). However,  thanks to recent research from an international team of scientists led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, we now know that Foc TR4 did not evolve from the strain that wiped out commercial banana crops in the 1950s and that the virulence of this new strain seems to be caused by some accessory genes that are associated the production of nitric oxide. The research, published in Nature Microbiology, opens the door to treatments and strategies that can slow, if not control, the as-of-yet unchecked spread of Foc TR4.