Panama disease became one of the first banana diseases to spread globally. It has returned, and there is no replacement banana as the Cavendish is no longer resistant. Despite Australia’s large presence of Fusarium wilt (145 years), the only effective approach of addressing the disease remains exclusion or early quarantine. A better knowledge of TR4 epidemiology and pathology is essential to protect current Cavendish plantings until viable resistant cultivars become available.
The banana’s triploid structure adds an undesired complexity of reproducing asexually. Because bananas of the same kind are genetically similar, if one tree in a plantation becomes infected, all of the other plants in the plantation are also vulnerable. This means that Panama disease could easily sweep over huge areas of susceptible host plants. Across many places, all of the trees were destroyed. Crossing domesticated bananas yields no seed, making this a poor choice. Genetic engineering can result in the generation of novel variants at a faster rate than traditional breeding procedures. This is a possible solution because there are over 1500 types of bananas and a variety of transgenes have been investigated, but only short-term results have been recorded.
Existing disease-resistant varieties are yet to make inroads into the international market, but The Honduras Foundation for Agricultural Research (FHIA) has spent more than three years working on developing a disease-resistant variety that is as close to the Cavendish as possible so that the world’s banana infrastructure does not have to be reshaped from the ground up. Nonetheless, this is a process that might take 15 to 20 years. Given the value of revenue coming from consumption and exporting the Cavendish, greater losses than the Gros Michel era (1950) are being suffered and are estimated to increase. A disease-resistant transgenic variety that will be accepted by the consumer is a critical need.