Tropical Race 4 Research Paper

230 Words1 Pages
We were eating better, tastier, longer lasting bananas called the “Gros Michels” until 50 years ago, they were declared commercially extinct due to the Panama disease. Today we eat the Cavendish cultivar, but they have nearly no genetic diversity, and their lack of it may be the death of them. It seems like history is repeating itself, since now the most popular commercial banana is infected with a new disease, Tropical Race 4, Like the Panama disease, Tropical Race 4 is a fungal disease that can be spread by anything from wind to cars, and it creates an infection wherever it goes. On account of all the bananas being clones of each other, if one plant gets infected, they all get infected. In Africa, banana’s generate the income for over 100