The banana, the world’s most popular and most consumed fruit, has finally found an edge over its dreaded nemesis, the Panama disease.
Most exported bananas belong to a single variety, the Cavendish. But this lack of genetic variation makes the crop vulnerable. Fusarium wilt — also known as Panama disease — is a destructive soil-borne disease which impacts farmed Cavendish bananas worldwide through its virulent Race 4 strains.
The disease causes the banana plant to wilt and kills it, leaving residue in the soil to infect future crops.
Now, two scientists — Andrew Chen and Elizabeth Aitken — and their team from The University of Queensland in Australia have identified the genomic region that controls resistance to Fusarium wilt Sub Tropical Race 4 (STR4), according to a statement by the university.
In a project that took five years to complete, the research team used a combination of forward genetics (population development and disease screening), genome sequencing and bulked segregant analysis, the statement noted.
“We’ve located the source of STR4 resistance in Calcutta 4 which is a highly fertile wild diploid banana by crossing it with susceptible bananas from a different subspecies of the diploid banana group,” said Chen.
‘Diploid’ cells contain two complete sets of chromosomes, one inherited from each parent, totaling 46 chromosomes in humans (23 pairs).
“After exposing the new progeny plants to STR4, we examined and compared the DNA of the ones which succumbed to the pathogen and those that didn’t. We mapped STR4 resistance to chromosome 5 in Calcutta 4,” Chen added.
According to the statement, each generation of banana crosses needed to be grown for at least 12 months before it could be challenged, examined and then used for further breeding once it flowered.
Calcutta 4 was selected as it provides crucial genetic resistance. However, as Chen noted, it isn’t suitable as a commercial cultivar because it doesn’t produce fruit which are good to eat.
“The next step is to develop molecular markers to track the resistance trait efficiently so plant breeders can screen seedlings early and accurately before any disease symptoms appear.
“This will speed up selection, reduce costs and hopefully ultimately lead to a banana that is good to eat, easy to farm and naturally protected from Fusarium wilt through its genetics.”
More than 400 million people rely on bananas for 15 to 27 per cent of their daily calories, according to a 2025 report by Christian Aid.
The current research, titled Identification of a QTL conferring resistance to the Subtropical Race 4 of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense in Calcutta 4 (Musa acuminata ssp. burmannica), has been published in the journal Horticulture Research.
Besides Chen and Aitken, other authors include Guillaume Martin, Altus Viljoen, Jiaman Sun, Emily Rames, Nabila Yahiaoui, Angelique D'hont, Brett J Ferguson, Rony Swennen, Robert J Henry and Rajeev K Varshney.