An Interest In:
Web News this Week
- March 31, 2024
- March 30, 2024
- March 29, 2024
- March 28, 2024
- March 27, 2024
- March 26, 2024
- March 25, 2024
Some of Our Sources
- Technology Review
- Pearsonified
- The Logo Smith
- Smashing Apps
- Vandelay Design
- You The Designer
- Web Designer Depot
- Web Design Ledger
- Line 25
- Android Headlines
Help Webnuz
Referal links:
September 29, 2019 04:34 am
Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/kIW2Dxi52N4/crispr-might-be-the-bananas-only-hope-against-a-deadly-fungus
CRISPR Might Be the Banana's Only Hope Against a Deadly Fungus
An anonymous reader quotes Nature:The race to engineer the next-generation banana is on. The Colombian government confirmed last month that a banana-killing fungus has invaded the Americas -- the source of much of the world's banana supply. The invasion has given new urgency to efforts to create fruit that can withstand the scourge. Scientists are using a mix of approaches to save the banana. A team in Australia has inserted a gene from wild bananas into the top commercial variety -- known as the Cavendish -- and are currently testing these modified bananas in field trials. Researchers are also turning to the powerful, precise gene-editing tool CRISPR to boost the Cavendish's resilience against the fungus, known as Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (TR4). Breeding TR4 resistance into the Cavendish using conventional methods isn't possible because the variety is sterile and propagated by cloning. So the only way to save the Cavendish may be to tweak its genome, says Randy Ploetz, a plant pathologist at the University of Florida in Homestead. The variety accounts for 99% of global banana shipments... [T]he fungus is a tough opponent. It can't be killed with fungicides, and it can linger in soil for up to 30 years. That has helped TR4 slowly spread around the world, probably by hitching rides on contaminated equipment or in soil. The strain began destroying banana crops in the 1990s in Asia before invading Australia and countries in the Middle East and Africa. Now TR4 is in the Americas, and researchers say that the Cavendish could become virtually extinct in the next several decades unless they can modify it to resist the fungus.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/kIW2Dxi52N4/crispr-might-be-the-bananas-only-hope-against-a-deadly-fungus
Share this article:
Tweet
View Full Article
Slashdot
Slashdot was originally created in September of 1997 by Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda. Today it is owned by Geeknet, Inc..More About this Source Visit Slashdot