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Article: Going bananas?
- Article from:
- The Nelson Mail
- Article date:
- May 30, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2003 The Nelson Mail. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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One of our favourite fruits may face extinction. Jude Petheram
looks at the issue. Are you one of the thousands of Kiwis who read in
horror earlier this year that bananas may cease to exist because of a
disease wiping them out?
Newspaper headlines reacted to an article in New Scientist warning
that one of the world's most popular foods could be extinct if no
cure is found for the fungal disease black sigatoka.
Scientists said black sigatoka could wipe them out because the
plants are all clones of a sterile mutant and cannot be saved by
conventional seedling breeding programmes.
Genetic engineering was offered as a possible solution. Scientists
at Lincoln Crop and Food Research have said ...