> It's also very susceptible to a fungal blight, the Panama disease
Cavendish having good resistance to Panama disease is why it replaced Gros Michel, which was devastated by Panama disease. I think the current threat to Cavendish is black sigatoka, a different fungal blight.
EDIT: as pointed out down thread, there's a newer mutation of Panama disease threatening Cavendish. So the parallel to Gros Michel is closer than I remembered, and parent is correct.
There's a new variant of panama disease that can infect cavendish called TR4. Likely that is only fixable by genetically engineering resistant cavendish.
If we can do that, genetically engineering resistant Gros Michel would probably be a better choice, since Cavendish became popular just because the (otherwise preferred) Gros Michel was not an option.
I don't know about that. The Gros Michel supposedly has more of the chemical that's used for artificial banana flavor, and I've always hated that flavor.
Cavendish having good resistance to Panama disease is why it replaced Gros Michel, which was devastated by Panama disease. I think the current threat to Cavendish is black sigatoka, a different fungal blight.
EDIT: as pointed out down thread, there's a newer mutation of Panama disease threatening Cavendish. So the parallel to Gros Michel is closer than I remembered, and parent is correct.