Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

AutoModerator t1_isqteiz wrote

Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, personal anecdotes are now allowed as responses to this comment. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will continue to be removed and our normal comment rules still apply to other comments.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

Slave35 t1_isqza83 wrote

Our dna will be about 60% identical to that, too.

18

dotcubed t1_isr6siy wrote

This is a fascinating concept that we didn’t talk about in my food science degree.

I knew wheat had multiple genetic inputs but I never thought about strawberries, bananas, etc.

10

SmoothBrainSavant t1_isrbgpd wrote

I want the banana that taste like banana candies. Where did they go? Why did they taste so weird. Why am I addicted to children banana medicine.

21

AbsoluteTruth t1_isrcams wrote

Replying to mem_somerville (#129,648)

It was pretty much wiped out by Panama Disease and once an area has Panama Disease it's pretty much impossible to cure it. The current main banana is also currently being wiped out by a new strain of Panama Disease.

There's actually a good chance bananas will disappear from grocery stores entirely over the next 15 years because there are no other types of banana that are nearly as edible as Gros Michel and Cavendish.

Once they're gone the only way to get them back to a world-consumed food will probably be GMOs.

22

AbsoluteTruth t1_isrd1em wrote

Replying to SmoothBrainSavant (#129,682)

It's because all GMO efforts so far have failed to yield a banana plant that's sufficiently resistant to Panama Disease.

The most successful effort so far has been a Cavendish/Gros Michel hybrid, but it's only got partial resistance to Panama Disease, and is particularly susceptible to black sigatoka, a different disease affecting banana plants.

The main issue is that edible bananas reproduce asexually and most banana trees are direct offshoots planted from prior trees rather than a new generation of plant, so they don't breed the same way other crops do in order to select for more robust variants.

21

cherry2525 t1_isrhc3p wrote

Replying to SmoothBrainSavant (#129,628)

>banana candies

Taste a lot like like the Gros Michel bananas I had as a kid. They were wonderful bananas w/ great flavor but were almost wiped out by a fungus that currently is close to wiping out the Cavendish we eat today.

You can still find Gros Michel bananas as some specialty vendors like the Miami Fruit company grow/sell them

12

nerdwa t1_isrhmup wrote

My first thought to this was the game Assassin’s Creed and how wild it was that a part of what they thought of for the game is possibly viable in real life.

2

certainlyunpleasant t1_issitaq wrote

What do you mean. It was perfectly crafted for humans. Look how it fits in our hands.

6

BbxTx t1_isspt65 wrote

Only way to grow them is maybe large greenhouses at great cost. Cheap bananas will disappear for a while.

2

mdell3 t1_isssdyn wrote

Replying to mem_somerville (#129,648)

I have a Gros Michel plant. Grows like a damn weed in south Florida with little help. The bananas were small but exceptionally tasty. Don’t taste like the candy, but are far more delicious and much more fragrant than Cavendish at the store. I also harvested early (while still green) so they didn’t even have the full time to ripen on the tree.

Don’t DM about my bananas, not interested in it

6

UselessGenZer t1_istm7mi wrote

I’m high… does anybody know what was the first fruit ever was

2

Primeribsteak t1_iszddfb wrote

Replying to AbsoluteTruth (#129,669)

They already are GMOs, that word is rubbish and so highly misunderstood and misused. Selective breeding (and probably cloning plants, like nearly all bananas) is genetic modification, whether it originally is random mutation or not...modifying outcomes by choosing for specific genetic variables means GMO. Every single thing you eat is GMO.

Semantics aside, no one seems to take this seriously, it's wild that one of the cheapest and most sold fruits in the store will likely not exist as we know them in the "near" future. There are other, resistant bananas that probably even taste better, but are less Shippable, so banana prices will eventually increase to cover that increased complexity.

2