Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Banana Pest Genome Deciphered

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 13 2007 (IPS) - The Brazilian agricultural research agency EMBRAPA completed, along with U.S., French, Dutch and Mexican institutions, the sequencing of the 11,000 genes of the fungus that causes black sigatoka, which plagues banana plantations around the world. This knowledge will allow the development of ways to control the plant disease, such as blocking infection, announced Natália Martins, EMBRAPA biologist and coordinator of the genome study in Brazil.

“We hope to reduce from five to three years the period needed to achieve resistant varieties,” she told Tierramérica.

In addition to containing sigatoka, which has spread rapidly through Brazil since 1998, threatening one of the most consumed fruit crops, the aim is also to avoid using fungicides, in order to protect the environment, Martins added.

Some 4.2 million dollars are spent annually in Brazil on fungicides to produce six million tons of bananas.