{"id":13486,"date":"2026-06-20T12:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/scientists-breakthrough-brings-hope-for-banana-resistance-breeding-to-deadly-bacterial-wilt-disease\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T12:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:28:11","slug":"scientists-breakthrough-brings-hope-for-banana-resistance-breeding-to-deadly-bacterial-wilt-disease","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/scientists-breakthrough-brings-hope-for-banana-resistance-breeding-to-deadly-bacterial-wilt-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists\u2019 breakthrough brings hope for banana resistance breeding to deadly bacterial wilt disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

4 October 2018 (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) –<\/strong> A team led by scientists from the Institut International d'Agriculture Tropicale (IIAT)<\/a> have announced a breakthrough in the search for banana varieties that are resistant to the lethal bacterial banana wilt disease. This debunks the notion that all banana varieties are susceptible to the disease and opens the possibility of breeding resistant varieties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Scientists\u2019-breakthrough-brings-hope-for-banana-resistance-breeding-to-deadly-bacterial-wilt-disease\"<\/a>
Early ripening and rotting of banana caused by Banana Xanthomonas Wilt.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disease, which causes premature ripening and rotting of the fruits, wilting, and eventually death of the plant, has drastically affected the highl and cooking banana production in East and Central Africa (ECA) and the food and income of millions of farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until now, the scientific world believed that all banana varieties in the region, except for a wild-seeded banana called Musa balbisiana<\/em>, were susceptible to the disease, which originated from Ethiopia and has now invaded all banana growing areas in the highl ands of eastern and central Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The discovery by the team led by Prof Rony Swennen, Head of banana breeding; Dr George Mahuku, Senior\u00a0Plant Pathologist\u00a0for Eastern, Southern and Central Africa; and Dr Valentine Nakato, Plant Pathologist, was reported in the Plant Pathology (https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/ppa.12945)<\/a> journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disease is caused by Xanthomonas campestris<\/em> pv. musacearum<\/em> bacteria and its symptoms include yellowing and wilting of leaves, a cream to pale yellow bacteria-laded oozing when the plant is cut, shriveling of the male bud, premature ripening, internal discoloration of fruits, and finally death of infected plants. Transmission is fast and mainly through contaminated tools, insect vectors, and planting material. Therefore, major investments by national programs, donors, and scientists have been geared towards rigorous monitoring of banana fields, removal of diseased plants, and decontaminating farm tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis discovery is very important for the millions of smallholder banana farmers in the region as one of the most effective ways to control any disease is developing resistant varieties,\u201d says Nakato, based in IITA, Ug anda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bananas are an indispensable part of life in the region providing up to one-fifth of the total calorie consumption per capita. The average daily per capita energy from banana consumption in ECA is 147 kcal: 15 times the global average and 6 times the African average. The region has over 50% of its permanent cropped area under banana; this is around half of the total area under banana cultivation across Africa. ECA countries (Burundi, DR Congo, Kenya, Rw anda, Tanzania, and Ug anda) produce annually 21 million tons of banana with a value of US$4.3 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team systematically screened the entire banana collection at IITA, Ug anda, and identified 13 other sources of resistance next to M. balbisiana<\/em>.\u00a0 Most importantly, Nakato identified several diploids derived from Musa acuminata<\/em>\u2014another wild banana\u2014 and which are already part of the existing highl and breeding program of IITA and NARO (National Agricultural Research Organisation, Ug anda).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe findings of this study are very significant for the banana breeding community and we will redouble our efforts in developing banana varieties with resistance to the disease,\u201d says Swennen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Early
Symptom development for representative accessions for different reaction types at 35 days post-inoculation. The varieties are Musa balbisiana (resistant), Pelipita (tolerant), Ilayi Red (moderately susceptible) and Pitu (highly susceptible)\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IITA and NARO have developed superior high-yielding matoke hybrids dubbed NARITA<\/a> and now those NARITA, which were developed with the resistant banana varieties, will be screened for bacterial wilt resistance and become part of future breeding schemes to develop bacterial wilt resistant matoke varieties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other partners in the study included the University of Pretoria, South Africa and Centre of the Region Han\u00e1 for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

###<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About IITA, <\/strong>www.iita.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is a not-for-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa\u2019s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, we improve livelihoods, enhance food and nutrition security, increase employment, and preserve natural resource integrity. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katherine Lopez, Head of Communication, k.lopez@cgiar.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catherine Njuguna, Corporate Communication Officer, Eastern Africa, c.njuguna@cgiar.org<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A team led by scientists from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have announced a breakthrough in the search for banana varieties that are resistant to the lethal bacterial banana wilt disease.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":13487,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[47],"news-type":[],"hub":[],"crop":[65],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[196],"class_list":["post-13486","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-uganda","crop-banana","item-year-196"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/13486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/13486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13486"},{"taxonomy":"science-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/science-area?post=13486"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=13486"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=13486"},{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=13486"},{"taxonomy":"hub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub?post=13486"},{"taxonomy":"crop","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/crop?post=13486"},{"taxonomy":"impact-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/impact-areas?post=13486"},{"taxonomy":"item-year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/item-year?post=13486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}