Saving the bananas

Every time you go to the supermarket or to the local market to buy bananas you take for granted that all banana boxes will be full and ready for you to enjoy its amazing taste. However, a world without bananas is more plausible than we all might imagine. Banana plants are threatened by Fusarium oxisporum, a soil pathogen that affects plants entering through its root system causing its death. Bananas, apart from being a delicious fruit, have a great economic importance in many tropical regions. These are the reasons why the iGEM Wageningen team 2014 has designed and created BananaGuard, a genetic system in Pseudomonas putida which is able to detect the presence of Fusarium in the soil and produce a combination of antifungals that will inhibit the growth of the pathogen. If you want to read more about the system and our work during the last six months, the iGEM Wageningen team 2014 invites you to continue surfing around our Wiki.

Achievements

Sponsors