A new study suggests that the bananas currently piled up in grocery stores could effectively go extinct due to the spread of a deadly fungus.
The Washington Post details the grim forecast for the banana variety known as the Cavendish.
The Cavendish came to prominence following the demise of the Gros Michel banana, which fell victim to Panama Disease between the late 1800s and the mid-1900s. It now represents 99 percent of the global banana market.
The analysis published in the journal PLOS Pathogens, however, said that Cavendish banana plants around the world are afflicted with a mutation of Panama Disease called Tropical Race 4.
The fungus can't be cured or stopped, scientists warn, which means that it's only a matter of time until it spreads from Asia, Africa and Australia into Latin America, home to most of the world's banana exports.
Although the fungus could also threaten locally grown banana varieties, the worldwide dominance of the Cavendish makes it particularly vulnerable to disease.
Tropical Race 4 is expected to eventually join the Irish Potato Blight in highlighting the problems of monoculture — in which a single variety of crop comes to dominate the market and can then be wiped out by a single disease.
The study recommends coordinated global efforts to cultivate new banana varieties in order to stunt the disease's impact on the global supply. They also suggest improving treatment of affected plants and soil in order to slow its spread.