Black Sigatoka Essay

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Black Sigatoka By: P. PATH 300 special interest paper- Fall 2011 Introduction: Bananas are a fruit that are enjoyed by billions of throughout the United States and the world, which then would be no surprise to find out that bananas are the fourth largest fruit crop of the world (1). It also brings in on average 10.5 billion dollars a year (3). A banana tree comes from the genus Musa, and is a member of the monocot order Zingiberales (1). One disease that appears most frequently is the Sigatoka leaf spot disease. It is caused by ascomycetous fungi, called Mycosphaerella musicola (2). Black Sigatoka can also be referred to as black leaf streak. Black Sigatoka could potentially be devastating to the banana species because it could yield losses of 50% or more, cause significant reductions in leaf area, premature ripening, and potentially a serious defect in fruit (3). This plant disease tends to infect banans that are used for desserts, cooking, and plantains susceptible (5). The Sigatoka disease was first found in the Sigatoka Valley in Fiji in 1963. However, it is figured that it was widespread in South Pacific and Southeast Asia around that time as well. Now it is found in most tropical areas that grow banana trees and replaced yellow Sigatoka and become the most occurring disease in the Musa spp. (3). The ideal conditions for this pathogen happen to be the same for the optimum growth conditions for the species in which it resides (4). The disease does not develop under cool conditions and shading the tree may reduce some of the symptoms (4). The fungus may also reduce when the weather is dry, however it usually undergoes continuous cycles of infection (5). The fungus is haploid through most of its life cycle. It reproduces both asexually and sexually, by conidia and ascospores (4). However, windborne ascospores are the major inoculum (5).

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