Joseph Bancroft’s discovery of Fusarium Wilt of banana

Article


Ryley, Malcolm J. and Drenth, Andre. 2024. "Joseph Bancroft’s discovery of Fusarium Wilt of banana." Historical Records of Australian Science. 35 (2), pp. 158-169. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR23012
Article Title

Joseph Bancroft’s discovery of Fusarium Wilt of banana

ERA Journal ID3482
Article CategoryArticle
AuthorsRyley, Malcolm J. and Drenth, Andre
Journal TitleHistorical Records of Australian Science
Journal Citation35 (2), pp. 158-169
Number of Pages12
Year2024
PublisherCSIRO Publishing
Place of PublicationAustralia
ISSN0727-3061
1448-5508
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1071/HR23012
Web Address (URL)https://www.publish.csiro.au/HR/HR23012
AbstractIn the early decades of British settlement at Sydney Cove in 1788, the struggling colonials tried their hand at growing edible bananas but invariably failed. However, they grew extremely well in the Moreton Bay colony (Brisbane) and over time banana growing became an important agricultural industry there, particularly after the introduction of the Cavendish variety. All was progressing well until a new disease appeared in plantations around Brisbane in the early 1870s. The medical practitioner and naturalist Joseph Bancroft investigated the problem and concluded that a fungus was implicated as the causal agent. In the early 1900s, following serious outbreaks of a disease with similar symptoms in Caribbean countries (where it was called Panama Disease), the American bacteriologist Erwin Frink Smith studied the same disease in Cuba, and named the pathogen Fusarium cubense. Another American scientist, Elmer Walker Brandes, conclusively proved that Fusarium cubense (now called Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense) was the cause of the banana disease. Bancroft’s discovery of the disease now called Fusarium Wilt not only predates other reports of the disease in the Caribbean but also represents the first scientific investigation of a plant disease in Australia.
Keywordsbanana; Elmer Brandes; Erwin Frink Smith; Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubens; fusarium wilt; Joseph Bancroft; Musa; Henry Tryon
Contains Sensitive ContentDoes not contain sensitive content
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020300499. Crop and pasture production not elsewhere classified
Byline AffiliationsCentre for Crop Health
University of Queensland
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