Tomato gene may fend banana against formidable fungus Having shown in a PNAS article that the fungus Cladosporium fulvum, which causes leaf blight in tomato plants, is closely related to Mycosphaerella fijiensis, which causes a leaf spot disease in bananas, scientists from Wageningen University in the Netherlands speculate that the Cf resistance gene of the tomato could provide protection to the defenceless Cavendish banana.

The sequencing of the Mycosphaerella fijiensis genome was announced at the first meeting of the ProMusa Crop Protection working group.