Banana trees that's used commercially are cloned by taking off-shoots, and are s... | Hacker News

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		noselasd on Sept 10, 2014 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: How the global banana industry is killing the worl... Banana trees that's used commercially are cloned by taking off-shoots, and are sterile. It's quite hard, if not impossible, to alter their genetics. Likewise it's hard to breed new banana trees that produce suitable fruits.

rrmoelker on Sept 10, 2014 [–]

They don't really seem to be sterile, rather just highly unlikely to get offspring: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_disease#Banana_breeding_...

It seems that with each meiosis step the banana plants become less fertile.

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