Scientists have spent years trying to unravel the domestication of the humble banana. Thanks to their efforts we now know what their remote ancestor looked like from 7,000 years ago. A year ago, a group of eight researchers from France, Belgium and Papua New Guinea published an extensive study in Frontiers in which they basically investigated the process of hybridization and domestication of bananas, stopping in the process at their missing wild ancestors.
What was that ancestor from 7,000 years ago like? Quite different from current bananas. Its pulp was almost inedible and contained black seeds. “They were a far cry from the bananas we see today,” says Julie Sardos, a scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and one of the authors of the Frontiers paper.
The predominant wild ancestor of bananas is Musa acuminata, which emerged around 10 million years ago probably in the northern region of Indo-Burma, but it is much more complicated to specify how the “domestication” process was that allows us to enjoy the current fruit. Other known wild ancestors are known to have come into play, but in 2020 it was found that there are other species that contributed to the modern banana. Of course, it was not specified which ones.
Source: ruetir.com