Panama disease new, already infected plant is fairly high. Finally, the disease is known to infect certain weeds without showing symptoms, meaning it can survive in the absence of banana plants and remain undetected in a place where bananas are planted later. FOC is thought to persist only asexually, as a teleomorph or sexual phase has not been found and no recombinant genotypes have been observed. This means that the survival and dispersal of the disease relies on purely asexual spores and structures. The disease survives in chlamydospores which are produced as the plant dies and can survive in the soil for
Plant disease resistance for disease resistance originated with Sir Rowland Biffen, who identified a single recessive gene for resistance to wheat yellow rust. Nearly every crop was then bred to include disease resistance (R) genes, many by introgression from compatible wild relatives. The term GM ("genetically modified") is often used as a synonym of transgenic to refer to plants modified using recombinant DNA technologies. Plants with transgenic/GM disease resistance against insect pests have been extremely successful as commercial products, especially in maize and cotton, and are planted annually on over 20 million hectares in over 20 countries worldwide (see also genetically modified crops).