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Music or older to purchase. They aren't thought of as the most exotic or exciting fruit, but bananas are the

world's most popular and most consumed fruit.

They're also one of the most important agricultural commodities and food staples

for hundreds of millions of people around the world. The fruit is also in danger of going extinct.

There are more than a thousand different varieties of banana, but the Panama disease, or TR4,

is threatening the most widely exported variety, the Cavendish.

Cavendish bananas make up 99% of global exports.

That's according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.

But it's vulnerable to the aggressive fungal disease that's invading areas where most of the banana supply is produced.

And it's happened before.

Until the 1950s, consumers were eating a different variety of banana

before it succumbed to an invading fungal disease.

Now scientists are racing against the clock to save the banana again.

We hear from one of those scientists on the front lines after the break.

I'm Jen White.

You're listening to the 1A podcast where we get to the heart of the story.

Back with more in just a moment.

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