In a new study from Imperial College London, experts have brought a 70-year-old fungus back to life to understand more about coffee wilt disease. The researchers re-animated cryogenically frozen samples of the fungus to investigate how the disease evolved and how to prevent it from spreading.

The fungus associated with coffee wilt disease has been causing devastating outbreaks in sub-Saharan Africa since the 1920s. It currently affects two of Africa’s most popular types of coffee, Arabica and Robusta.

The new study reveals that the fungus enhanced its ability to infect coffee plants by acquiring genes from a related fungus that causes wilt disease in other crops, including Panama disease in bananas.

According to the researchers, this discovery could help farmers reduce the risk of emerging new disease strains. For example, coffee beans could be planted separately from other crops. Farmers could also work to prevent the build-up of plant debris that may harbor the fungus.

In collaboration with the University of Oxford and the agricultural not-for-profit CABI, the experts report that studying historical samples in CABI’s culture collection could provide a wealth of insights into how crop diseases evolve and help to find new, sustainable ways to fight them. 

By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

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