A brightly lit lab two hours north-east of London might be an odd place to find people trying to save the world’s most popular banana. But examining a Petri dish — the contents of which might contribute to that fight — are plant biologists devoted to just such a cause.

The humble fruit is under attack from a pernicious strain of Panama fungus disease which is destroying plantations around the world, threatening to devastate crops and cripple a $36bn a year industry on which some developing economies depend. Impervious to chemical treatments the fungus has, over the past three decades spread to China, south-east Asia, Australia and the Middle East. Tropical plant specialists say it is only a matter of time before it reaches Latin America, devastating the farms which provide three-quarters of the world’s banana exports.

Now scientists believe they might be able to stop the fungus in its tracks using gene editing, which shuts down specific genes or tweaks them to work differently. Advocates of gene editing view it as not just a way to combat fungal diseases but a vital contribution to producing safer crops with higher yields to feed a growing global population. According to UN estimates, the number of people on earth will grow by almost 2bn to a projected 9.8bn by 2050.