[en] Banana fruit (Musa sp.) ranks fourth in term of worldwide production, and has economical and nutritional key values. The popular and most dominant variety of the dessert banana group is the Cavendish variety. Nowadays, the Cavendish is endangered by the newly emergent race of the Panama disease, caused by the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense TR4 (Foc TR4). Despite the importance of the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), which are secondary metabolites with a high vapour pressure, in their utility in the plant protection processes, they were never documented as a way to manage this disease on Cavendish. Thus, the aim of this PhD thesis is to study the VOCs in the specific interaction Cavendish/Foc TR4, as a way to manage this threat. Based on the work previously done with other plants at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech/University of Liège/Belgium, a protocol was optimized for the extraction of the banana plant’s VOCs. And in parallel, models of in-vitro and in-vivo inoculations are under development, in order to distinguish the root zone from the upper part of the plant in the study. The results of the first analysis showed that the majority of the Cavendish VOCs belongs to the terpenes group, as well as ketones and an organic ester. The identified key VOCs of the interaction will be subject to toxicity tests, in order to determine their effect on the development of the plant and the pathogen. The banana plant is a staple food for more than 400 Million people in the world, while this disease persists as a major threat for its production, and this original study could contribute to the fight against this threatening disease.
