Researchers have made a breakthrough in the fight to save the world’s bananas from a devastating disease that could wipe them out, according to a new study. The bananas we eat, called Cavendish bananas, are under threat from a plant-killing disease called Fusarium wilt. The disease has already wiped out other banana varieties and wiped out banana production in the 1950s.

But in a new study, researchers have discovered that the disease threatening bananas today did not evolve from the strain that caused so much damage in the 20th century, and there may be a way to control its spread. The team’s findings, published Friday (Aug. 16) in the journal Nature Microbiology, could help prevent an imminent “banana apocalypse,” according to a statement from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“The bananas we eat today are different from the bananas your grandparents ate,” senior study author Lee-Jun Ma, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said in a statement. “These ancient bananas, the Gros Michel, are functionally extinct; they fell victim to the first fusarium epidemic in the 1950s.”

There are many species of wild bananas and we grow many varieties. The most common banana in stores today is the Cavendish banana. Musa acuminataAccording to the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in the United Kingdom, almost all of the world’s banana exports come from this species.