[3] When spores of M. fijiensis are deposited on a susceptible banana leaf, they germinate within three hours if the humidity is high or a film of water is present.

More hyphae then grow into the palisade tissue and continue on into other air chambers, eventually emerging through stomata in the streak that has developed.

It affects banana trees specifically in tropical climates; including Asia, West Africa, China, and South America.

[7] Tropical weather is the preferred climate for banana cultivation, but it is also the environment where the pathogen thrives: hot and humid, with plenty of rainfall to aid in dispersal.

The sign of the pathogen consists of the ascocarp which holds the ascospores used for dissemination to infect healthy new plants when the environment is conducive.

Yellow leaf streak shows smaller, yellow-green lesions that appear on top of the leaves.

This will help reduce the initial (ascospores) and secondary (conidia) spread of inoculum of new plant leaves and interrupt the pathogen's polycyclic disease cycle.

[8] One form of chemical control is preemptive use of fungicides on banana trees in order to protect them from primary inoculum.

The fungicide does not kill the pathogen itself, but works on the pre-necrotic spots on the leaves, stopping the secondary spores from inoculating new, healthy plant tissue.

[14] M. fijiensis is one such case: Romero et al., 1998 find MBC resistant isolates benefit from enhanced virulence (specifically tested with benomyl).

A genetically modified banana variety made more resistant to the fungus was developed and was field tested in Uganda in the late 2000s.

[15] Furthermore, the search for genetic resistance shows promise with the discovery of a protein that can produce a hypersensitive response to control M. fijiensis that is being introduced into banana trees.

[17][18] The disease was reported in 1972 in Honduras, from where it spread north to central Mexico and south to Brazil and into the Caribbean islands[18] in 1991.

[20] As it spread, Black Sigatoka replaced the yellow form and has become the dominant disease of bananas worldwide.

[10] M. fijiensis has been found in all regions of the world that are major producers of bananas and is a constraint for these countries; specifically, Africa, Asia, and South America.

Small farmers growing bananas for local markets cannot afford expensive measures to fight the disease.