Researchers have developed the first genetically modified version of a Cavendish banana that is resistant to the devastating soil-borne fungus known as Panama disease.
The fungus, or Fusarium wilt tropical race 4 (TR4), can stay in the soil for 40 years and doesn’t respond to chemical sprays. It has destroyed Cavendish — the main commercial banana variety — plantations around the world, and is fast spreading across Asia.
“In a world-first GM field trial conducted in heavily TR4-infested soil, one Cavendish line transformed with a gene taken from a wild banana remained completely TR4 free, while three others showed robust resistance … with 20% or fewer plants exhibiting disease symptoms in three years,” says Queensland University of Technology. The university’s Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities conducted the study, which was published in Nature Communications.
“By contrast, 67%-100% of control banana plants after three years were either dead or TR4-infected, including a Giant Cavendish variant 218 generated through tissue culturing in Taiwan and reported to be tolerant to TR4,” says QUT.