Banana benders unite: QUT creates genetic saviour for our $US30 billion industry
After decades of work, a genetically modified banana developed by Queensland researchers has been submitted to regulators as a potential saviour of a $US20 billion ($A30 billion) industry.
QUT's Professor James Dale. Image supplied by QUT.
The Queensland University of Technology said the QCAV-4 banana was the first genetically modified Australian fruit to be submitted for regulatory approval with the Federal Government.
The modified Cavendish banana, the world’s most popular banana, has been made by taking a gene from a wild banana that was completely resistant to Panama Disease TR4 strain and put it into Cavendish which transfers the resistance.
TR4 devastated the Queensland industry in 2015 when it was detected in the Tully Valley in far north Queensland. It was again detected in FNQ this year threatening an industry that generates about $1 billion a year. The disease is a soil fungus that can survive for 50 years.
A field trial by the Queensland team in the Northern Territory has been going for about four years “and it looks fabulous”, according to QUT’s professor James Dale.
He said the crop was considered a safety net for the industry “”if TR4 gets really bad”, but there were no current plans to distribute the QCAV4 to be grown commercially.
QUT said that although Panama TR4 was currently in Queensland it had not spread beyond a few farms and Queensland growers could continue to grow Cavendish bananas so there was no reason to switch to the GM version.
However, if the GM version was approved, and TR4 suddenly spread in Australia, commercial forces would mean we could expect people to take this up quickly.
The next step is to make submissions to the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator and Food Standards Australia New Zealand which would determine whether the bananas are safe to consume.
Dale and his team have been working on developing the genetically modified bananas for more than 20 years.
“It’s a huge problem. It has devastated Cavendish plantations in many parts of the world and could cripple the Cavendish banana export worldwide,” Dale said.
“About 95 per cent of Australia’s bananas are grown in Queensland, and Cavendish banana accounts for 97 per cent of production,” Professor Dale said.
“Apart from providing a genuine protection against Panama Disease TR4 for the world’s export industry, QCAV-4 is a safety net for Australia’s $1.3 billion industry, which includes protected employment for 18,000 Queenslanders involved in banana production.”
