The world’s first genetically modified banana has been approved for commercial production in Australia with the developers able to now commercially grow the fruit in Australia. The altered Cavendish banana species, known as QCAV-4, were homegrown in Queensland.
Chalk this one up to the fine folks at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and in particular, the University’s distinguished professor James Dale and his team of researchers.
This development is an effort to save Cavendish bananas from a deadly disease. The team has been working on Cavendish bananas for more than 20 years, and now, Food Standards Australia New Zealand has issued the team some fruits of its labour – approval for human consumption (though this could be overturned within 60 days).
“We welcome this decision as it’s a very important step towards building a safety net for the world’s Cavendish bananas from TR4 which has impacted many parts of the world already,” Dale said.
“The devastating Panama Disease TR4 is caused by a soil-borne fungus that stays in the ground for more than 50 years, wiping out banana crops and destroying farms for generations. It is a huge problem. It has devastated Cavendish plantations in many parts of the world and could cripple the Cavendish banana export industry worldwide.”
Thankfully, QCAV-4 directly addresses the disease with highly increased resilience. QUT describes the modified banana as a “potential safety net” for the $US20 billion global banana industry.
The banana has been grown in field trials over the past seven years in the Northern Territory.
Cavendish bananas make up about 97 per cent of banana production in Australia – and 95 per cent of all bananas in the country come from Queensland, so you can see why this is a pretty big breakthrough for the university.
But don’t get your hopes up about eating one of these anytime soon, the university said at this time, there are no plans to grow or sell the genetically modified Cavendish banana to Aussies soon.
That’s subject to change, however, and given its increased resilience against an industry-crippling issue, you may one day see these bananas at the supermarket.
Image: A wild banana plant with the gene (left), a cavendish banana plant (centre), and a QCAV-4 banana plant (right). Credit: QUT