If you have bananas in the future, thank Uganda

Panama disease in Hawaii
Photo: Scot Nelson

Source: "Banana: R.I.P.: They're in trouble. Can biotechnology save the fruit?" Dan Koeppel, TheScientist.Com, 30 May 2008.

Bananas are grown from clones since the fruits are sterile. The bananas sold in the United States are of a variety called Cavendish. Fifty years ago the bananas sold in the United States were of the Gros Michel variety, but that variety was essentially wiped out by Panama disease - or Fusarium wilt of banana. There was some panic in the banana industry until the Cavendish was found that was both resistant to the disease and of adequate quality (although not as good as the Gros Michel). Now a new strain of Panama disease is wiping out the Cavendish in Asia and Australia. It is probably just a matter of time until it reaches the Americas, which are the source of bananas sold commercially here.

Biotechnology is a likely tool in the effort to save the commercial banana, and thus to save an extremely important export industry for a number of developing nations. Some initial success was achieved with rapid DNA screening methods for early detection of infection, but those have not been adequate in Australia where they were developed and used.

A better bet is GM plants, although it will be a major effort to develop varieties that are safe to eat, acceptable in taste and appearance to consumers, transportable, and commercially viable for the farmer. It may take even longer to get consumers to overcome superstitious fear of GM foods.

We could get along without bananas, but there are millions of people who depend on plantains, their close cousins, for their very survival. Plantains too are threatened by the Fusarium disease.

The article states:

Right now, regulations have prevented even publicly funded research organizations from testing more than a handful of transformed bananas in the field. Most of this research has been conducted under the auspices of Bioversity International, an umbrella group that works mostly on food security issues. The bananas being field tested were developed though a collaborative effort between Ugandan and Belgian scientists in Leuven, Belgium, and are being grown at experimental plots in Uganda, a country where about 80 percent of some local diets is made up of the fruit, and where the consequences of a banana wipe-out would be disastrous. The millions of people like those in Uganda who depend on bananas to survive would be the real beneficiaries of a better banana.

Transgenic plants in field, Uganda
Photo: Andrew Kiggundu