![]() ![]() The spokesperson said two rounds of stakeholder consultation would be required, with public consultation expected to occur in August.įood Standards Australia New Zealand is assessing the banana’s suitability for commercial sale and consumption. “The regulator will only issue a licence authorising the cultivation of the GM banana if satisfied that any risks can be effectively managed.” “The gene technology regulator will carefully examine any risks to people and the environment posed by the commercial cultivation of the GM banana plants. ![]() This means that “the genes aren’t going to flow to any other plant”, Dale said.Ī spokesperson for the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator said: “This is a significant step, but it is the first in a series of steps. Photograph: Anthony Weate/Queensland University of TechnologyĬavendish bananas, including the QCAV-4, are incapable of sexual reproduction – every plant propagated is an identical clone. skip past newsletter promotionĭale with young banana plants in a shade house at the QUT field-trial site in the Northern Territory. QCAV-4, the result of 20 years’ work, was developed by taking a resistance gene from a wild banana that is immune to TR4 and inserting it into the Cavendish. One day may not have an industry here growing with normal bananas.” “It virtually dehydrates the plant and it wilts.”Ĭollins described the genetically modified QCAV-4 as “another string in the bow … that we can use. The fungus “attacks the root of the plant and kills it slowly”, Collins said. We’ve confined it to that so far because of good biosecurity, and also the big effort that the growers have made.” “On the east coast, we only have it in the Tully River valley at the moment. In Australia Panama TR4 was first discovered in the Northern Territory, where it was gradually wiping out the industry, said Leon Collins, chair of the Australian Banana Growers’ Council. ![]() “Once it got to Colombia, and then Peru and now Venezuela, that’s when the big exporters suddenly realised that this is really very serious.” “The Philippines is already dramatically affected by TR4. “Eighty-five per cent of the world’s export bananas come from south and central America, and the other 15% come from the Philippines,” Dale said. Photograph: Anthony Weate/Queensland University of Technology It has has since spread to China, India and major banana-growing countries.įrom left: wild banana, Cavendish and genetically modified QCAV-4 plants. In the 1990s a related fungus that affects Cavendish bananas, Panama TR4, was discovered in south-east Asia. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundupĬavendish bananas increased in popularity after an outbreak of Panama disease – the strain TR1 – wiped out plantations of the Gros Michel banana, which until the 1950s was the main commercial variety internationally. “It has some disease resistance, it’s high yielding, it tastes pretty good and it travels well,” Dale said. There are between 300 and 1,000 varieties of banana globally, Dale estimates, but the Cavendish banana accounts for about half of commercial growing worldwide. The research team is not planning on immediately releasing the banana for commercial production or consumption if approved. Prof James Dale of the Queensland University of Technology, who led QCAV-4’s development, said the GM variety offered a safety net for growers in the event that the Australian industry was wiped out by TR4. If approved, the banana would become Australia’s first GM fruit to be approved for cultivation and consumption, as well as the first GM banana to be approved worldwide. ![]()
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