It's been 20 years in the making but a genetically modified banana that is resistant to Panama TR4 has been submitted for approval to the federal regulators.
The Cavendish banana known as QCAV-4 has been genetically modified to be resistant to Panama disease tropical race 4, which is threatening global banana plantations.
Professor James Dale from the School of Biology & Environmental Science at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) said If the new fruit was given the green light the QCAV-4 would become the first genetically modified fruit permitted for cultivation and consumption in Australia, as well as the world's first approved genetically modified banana variety.
"We started working on this variety around 2022, " he said.
"We recognised that Panama TR4 was going to be a major problem in the future.
"It had been recorded that a wild seeded banana in southeast Asia was resistant, so we thought that was a good place to start."
The team at QUT used a variety of molecular biology and biotechnology tools to remove the resistant genes from the wild banana variety and insert them into Cavendish bananas which were then field tested in the Northern Territory.
The bananas have now been submitted for approval to the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator and also Food standards Australia and New Zealand.
Despite the positive results from field tests Professor Dale said that there were no plans to release the new Cavendish banana for commercial production or distribution in the foreseeable future.
"What we now have is a safety net," he said.
"The vast majority of the industry has not been affected by TR4 but if the disease got to the stage that it has in the Philippines, then the farmers could go and plant this banana.
"Before releasing it to farmers we would also want to do some taste tests to make sure that it tastes like an ordinary Cavendish, so we still have a way to go,"
While QUT awaits the results from the regulators, they are now working on bringing back a banana variety that has disappeared from supermarket shelves.
Gros Michel bananas were all but wiped out by a Panama TR1 outbreak in the mid 1950s, leading to the rise in popularity of the Cavendish which now accounts for more 90 percent of the Australian market and more than 50 per cent of the world banana market.
"The biggest selling banana last century was the Gros Michel and it was wiped out by Tropical Race 1," Professor Dale said.
"One of the things we are working on is, can we bring back the Gros Michel banana?
"It's a wonderful tasting banana and there's only a few small plantations left, nobody grows it commercially but we are working on it."
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