GMOs in horticulture - exciting opportunities or a dead end? A case study on banana
2016
Panis, B.
Banana can be considered an ideal crop for improvement through genetic engineering. Firstly, it is an essential staple food for hundreds of millions in the tropics and the number-one fresh fruit crop in the world. Secondly, due to its monoclonal cultivation, the crop is very vulnerable to pests and diseases, and large amounts of pesticides are thus being used. Next to creating banana cultivars that are resistant to these diseases, other targets for improvement are related to higher production, fruit storage (shelf life), fruit quality (i.e. “fortification” of the fruit, such as increasing vitamin and iron content) and abiotic stress resistance (against wind, cold, salt and drought). Thirdly, edible bananas are highly sterile, which makes classical breeding extremely difficult, but, at the same time, prevents transgene drift via pollen into the environment in the case of genetically engineered plants. All this, together with the fact that efficient transformation protocols have already been available for about 20 years, raises the question of why there are no transgenic bananas yet on the market. Some researchers indicate that, despite enormous investments in genetically modified bananas, the results are still quite poor, and claim that, if the same financial resources had been invested into classical breeding or better cultural practices, many problems could have been solved. This presentation will try to provide an unbiased overview of the past, present and future of genetically modified bananas.
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