Australia approves commercial cultivation of TR4-resistant GM bananas

The Australian Government has granted Queensland University of Technology (QUT) official approval to commercially release a new genetically modified (GM) Cavendish banana variety. The QCAV-4 banana is the world's first GM banana approved for commercial production, and the first Australian GM fruit approved for cultivation in Australia. The new variety has been developed in hopes of combating the devastating effects of the TR4 virus, which is threatening the $20 billion global banana industry. “TR4 is killing Cavendish bananas in Australia and many other countries. It's spreading and the situation is getting worse,” says QUT Professor James Dale. Professor Dale and his team have been working on developing and growing genetically modified Cavendish bananas for over 20 years. EastFruit writes about this with reference to FreshFruitPortal. “QCAV-4 bananas were analyzed and we compared them to regular Cavendish. They have exactly the same composition, so we don't expect their taste to ...