Gene-edited banana that limits Panama disease and protects against browning in development in Panama

Panama disease, also called Panama disease Tropical Race 4 (TR4), is a serious banana disease and is one of the most severe threats facing the banana industry in the world today.

There had been no known cure or varieties of bananas that were resistant to the disease until now.

Tropic’s ‘non-browning’ bananas have also received the go-ahead from the Philippines Department of Agriculture, which has a rigorous gene editing regulatory determination process, said the company in a statement.

Panama TR4 is a big problem in countries like Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Mozambique, Pakistan, and India, among others. It is estimated that over 80 percent of the global production of bananas has come under the threat of Panama TR4, caused by a fungus called Fusarium oxysporum that lives in the soil. The fungus cannot be eradicable and has the potential to survive in the soil for decades.

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“The Philippines government has implemented a science-based, transparent, and efficient process for assessing the safety of gene-edited plants.  This is exactly the type of system that encourages companies like Tropic to invest in innovative technologies to develop sustainable solutions for Filipino farmers,” said Tropic’s Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Ofir Meir, in the statement.

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