• Back in 2015, I described how the deficiencies of monoculture cultivation eventually was going to kill off the Cavendish variety, the dominant cultivar and seriously impact African consumption.
• In 2017 I described how Banana Xanthomonas Wilt, a bacterial disease was endangering the global crop and that there was a GMO solution that protestors were opposed to that could save the Cavendish.
• In 2018 I described how a fungus, Fusarium, was spreading Panama Disease across the globe endangering the Cavendish.
• In 2019 I described how banana growers were ignoring the need for genetic diversity at their continuing peril.
• In 2021 I wrote about the threat to food security because Panama Disease was not only wiping out billions of dollars of crops but was also threatening food security in Africa.

If you are unaware, the bananas that you slice into your cereal or munch on as a snack in the Global North, but eat daily as an essential food in much of the Global South, are seedless. Hence the crops grown are all clones derived from cuttings of existing plants. They are seedless because selective breeding has made it so. Who is responsible for the proliferation of seedless bananas? Blame America’s United Fruit Company known as Chiquita Brands International for the banana monoculture model that dominates the industry and continues to put the global crop in peril.

In 2017,  5.6 million hectares (13.8 million acres) of land was dedicated to banana production globally. Almost all of the bananas grown came from countries in the Global South.

Australian researchers at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) are pursuing the rescue of the Cavendish by developing a genetically modified (GM) banana that is Panama-Disease-resistant. The new variety is called the QCAV-4 and the Australian government has approved it as safe to eat.

A gene found in a wild red banana that is native to Malaysia and Sumatra called Musa Acuminata Ssp Malaccensis, has been inserted into the Cavendish variety and won over the Aussie government to accept a GM crop for consumption.

What seems weird about the Aussie announcement by its developers, is the reference to QCAV-4 as being a “safety net” just in case Panama Disease should spread beyond where it currently is confined to a small area of Queensland. Queensland is where 95% of the country’s banana crop is grown, 97% of it Cavendish.

For banana growers, old habits die hard. The truth is, that the world needs to diversify banana growing to cultivate the many varieties that already are around, and through selective breeding or genetic modification, secure this important food source for the planet.

Professor James Dale is the leader of the banana biotechnology program at QUT where the QCAV-4 was engineered. His remarks in a recent interview about the response to the government approving the new variety state, “We welcome this decision as it’s a very important step towards building a safety net for the world’s Cavendish bananas.” He also notes that “in some countries, particularly in Central America, they spray up to 60 times a year” to try and stop the collapse of the Cavendish monoculture model caused by the spread of Panama Disease.

The Aussie team is now turning its research to develop another “safety net” GM version of the Cavendish that is threatened by a leaf-infecting fungus Pseudocercospora fijiensis, also known as Black Sigatoka.

Dale states that gene editing can future-proof foods like bananas. He concludes “We’re going to need these sorts of technologies to cut down on pesticides, but also as we’re getting into a much more challenging climate, we’ve got to be able to generate new cultivars that can cope with all these new conditions.”

Pitjuri is the Australian aboriginal name for Nicotiana benthamiana. Plant geneticists have been using it as a model for testing viruses and vaccines describing it as “magical.” Based on the sequencing of the plant’s genome scientists can turn back the clock to find the plant’s ancestors going back some 750,000 years ago. To their amazement Pitjuri has not been altered genetically in any way throughout that time.

Pitjuri grows in one of the most inhospitable places on the planet. A native of Western Australia where rain is a rarity, the plant’s number one threat is drought. When rain comes all the plant’s energy gets put into germination, and seed propagation. To lead researcher Dr. Julia Bally, Pitjuri is the “plant equivalent of the nude mouse used in medical research.” It has lost its immune system to focus all of its resources on that very short window of opportunity when water is present.

The mapping of the Pitjuri genome becomes a base line reference in comparing it to other plants including crops. The bio factory characteristics exhibited in the plant’s ability to germinate and propagate can now be duplicated through genetic manipulation of other species.

Research results appear in a paper entitled, “The extremophile Nicotiana benthamiana has traded viral defence for early vigour” appearing in the journal Nature Plants. And the University has posted on a website its genomic study inviting others from around the world to compare Pitjuri’s genome with plants they are investigating.

What are the implications from this research for growing food crops in space? Plants that incorporate Pitjuri’s genomic characteristics through modification may be future astronauts’ companions for Deep Space and interplanetary exploration missions. Space is almost the ideal environment for a plant that has no immunity defenses. For example the lunar regolith could be a great growing medium. Erect a dome and pressurize it. Plant the seeds. Add a little water, and voila – food for a lunar colony.