"Super" banana to face first human trial

SYDNEY: A super-enriched banana genetically engineered to improve the lives of millions of people in Africa will soon have its first human trial, which will test its effect on vitamin A levels, Australian researchers said Monday.

The project plans to have the special banana varieties -- enriched with alpha and beta carotene which the body converts to vitamin A -- growing in Uganda by 2020.

The bananas are now being sent to the United States, and it is expected that the six-week trial measuring how well they lift vitamin A levels in humans will begin soon.

"Good science can make a massive difference here by enriching staple crops such as Ugandan bananas with pro-vitamin A and providing poor and subsistence-farming populations with nutritionally rewarding food," said project leader Professor James Dale.

The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) project, backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, hopes to see conclusive results by year end.

"We know our science will work," Professor Dale said.

"We made all the constructs, the genes that went into bananas, and put them into bananas here at QUT."

Dale said the Highland or East African cooking banana was a staple food in East Africa, but had low levels of micro-nutrients, particularly pro-vitamin A and iron.

"The consequences of vitamin A deficiency are dire with 650,000-700,000 children world-wide dying ... each year and at least another 300,000 going blind," he said.

Researchers decided that enriching the staple food was the best way to help ease the problem.

While the modified banana looks the same on the outside, inside the flesh is more orange than a cream colour, but Dale said he did not expect this to be a problem.

He said once the genetically modified bananas were approved for commercial cultivation in Uganda, the same technology could potentially be expanded to crops in other countries -- including Rwanda, parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Tanzania.

"In West Africa farmers grow plantain bananas and the same technology could easily be transferred to that variety as well," he said.

Red Banana

Red bananas, also known as Red Dacca bananas in Australia, are a variety of banana with reddish-purple skin. 

They are smaller and plumper than the common Cavendish banana. When ripe, raw red bananas have a flesh that is cream to light pink in color.

They are also softer and sweeter than the yellow Cavendish varieties, with a slight raspberry flavor. Many red bananas are imported from producers in Asia and South America. They are a favorite in Central America but are sold throughout the world.

Red bananas are eaten in the same way as yellow bananas, by peeling the fruit before eating. They are frequently eaten raw, whole or chopped, and added to desserts and fruit salads, but can also be baked, fried and toasted.

Red bananas are also commonly sold dried in stores.

The first bananas to appear on the market in Toronto (in the 1870s and 1880s) were red bananas. Red bananas are available year round at specialty markets and larger supermarkets in the United States.

Managing nematode infestation in banana

E. I. JONATHAN/N. SREENIVASAN

The Hindu

Nematode infestation is one of the major limiting factors in banana production. Burrowing nematode, root-lesion nematode, spiral nematode and root-knot nematode are the major nematodes associated with banana.

These cause extensive root and corm damage leading to 20-50 per cent fruit yield loss. Commercial banana cultivars like Nendran, Robusta, Grand Naine, Ney Poovan, Poovan and Rasthali are often infested by these nematodes.

Dark lesions

The nematodes penetrate the roots and destroy the plant cells. This leads to dark lesion on root surface. Under severe infestation the root turns black. These nematodes can migrate from infected roots to other parts of the plant.

Adult females lay 200-300 eggs. They damage the xylem vessel and affect the uptake of water and nutrients.

Research on nematode management in banana is in progress for more than three decades through All India Co-ordinated Project on Tropical Fruits (AICRP-TF) at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore. The following are some management options that help to overcome the infestation.

Summer ploughing and exposing the soil to sunlight prior to planting for about two months. Selection of healthy sucker from nematode-free plants.

Grow marigold

Growing Sunhemp or marigold in and around the basin of plants during early stages of crop and incorporating their biomass one month later can reduce nematode build up.

Press mud application at rate of 15 tonnes per ha (5 kg/pit) or neem cake 1.5 tonnes per ha (500 g/pit) during planting can also help to avoid nematode build up.

Application of farm-yard manure at 10 kg per plant 60 days after planting. — Rotating banana with paddy.

Application of Pseudomonas fluorescens liquid formulation at 4 lit/ha at two, four and six months after planting through drip system will help.

(E.I. Jonathan, Prof and Head, Department of Fruit Crops and N. Sreenivasan, Assistant Prof, department of Nematology, TNAU. email: seeni_nema@yahoo.com and eijonathan@yahoo.com, phone: 09865724277.)