Banana lovers rejoice - Israeli
company develops bug-resistant bananas
Condensed from an article by David Brinn September 25, 2006 in Israel21C
If you eat five bananas a week, there's a good chance
that one of them has its genetic origins in Israel.
Driving north of Nahariya towards the Lebanese border, you pass fields and
fields of banana crops at nearby Achziv as well as on Kibbutz Rosh Hanikra. It's
at the latter kibbutz where biotech company Rahan Meristem (1998) LTD, a world
leader in banana biotechnology, has its offices and laboratories.
"We're the largest producer of banana tissue cultured plants in the world -
producing about 10 million a year. They're sold all around the world. We
calculated that approximately 20% of the bananas that are marketed throughout
the western world originated or were selected at Rahan," said Dr. Eli Khayat,
head of research and development at Rahan and a professor of plant biology at
Hebrew University and the Technion.
Now in a new breakthrough development with far-reaching implications, Khayat and
his team have successfully completed a field trial that validates its latest
accomplishment - the complete resistance of banana plants to a wide range of
pathogenic nematodes - tiny microscopic worms that damage plants from their
root.
Nematodes are considered one of the most destructive pathogens attacking bananas
in all zones of production. Vegetative propagation, using infested corms or
suckers, has disseminated this pest throughout the world. Yet, most effective
nematicides have been banned in large parts of the world because of their
polluting effect on the environment. As a result, nematode resistance is
considered to be a highly attractive attribute that is estimated to reduce
growers' expenses by hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
According to Khayat, the accomplishment has taken six years of research and
testing.
"The technology involved was developed jointly by Rahan, Bar Ilan University and
Hazera, an Israeli seed company. The result is transgenic bananas, bananas that
have been genetically modified. They are completely resistant to nematodes, by
use of a special technology called RNAi," he told ISRAEL21c.
"We recently conducted field trials, growing plants in an area heavily infested
with nematodes, and the plants showed complete resistance. They weren't affected
at all. The nematodes couldn't reproduce on the plants."
Khayat pointed out that in Costa Rica, where much of the population works in the
banana industry, there was a large occurrence of male sterility due to
nematicides. He added that over time, many countries have accepted genetically
engineered food products as a fact on the ground.
Rahan's nematode-resistant technology must now pass through a regulatory process
in the US which is very expensive, and Khayat acknowledges that Rahan, which
employs 130, will not be able to carry this out alone. As a result, the company
is currently looking for strategic partners in the US who will take over the
process.