Bananas are among the most widely consumed foods in the world, and constitute a major food crop for millions of people in developing countries. They are grown in more then 100 countries worldwide, mainly in Asia, South and Central America. In export, Banana ranks fourth among all agricultural commodities, and is the most significant of all fruits, with world trade totaling $2.5 billion annually.
Evogene's project for developing bananas displaying resistance to Black Leaf Streak Disease (also known as Black Sigatoka) is at the gene discovery phase. Evogene uses a comparative genomics approach on vast amounts of genomic data from bananas and other relevant plant species utilizing its unique computational gene discovery platform. Genes discovered through the project will be inserted and tested in elite export banana lines by Rahan Meristem, the world’s leading banana plantlet producer and marketer, which we are collaborating with in this project.
Black Leaf Streak Disease is the most costly and damaging foliar disease to the export-banana industry. The pathogen causes large lesions that eventually cover the entire surface of the leaves, resulting in devastating yield losses. Currently, the only way to control the disease is through frequent – often more than 50 times per year – oil and fungicide applications. The frequency of spraying is on the incline from year to year. In some tropical areas the cost of spraying accounts for more than 35% of total production costs, amounting to more than $1,300 annually per hectare. The world cost of spraying banana plantations against this single disease per annum surpasses $500M. Also, fungicides are reported to possibly cause environmental and detrimental health effects in the major producing countries of Central America, The Caribbean Islands and Far East.
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More Trait Development (Genetic Modification) projects:
Incresed Yield Monocots
Increased Yield Dicot
Improved Nitrogen Use Efficiency
Improved Abiotic Stress Tolerance
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