BY FARHAN ZULKIPLEE
AUSTRALIAN SCIENTISTS have developed golden-orange-fleshed bananas rich in pro-vitamin A that could help the many children in Uganda who have a pro-vitamin A deficiency.
ABC News reported that Professor James Dale, Research Director of Queensland University of Technology has been conducting research and development with other researchers on genetically modified (GM) banana for more than a decade. They have grown the first GM banana in Uganda using the local species. He was thrilled and excited to know that their GM banana has shown a positive result.
“What we’ve done is take a gene from a banana that originated in Papua New Guinea and is naturally very high in pro-vitamin A but has small bunches, and inserted it into a Cavendish banana,” Dale said in a release.[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]
“Over the years, we’ve been able to develop a banana that has achieved excellent pro-vitamin A levels, hence the golden-orange rather than cream-coloured flesh.
The local people in Uganda will be really benefited if this GM banana is introduced in their diet. Most of the villagers consumed banana in their daily dish. The east African cooking banana is a staple of many east African nations where it is steamed and chopped but contain low amounts of micronutrients especially pro vitamin A and iron that are required in our body. Jean-Yves Paul, one of the Queensland University of Technology researchers said banana which is called ‘matoke’ in Uganda is the perfect fruit to boost vitamin A and iron levels.
The researchers’ concern for the people in Uganda is the vitamin A deficiency among the children. This deficiency would cause blindness, effecting their immune system to become impaired and what matters the most is that it can give serious impact to the brain development of these children.
Dale said that this is getting worse in Africa. Researchers there have estimated that up to 700,000 children worldwide died because of the lack of vitamin A in their diet, especially in the rural and isolated areas.
The Cavendish bananas undergo several genetic modifications in far north Queensland before the project was brought to Africa. During the project, researchers were worried about the potential loss of the pro vitamin A in the fruits after several generations of the plants but were thrilled to see that it did not happen.
“Over five generations we’ve been able to maintain the level of pro-vitamin A and, in some instances, increase it over time which is really exciting,” Dale said.
However, the banana would not be available in the Uganda market for another six years as it needs to go through some regulatory testing for its safety. Dale said he doesn’t expect to see a positive impact of the banana on local community until 2025.
This project has been funded by famous Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation up to 10 million dollars.
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