Transgenic Cavendish bananas with resistance to Fusarium wilt tropical race 4

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01670-6
• Publication Date: 2017-11-08T16:31:26Z
• Authors: James Dale; Anthony James; Jean-Yves Paul; Harjeet Khanna; Mark Smith; Santy Peraza-Eche...; Fernando Garcia-B...; Gert Kema; Peter Waterhouse; Kerrie Mengersen; Robert Harding
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 570; Science; Genes, Plant; 630; Article; Banana; 03 medical and health sciences; Fusarium; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Fusarium wilt TR4; Field trial; Life Science; Amino Acid Sequence; Disease Resistance; Plant Diseases; Gene Editing; 2. Zero hunger; Virulence; Q; Panama Disease; Musa; Plants, Genetically Modified; Diploidy; Transgenic resistance; Sequence Alignment

AbstractBanana (Musa spp.) is a staple food for more than 400 million people. Over 40% of world production and virtually all the export trade is based on Cavendish banana. However, Cavendish banana is under threat from a virulent fungus, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 (TR4) for which no acceptable resistant replacement has been identified. Here we report the identification of transgenic Cavendish with resistance to TR4. In our 3-year field trial, two lines of transgenic Cavendish, one transformed with RGA2, a gene isolated from a TR4-resistant diploid banana, and the other with a nematode-derived gene, Ced9, remain disease free. Transgene expression in the RGA2 lines is strongly correlated with resistance. Endogenous RGA2 homologs are also present in Cavendish but are expressed tenfold lower than that in our most resistant transgenic line. The expression of these homologs can potentially be elevated through gene editing, to provide non-transgenic resistance.