Dr Jean-Yves Paul, left, and QUT Distinguished Professor James Dale, right, with a bunch of QCAV-4 bananas, at the trial site in the Northern Territory. Photo: Anthony Weate
A genetically modified banana which has been engineered to resist disease is offering a glimmer of hope to the increasingly strained industry.
There's been a considerable outbreak of Panama disease recently, a fungus which decimates banana plants.
In the 1950s, it wiped out the Gros Michel banana, which was replaced with the one we now know and love: the Cavendish.
Back then, the Cavendish was immune to Panama, but a new fungal strain - known as tropical race 4 - means that's not the case anymore.
Across the ditch, scientists have been working on a genetically modified, disease-resistant type of Cavendish banana - and it's now been submitted for regulatory approval to the Australian Government.
If it gets the green light, it'll be the first genetically-modified banana approved anywhere in the world - though it wouldn't immediately be rolled out for human consumption.
Distinguished Professor James Dale of Queensland University of Technology has been working on it for the better part of three decades, and he speaks to Kathryn Ryan from Queensland.
