Australian scientists announce GM banana resistant to Fusarium
A banana cultivar genetically modified to be resistant to Fusarium wilt has been developed by a team of scientists at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), in Brisbane, Australia. Professor James Dale, director of the Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities based at QUT, announced that they had successfully inserted a single gene into the banana genome to stop cells from dying when they are attacked by the Fusarium wilt pathogen. A field trial is expected start in North Queensland in December. |
|
New Book: Genomics of Tropical Crop Plants
The book “Genomics of Tropical Crop Plants” is the first volume in a series of books on plant genetics and genomics, and includes a chapter on banana and plantain. The book, edited by Paul H. Moore and Ray Ming, is published by Springer. The banana and plantain chapter (read the abstract here) is authored by N Roux, F-C Baurens, J Doleel, E Hřibová, P Heslop-Harrison, C Town, T Sasaki, T Matsumoto, R Aert, S Remy, M Souza and P Lagoda. To purchase the book, go to tinyurl.com/46lzgv. |
Bacterial wilt platform
Bioversity International has launched an online platform on Xanthomonas wilt of banana. This online resource includes an informative guide on the disease, extension materials (fact sheets, flip books, videos, posters), selected literature, pictures and other documentation. Users can post questions, reply to previous messages or initiate a discussion on the discussion forum. The site is available in French and English. For those with limited internet access, a CD-Rom of the resource platform can be requested from Bioversity. |
Last print issue of InfoMusa
InfoMusa Volume 16, the final print issue of the international banana and plantain journal published by Bioversity, is available now. Order your copy from
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or download it from the Bioversity website: English (2.2 Mb), French. |
Updated January 2008
Ghanaian banana farmers benefit from a plant distribution initiative
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in collaboration with national partners, is spearheading a project to disseminate tissue-culture Musa plantlets to Ghanaian farmers. |
New plantain and banana cultivars for sub-Saharan Africa
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has announced that its breeders have developed new varieties of bananas and plantains. The Belgium-funded five-year project has also developed “methods for deploying the varieties in a way that preserves traditional varieties while offering additional value-adding processing options”. |
Producing energy from banana waste
The Australian Banana Grower’s Association has built a pilot scale reactor that produces methane from banana waste. The prototype is based on research conducted by Bill Clarke from the University of Queensland. |
Expert argues that tissue-culture bananas are not adapted to small-scale farmers
Benjamin Chege from the National Horticultural Centre in Kenya says that the future of tissue-culture bananas lies in reaching out to farmers who own large farms. |
Banana bunchy top virus in Hawaii
The Banana bunchy top virus continues to make headlines in Hawaii, this time on Molokai, where extension efforts are underway to control the spread of the disease. It was first observed on Kaua’i in 1997, reaching O’ahu eight years later. |
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 5 of 5 |
