New KU Leuven technology will help making bananas genetically more resilient

Bananas are the most important fruit crop worldwide and are a vital part of the diet of more than 400 million people in the Global South. Because the bananas we consume do not have seeds, farmers must propagate banana plants by using cuttings or ‘suckers’ to establish plantations. As a result, all plants are genetically identical.

‘The high level of genetic uniformity means that all our bananas look and taste more or less the same, but the downside is that they are susceptible to the same diseases and weather conditions,’ says Professor of Crop Biotechnics Hervé Vanderschuren. ‘Climate change is creating ever greater challenges for banana producers to protect their plantations.”

Conventional plant breeding not an option

Genetic mutations constantly arise in both plants and animals. Consider, for example, the Belgian Blue, a cattle breed in which a spontaneous mutation led to strong muscle growth. Farmers selected animals with this mutation for breeding to maintain the trait in their herds and achieve a higher meat production. This ‘conventional’ and widely used method of crop improvement is not possible in bananas due to their sterility.

‘We need to develop new and innovative ways to protect banana crops against the challenges of today and tomorrow,’ says Vanderschuren. ‘That’s why we looked for a way to modify banana DNA that complies with the strict European regulations on genetically edited crops.’

Under review by the European Council

The technique, developed at the KU Leuven Laboratory of Tropical Crop Improvement, does not introduce any foreign DNA into the banana. This is the key criterion in European legislation and the main reason why the commercialisation of genetically modified organisms has not yet been permitted. The method will help to untap the potential of genetic innovation in banana and other vegetatively propagated crops such as potato and cassava.

‘Our technique is based on the CRISPR method and modifies a single letter in the genetic code. So, we are not adding any foreign DNA. The mutation could have also occurred naturally, just like in the case of the Belgian Blue,’ Vanderschuren explains.

Several crop varieties improved with the CRISPR technologies, including maize, potato and tomato, are in the process of commercialisation in countries outside Europe. ‘Europe cannot stay behind in the search for innovative ways to safely improve crops.’

In 2024, the European Parliament voted positively for CRISPR technology for crop improvement. Currently, the European Council is reviewing whether CRISPR technology can be used on crops for consumption.

1,700 banana varieties at KU Leuven

Thanks to the research of Professor Vanderschuren’s team at KU Leuven and in collaboration with The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, a safe method is now in place to precisely adapt sterile tropical crops. They are currently investigating the genetic diversity of bananas to identify the genetic modifications could be beneficial for producers.

‘KU Leuven hosts the world’s largest banana collection with over 1,700 varieties. We will compare their genetic codes to identify mutations that may provide certain desirable traits, such as disease resistance,’ Vanderschuren explains.

More information

The publication An Agrobacterium-mediated base editing approach generates transgene-free edited banana by Van den Broeck et al. was published in New Phytologist (DOI 10.1111/nph.70044).

This research was funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO).