Malnutrition is a problem across large swaths of the globe, but it’s a difficult problem to solve. It’s not only a matter of people getting enough to eat; they need to have the right combination of food as well. People in developing countries often subside on a very limited diet, which can lead to life-threatening vitamin deficiencies. Surprisingly, a genetically modified (GM) super-banana backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation might be a key weapon in the fight against malnutrition. Yeah, it’s not as sexy as the Gates-backed condoms.
So what makes it “super?” This banana is absolutely chock full of beta-carotene, which the body uses to produce vitamin A. That may not sound like a food with the potential to make an impact on malnutrition, but vitamin A deficiency is a huge problem in the developing world. World health experts estimate 650,000-700,000 children die annually from a lack of vitamin A in their diets. A further 300,000 avoid death only to lose their eyesight. By tweaking a few genes, scientists have created a banana that could prevent such things.
Beta-carotene itself is a large hydrocarbon molecule (pictured above) that has a deep orange color. If you’ve ever wondered why carrots, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes are orange, it’s because of all the beta-carotene they contain. Some species of bananas also produce higher levels of beta-carotene, but they aren’t the ones cultivated for human consumption. It’s these other bananas that Queensland University of Technology scientists used as the source of genetic material to create the super-banana.
Like everything else that goes on in a living organism, there are genes in plants that control the synthesis of beta-carotene. Researchers isolated the genes responsible for this in the non-edible variety of banana and inserted it into the banana we all know and love. A little extra genetic engineering magic increased the expression of this gene, and bam
— you get a banana that produces a ton of beta-carotene to fight vitamin A deficiency. They look normal on the outside, but under the peel the fruit has a golden hue.In England, there was a famous comic book hero called Bananaman who gained his superpowers from eating bananas. (Those crazy Brits.)
So why go to all the trouble of creating a GM plant instead of simply shipping crates of carrots to the developing world? Health workers realized long ago that it’s logistically difficult to continually ship in foreign food to stave off malnutrition — growing the necessary foods locally is much more feasible. Staple crops (like bananas in many tropical regions) are ideal because subsistence farmers already know how to cultivate them.
It’s the same approach that was taken more than a decade ago to create Golden Rice. In that case, scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University of Freiburg modified rice to produce beta-carotene in the endosperm (the part we eat) rather than just in the leaves. The result was an orangey variety of rice that boosted levels of vitamin A. Rice is a staple food among the poor in Asia, just like bananas in the tropics.
The super-banana is set to undergo human testing in the US over the coming weeks at a cost of $10 million, paid for by the Gates Foundation. Researchers will monitor vitamin A levels to see if they tick upward following ingestion of the enriched bananas. Anything having to do with genetic modified foods tends to be contentious, but that’s mostly because of misconceptions about testing and risk factors. If a banana a day can prevent thousands of deaths, it’s probably a win. If all goes as planned, the genetically modified fruit could be growing in Africa by 2020.
