Back to basics for TR4

TWO globally-renowned scientists believe the only way to stop the threat of the Panama TR4 disease in the Far North is to produce disease-resistant banana varieties.

It comes as a new dessert hybrid that is resistant to Panama and Leaf Spot diseases was revealed to the Australian banana industry last week.

American Professor Randy Ploetz, who works at the University of Florida, has been studying the Panama TR4 pathogen for the past few years.

He has worked extensively to protect Central and South America’s banana industry from the disease.

Dr Ploetz said creating a disease resistant plant required “rudimentary knowledge”.

“People have forgotten that once you have this disease in the area, the only way to solve the problem is to produce disease resistance in plants,” he said.

“We have previously only had primitive research tools that we can use in the assessment of Panama TR4 – we need to develop those tools to learn more about it, so we can manage it.”

He said the more the industry knew about what caused and spread the disease, the better equipped it would be to protect banana growing regions.

Panama TR4 is a soil-borne fungus that can be spread by animals or humans moving between properties. The Depart- ment of Agriculture and Fisheries has researched using hi-tech detection technology and disinfectants to manage the disease.

French banana breeding expert Dr Frederick Bakry said there was “no limit” to what Australian scientists could achieve. He has worked on breeding programs in Brazil, France and the Netherlands.

The pair revealed their groundbreaking research to the Australian Banana Growers’ Council congress last week.

ABGC’s Dr Rosie Godwin, who spent the week travelling North Queensland’s banana production area with Dr Bakry and Professor Ploetz, said the industry was lucky to have significant investment in research.