Development of next-generation gene editing technologies for plant health and disease resistance

By production volume, bananas are the fourth most important global crop, with 115 million tonnes of banana produced in 2019 (FAO, 2021). Most banana cultivation is performed by small-scale farmers, providing a vital source of income and employment to over 70 million people in Africa alone (IISD, 2020). However, global banana production is increasingly threatened by the rapid spread of Black Sigatoka Disease (BSD), also known as black leaf streak. BSD causes leaf necrosis and can decimate local crop yields, with a catastrophic impact on smallholder livelihoods. BSD is already responsible for reducing global annual banana production by an average of 3%, equivalent to an annual loss of around £1.1billion (Strobl and Mohan, 2020).

Since cultivated bananas are triploid and sterile, new BSD-resistant varieties cannot be produced through conventional breeding. Instead, farmers are reliant on managing BSD through frequent (weekly) fungicide treatments applied throughout the growing season (Bellaire et al., 2010). With a fungicide treatment cost of up to £1,000/ha, this is extremely expensive for large plantations and prohibitively expensive for small-scale farmers (Onyilo et al., 2018). Fungicide application is also driving increased pathogen resistance. Globally, BSD management already accounts for 27% of banana production costs, concurrently increasing the global banana price (Yonow et al., 2019). Climate change (increasing rainfall and temperatures in banana-growing regions) is predicted to further increase the spread of BSD (Bebber, 2019).

Tropic Biosciences is developing high-performing commercial varieties of tropical crops including banana, coffee, and rice, which promote cultivation efficiencies, enhance consumer health, and improve sustainable environmental practices. Our approach relies on proprietary, patent-pending cutting-edge gene editing (GE) technologies, developed in house. With Innovate UK support, we will combine our world-leading GE technologies with a novel breakthrough GE technology, developed by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. As a demonstration of the potential of our new game-changing biotechnology, we will develop BSD-resistant banana plants, reaching laboratory validation stage.

This project's outputs have the potential to play a key role in supporting the UK's ambition to become a world leader in Bio-/Agri-Tech, in close alignment with the goals of the ISCF Transforming Food Production and addressing five UN Sustainable Development Goals: 1 (No Poverty), 2 (Zero Hunger), 5 (Gender equality), 12 (Responsible consumption and production), and 15 (Life on land).