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2026-06-14

How Bananas are Revolutionizing our Approach to Modifying Genetics

Who new bananas could play such an important role with our understanding of genetics? This paper was a major project for my sophomore STEM Biology class.

ProjectBiologyGeneticsAssignment

This paper explores the power of bananas and how it gives scientists a valuable way to test novel scientific methods. While it may have been a pain to write, it did teach me a valuable lesson about research and writing papers. Most importantly though it helped me view bananas from different perspective! (Whether that be a good or bad thing)

Creating Virus-Resistant Bananas through CRISPR Gene Editing

Every year, 155 million tons of bananas are produced, prior to being shipped across the world to billions of consumers. (Musabyemungu et al., 2025) With such global demand, efficient and reliable banana production is indispensable. Africa alone produces one-third of the world’s banana supply. (Tripathi et al., 2022) The most common banana grown on this continent is the Cavendish type, due to its easy growth and consumer preference such as containing no seeds. (Tripathi et al., 2021) However, banana related diseases, pathogens and viruses greatly reduce the output of banana production, leaving many bananas inedible and thrown away. (Tripathi et al., 2025) Since commercial bananas, like the Cavendish type, do not contain viable seeds, special plant suckers are required to grow new bananas. (Musabyemungu et al., 2025). These plant suckers are essential used to clone offsprings; however, this makes these plant suckers extremely vulnerable to diseases and infections. (Musabyemungu et al., 2025). If a disease makes it to plant sucker, then the sucker will result in its offsprings also being infected, leading to a whole batch of diseased bananas, unfit to be shipped to consumers.

One of these major diseases is Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW), leading to rapid wilting and premature fruit ripening (Tripathi et al., 2020). BXW is bacterial pathogen, spread by infected insects, planting materials, tools, and plant leaves. (Tripathi et al., 2022) It can spread quickly and its impacts are severe. Since the 21st century, up to eight billion dollars of bananas have been lost due to BXW. (Tripathi et al., 2020) Today, BXW has spread to most of Africa, and has become a major challenge.

Different solutions have been attempted, though one remains the most promising. Strategies such as sterilizing equipment, using infection free-planting material or restricting banana transfer in BXW prone areas are hard to enforce, labor intensive and costly. (Tripathi et al., 2022) To date, there is only one BXW resistant species: Musa balbisiana. (Musabyemungu et al., 2025) However, this banana species is not edible and difficult to grow, meaning that the only viable solution regarding using the Musa balbisiana is applying the genetic characteristic of this virus-resistant banana to edible, commercially grown bananas. Traditional breeding was attempted in the 1980s, but researchers struggled to get the desired characteristics from these hybrid bananas. (Musabyemungu et al., 2025) Issues with traditional breeding included low germination and seed production. (Musabyemungu et al., 2025) Furthermore, traditional breeding is time consuming and leaves space for genetic variability. Conversely clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats editing (CRISPR) has been viewed as a promising solution. (Tripathi et al., 2021) Unlike traditional breeding, CRISPR allows precise and strategic DNA editing and does not require sexual reproduction, being a cheaper more efficient solution to BXW (Tripathi et al., 2022).

What makes Musa balbisiana exhibit resistance to diseases and infections is its non-functional susceptible genes (S genes). S genes are genes that aid in the pathogen’s proliferation, infection, and symptom development. (Tripathi et al., 2022) Banana species that are most susceptible to diseases such as BXW, contain many of these active S genes, meaning that by rendering these genes non-functional disease resistance can improve. While these S genes can be pathogen specific, such as MusaPub22/23, they can also be more generic like Sugar Will Eventually be Exported Transporters (SWEET) genes. (Tripathi et al., 2022) Both these genes function as a host for the pathogen and provides it with the different resources it may require. Through CRISPR/Cas9 these S genes can be rendered non-functional through a process called knock out. (Tripathi et al., 2025)

The CRISPR/Cas9 system is divided into two major parts. Cas9, an enzyme designed to cleave (cut) the DNA at specific points, and the guide RNA (gRNA), which helps identify the target DNA to be cleaved and activate the Cas9 enzyme. (Tripathi et al., 2020) Before cleavage can occur, the target DNA needs to be determined so that the correct gRNA can be synthesized. Once gRNA has been created and cleavage has occurred the cell’s endogenous repair mechanisms will activate, repairing through either non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) or homology directed repair (HDR). (Tripathi et al., 2024) During NHEJ, the cell will try to rapidly repair the broken DNA often leading to insertions or deletions, rendering gene nonfunction and thus knocking it out. (Tripathi et al., 2024) This repair mechanism is often used to knock out the S genes and referred to as sequence/site directed nucleases 1 (SDN-1). (Tripathi et al., 2021)

Furthermore, different species like Musa balbisiana can contain specific genes which give the plant additional defenses mechanisms to protect against pathogens such as BXW. (Tripathi et al., 2025) The genes called Resistance genes (R genes), enhance plant defense through a wide array of tools including early detection and quick elimination of the pathogen once detection occurs. (Tripathi et al., 2025) To copy specific R genes to different banana species CRISP/ Cas9 can be used with HDR repair, called SDN-3. (Tripathi et al., 2024) HDR repair allows for precise genetic modification such as knock-in or gene replacement, where a template DNA sequence is inserted in the gap of DNA caused by the Cas9 cleavage, also called knock-in. (Tripathi et al., 2024) SDN-3 is often used to replace parts of the S gene’s codon, to transform it into desirable R gene by using the DNA template mentioned above. (Tripathi et al., 2024) If the R genes are present but not activated or under expressed, CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) can occur. (Tripathi et al., 2020) CRISPRa functions like regular CRISPR system, however the Cas enzyme has been modified so that it loses its cleavage capabilities, referred to as dead Cas protein. (Tripathi et al., 2022) The Cas protein will still attach to the target DNA sequence but instead of cleaving, it will help either activate it or overexpress the desired R gene, helping increase the plants’ defense. (Tripathi et al., 2022) While CRISPRa and SDN-3 have not been as widely researched nor tested, they prove to hold much potential in gene-editing and protection against deadly pathogens such as BXW.

Using CRISPR to create virus resistant bananas can raise ethical concerns especially about autonomy, which is giving the patient/consumer the right to make an informed decision. Some countries, including the European Union, have added additional regulations with gene editing food including clear indication that gene editing has occurred. (Tripathi et al., 2024) This would give the consumer choice and transparency on whether they would like to pick a gene-edited banana or classic one. Nevertheless, non-gene-edited bananas could get pricey, due to them being more difficult to grow, though they would most likely still be grown at smaller scale, to satisfy and give choice to the specific consumers. However other countries like the United States, have not yet enacted legislation requiring such labels, making hard for individuals opposed to CRISPR gene-editing to differentiate an edited and non-edited banana, raising potential autonomy concerns in some countries. (Tripathi et al., 2024)

Virus resistant bananas would also primarily adhere to beneficence and non-malice. While it is true that off-target effects when gene-editing could occur, resulting in unwanted phenotypes, as CRISPR improves the risk will diminish and through product inspection many of these effects could be mitigated. (Tripathi et al., 2024) Furthermore, the benefit of using CRISPR would without a doubt be worth the associated costs. As stated earlier, eight billion dollars were lost to BXW alone, so creating a viable virus-resistant banana would result in billions of dollars saved, even with the few million dollars required for research and kick start the technology. (Tripathi et al., 2020; Tripathi et al., 2024)

The biggest ethical concern lies in justice. Such CRISPR technology would most likely be patented by large organizations who provided the research and funding. (Tripathi et al., 2024) This could quickly become a monopolistic relationship, forcing smaller farmers to subdue to large cooperations and their decisions. (Tripathi et al., 2024) If farmers were depending on large cooperations, these large companies could quickly drive-up prices to use CRISPR technology and violate farmers’ rights. (Tripathi et al., 2024) Government organizations would need to set strict fair business standards to protect farmers using such technology.

That being said, CRISPR edited virus-resistant bananas could have great positive impacts on the consumer. Farmers would be able to grow virus-resistant bananas, meaning they would have smaller chances of being infected by pathogens such as BXW. Without BXW, farmers would see higher crop yields and a more sustainable banana production (Tripathi et al, 2024). This would boost revenue for farmers and hopefully lower the price of the day-to-day banana consumer.

From an environmental perspective, greater banana sustainability could benefit the ecosystem around banana plantations by providing food and shelter for different organisms. Conversely though, CRISPR editing could lead to a loss in biodiversity. (Loschin et al., 2025) It is reasonable to assume that one gene-edited, virus-resistant, Cavendish type banana would become the standard for commercial production. This modified banana would be primarily grown across the world, and other species would experience lower production rates, leading to a decrease in overall banana biodiversity. (Loschin et al., 2025) This in part would make the banana industry more vulnerable to new diseases, as a pathogen that the primary bananas are not resistant, could potentially infect the majority of the world’s bananas due to them having the same genotype.

In conclusion, CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technologies could revolutionize the race to develop virus-resistant bananas. These bananas would be resistant to different diseases such as BXW, helping lower diseased bananas requiring disposal, improving farmer profits, and hopefully lower consumer prices. Most importantly though, this technology could pave the way to other applications of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in other food industries.

References

Loschin, N., Kuzma, J., Barrangou, R., & Grieger, K. (2025). Environmental assessment and regulatory oversight of genetically engineered crops in the United States. Environmental Science & Policy, 173, 104237. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104237

Musabyemungu, A., Tripathi, J. N., Muiruri, S. K., Gaidashova, S. V., Rukundo, P., & Tripathi, L. (2025). Genetic Improvement of Banana for Resistance to Xanthomonas Wilt in East Africa. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 13(2), 175-192. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/fes3.70048

Tripathi, L., Ntui, V. O., & Tripathi, J. N. (2020). CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing of banana for disease resistance. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 56, 118-126. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbi.2020.05.003

Tripathi, L., Ntui, V. O., & Tripathi, J. N. (2022). Control of Bacterial Diseases of Banana Using CRISPR/Cas-Based Gene Editing. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(7), 3619. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23073619

Tripathi, L., Ntui, V. O., Muirui, S., Shah, T., & Tripathi, J. N. (2025). Loss of function of MusaPUB genes in banana can provide enhanced resistance to bacterial wilt disease. Communications Biology, 8, 708. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08093-w

Tripathi, L., Ntui, V. O., Tripathi, J. N., & Kumar, P. L. (2021). Application of CRISPR/Cas for Diagnosis and Management of Viral Diseases of Banana. Frontiers in Microbiology, 11, 2020. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.609784

Kudos for sticking to the end :)