{"id":139284,"date":"2025-10-22T23:11:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T23:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/139284\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T23:11:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T23:11:16","slug":"will-neophobia-kill-the-newly-developed-gene-edited-non-browning-banana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/139284\/","title":{"rendered":"Will \u2018neophobia\u2019 kill the newly-developed gene-edited, non-browning banana"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a banana is bruised, cut, or peeled, enzymes trigger a chemical cascade that ends in melanin, the same pigment that colors human hair. Those brown patches are technically harmless, but they\u2019re responsible for throwing away nearly one-third of all bananas grown worldwide \u2014\u00a0roughly 5 billion bananas<\/a>\u00a0in the U.S. alone every year.<\/p>\n

This is where the new banana comes in.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

Researchers at Tropic Biosciences, a UK-based biotech firm, have used\u00a0CRISPR\/Cas9<\/a> \u2026 to delete the specific gene responsible for browning. Without that gene, the fruit\u2019s flesh stays creamy-yellow for at least 12 hours after peeling.<\/p>\n

The invention \u2026 would be the first new commercial type of banana in over half a century.<\/p>\n

Follow the latest news and policy debates on sustainable agriculture, biomedicine, and other \u2018disruptive\u2019 innovations. Subscribe to our newsletter.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, this banana isn\u2019t classified as a GMO under most definitions. While GMOs involve adding foreign DNA, the CRISPR-edited banana simply removes a small stretch of its own genetic code.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the fate of this innovation will be\u00a0decided by consumers<\/a>. \u2026 Western buyers remain wary of anything \u201cgenetically modified<\/a>.\u201d Perceived safety, not science, will likely decide its fate.<\/p>\n

Overcoming food neophobia (the innate fear of new foods) remains a challenge.<\/p>\n

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a banana is bruised, cut, or peeled, enzymes trigger a chemical cascade that ends in melanin, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[272],"tags":[18,458,19,17,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-139284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-genetics","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}