FOOD TECHNOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -There is a genetically modified (GM, also called genetically engineered) virus-resistant papaya grown in Hawaii and some is also grown in China. The first GM papayas were commercially grown in Hawaii in 1998 and the “Rainbow” GM papayas were first imported to Canada in 2003.

Detailed explanation-2: -Then researchers developed the transgenic papaya SunUp by using a technique called particle bombardment-mediated transformation. Gold particles were covered with the coat protein gene of the virus and shot into the cells of the non-transgenic papaya “Sunset” using a gene gun.

Detailed explanation-3: -Using the newly-invented technique of genetic modification, they used a genetic sequence from the virus and inserted it into the papaya genome. Analagous to vaccination in humans, this produced 100% virus-resistant plants.

Detailed explanation-4: -Without biotechnology, “There’s no papaya industry. Simple as that, ‘’ said Dennis Gonsalves, the scientist who developed the GMO papaya. The papaya ringspot virus nearly wiped the crop out. The virus first hit Hawaii in the 1940s and by the 1990s had reached almost every area that grows papaya.