ISAAA SEAsiaCenter
Commercialization of Papaya Ringspot Virus (PRSV) Resistant Papaya in the Philippines
Papaya, largely grown as a home garden crop, is an important commercial crop for growers in the Philippines, as well as a source of home-produced vitamins and minerals for many households. Ranked 6th in area planted (8,440 has) and 5th in volume produced (121,304 tons) in 2002, the papaya is exceeded only by banana, pineapple, mango, and citrus of the fruits industry based on production. Aside from its importance to the food industry, papaya is also important in an emerging cosmetics industry. Papain, a substance found from papaya, is widely used as the main component in the manufacture of cosmetics, including soaps and shampoos. Of the total crop production, 92% is consumed locally as food, with per capita consumption ranging from 1.33-1.51 kg/yr for a period of 10 years. But while the country was able to generate an average of US$ 1.33M/yr from 1996-2000, papaya export has been very erratic. One of the major constraint in papaya production is the papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) disease. PRSV, a highly virulent virus, causes a disease that has reached epidemic proportions in the Philippines in the past decade. All commercial papaya varieties, including the two most popular “Solo” selections from Hawaii and the hybrid “Sinta”, are susceptible or, at best, moderately tolerant to PRSV infection. At present there are no available chemical control measures against PRSV, and no naturally existing genetic resistance exists that could be used to traditionally breed papaya for PRSV resistance. Luzon, particularly the Southern Tagalog region, has already been quarantined after an infection that effectively wiped out the papaya industry in most of the island. PRSV has already been also spotted in some areas of Visayas and Mindanao, the latter being the main source of the country’s papaya export variety. Hawaii, another major papaya grower, has already developed commercialized transgenic PRSV resistant varieties since 1997. The resistance is developed through pathogen derived resistance (PDR) technology using the Hawaiian PRSV strain. With the success of the transgenic papaya in Hawaii, the same strategy is being employed in the Philippines for the development of local variety resistant to its own PRSV isolates.
To develop and commercialize transgenic papaya resistant to papaya ringspot virus.
The development of Philippine transgenic papaya resistant to PRSV started in 1999. The local Davao Solo variety was transformed using the coat protein gene of a local viral isolate, producing transgenic papaya lines being evaluated for efficacy against the virus. These have been undertaken with the support of DOST-PCARRD for financial assistance and Monsanto company for technology donation. The transfer of technology and know-how was facilitated by ISAAA. Currently, five (5) IPB-UPLB promising transgenic events with good agronomic traits have been selected for demonstrating high levels of resistance against the virus, under contained trials in the greenhouse and screenhouse. Based on these promising results, a small-scale field testing of efficacy in the Philippines is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2005, with harvesting of T2 seeds from the selected T1 lines started end of last year. Selected homozygous T2 resistant lines will be ready for on-station confined field trial afterwards. The Institutional Biosafety Committee of the University (UPLB-IBC) has approved and endorsed the small-scale field testing application to the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines (NCBP) for the trial in early 2005.
The support of ABSPII is important to complete the commercialization process that will make available the first locally developed transgenic food crop in the Philippines from a public R&D institution. Collaborators in this project include UPLB-IPB, DOST-PCARRD and ISAAA, and Monsanto company. |
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