Test papayas for genetic modification

[Ellie]

Test papayas for genetic modification
by Diana Duff
Special To West Hawaii Today

Sunday, January 3, 2010 7:27 AM HST
The University of Hawaii, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human
Resources, through the Agricultural Diagnostic Service Center, is
offering a service to Hawaii papaya growers who want to test their
trees for cross pollination with genetically modified papaya plants.

In the late 1980s, UH produced a papaya cultivar called the "Rainbow"
papaya that was able to resist the ring spot virus that was destroying
papaya production, particularly on large papaya farms in the Puna
area. This cultivar and the later developed "SunUp" were created by
injecting DNA (genetic material) of the ring spot virus into DNA of a
papaya plant. This created an immune response in the plant to the
disease, meaning they resisted ring spot virus.

These two GMO cultivars are currently sold on the U.S. mainland and in
Canada, without labeling to indicate that they are GMO products.
Certified organic farmers cannot sell GMO fruit, however, and many
countries including the European Union and Japan ban GMO crops. It is
important for farmers who are certified organic or who want to export
their crop beyond the mainland to know its GMO status. It may also be
important to local sustainable farmers to know if their fruit is the
result of an accidental cross-pollination with a GMO papaya.
Hopefully, they will inform those who consume their papayas of the
test results.

The lab at UH at Manoa is now ready to receive papaya leaf samples for
GMO testing. Directions for collecting and delivering samples, as well
as the procedure itself, are described below. Before you prepare
samples, contact Ray Uchida at AD...@ctahr.hawaii.edu for shipping
directions. You can then proceed with collection.

Collecting Leaf Samples:

- Collect an immature leaf from the top of the papaya plant, avoiding
leaves from the side branches. The leaf must be a small, immature leaf
near the apex (growing point) of the plant. It will appear yellow-
green and transparent, compared to the mature leaves that are much
larger and look dark green and opaque. The selected leaves must have
stalks (petioles) less than 2 inches long, and the leaf blade should
be about 1 to 11/2 inches long.

- Put the collected leaf (and attached stalk) into a zippered plastic
bag and mark the bag with a tree identification code so you can find
the tree again.

- Use a separate bag for each leaf sample. If many trees are sampled,
make a map with the tree locations and codes for future reference.
Samples that are not identified or labeled, with reference to the
sample site will not be accepted.



Mail samples to Agricultural Diagnostic Service Center at Manoa as
soon after collection as possible. The samples should be refrigerated
(but not frozen) until shipped and steps should be taken to prevent
overheating in shipment. Trees may need to be resampled if the sample
received is severely deteriorated.

- Once you have collected and bagged your samples, you can ship them
according to instructions with payment enclosed. The charge for having
a single sample tested is $3. The fee drops to $2 per sample for 25 or
more samples sent in at once.

Assay Procedure:

Upon arrival at the UH lab, the following assay procedure will take
place on your submitted samples:

- Positive and negative controls will be used in each assay. Tissues
for negative controls will be young leaves at the same stage of
development as the test materials from known nontransgenic papaya
trees. Positive controls will include tissues from both Rainbow and
SunUp leaves.





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