The Goldfinger banana (FHIA-01) is a

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

developed in

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

. The cultivar, developed at the

Honduran Foundation for Agricultural Research The Honduras Foundation for Agricultural Research (''Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola'' or FHIA), (sometimes referred to as Honduras Foundation of Agricultural Research or Honduran Agricultural Research Foundation), is a not-for-pro ...

(FHIA) by a team of scientists led by

Phillip Rowe Phillip may refer to: * Phillip (Bob the Builder), Bob the Builder's character * Phillip (character), Wallace & Gromit's character * Phillip (Saliba), Lebanese Orthodox prelate * Phillip (given name), given name * Phillip (surname), surname * Phill ...

and Franklin Rosales, has been bred to be pest-resistant (specifically against the

black sigatoka Black sigatoka is a leaf-spot disease of banana plants caused by the ascomycete fungus ''Mycosphaerella fijiensis'' (Morelet), also known as black leaf streak. It was discovered in 1963 and named for its similarities with yellow Sigatoka, which ...

) and crop-yielding.

Taxonomy

The FHIA-01 Goldfinger banana is a

tetraploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than two paired sets of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two complete sets of chromosomes, one fro ...

( AAAB)

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

of the cultivar ''Musa acuminata × balbisiana'' ( AAB) ' Prata-anã' (a naturally occurring triploid clone from

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

), and the cultivar SH-3142. SH-3142 was developed from a cross between SH-1734 and ''Musa acuminata'' ( AA) ' Pisang jari buaya' from

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. SH-1734 in turn, was developed from ''Musa acuminata'' ( AA) ' Lidi' (from

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

), ''Musa acuminata'' ( AA) ' Sinwobogi' (from

), and wild seeded ''Musa acuminata'' (from the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

). Its full designation is ''Musa acuminata'' × ''balbisiana'' (AAAB Group) 'FHIA-01 Goldfinger'.

History

The roots of the Goldfinger's development can be traced back to an initiative to develop new banana breeds by the

United Fruit Company The United Fruit Company (later the United Brands Company) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was ...

begun as early as 1959. This was later taken up by the Honduran Foundation for Agricultural Research, supported by organizations such as Canada's

International Development Research Centre The International Development Research Centre (IDRC; , ''CRDI'') is a Canadian federal Crown corporation. As part of Canada's foreign affairs and development efforts, IDRC champions and funds research and innovation within and alongside developi ...

(IDRC). The initiative drew on the gene pool of more than 800 banana cultivars from Southeast Asia. Throughout the development of the banana, the developers took the view that conventional hybridization is more important than alternative means, such as

genetic engineering Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of Genetic engineering techniques, technologies used to change the genet ...

. The first big breakthrough came in 1977, with the development of a hybrid which provided a good banana bunch size, and was resistant to both burrowing nematode and Race 4 of Panama disease. The banana's pest-resistance, further improved later, has environmental and economic benefits. The Goldfinger was unveiled in Canada in 1994 by the IDRC.

Growing

The Goldfinger takes longer than other banana varieties to mature, but is more resistant to cold, wind and pestilence. It grows to 4.3 meters (14 feet).

Consumption

Though the Goldfinger is edible while still green (in the form of chips, for instance), it is most appealing to Western markets when ripe. In this form, the Goldfinger's stated aim is to replace the much more popular

Cavendish banana Cavendish bananas are the fruits of one of a number of banana cultivars belonging to the Cavendish subgroup of the List of banana cultivars#AAA Group, AAA banana cultivar group (triploid cultivars of ''Musa acuminata''). The same term is also use ...

, which is essentially the sole dessert banana sold in North American, European and New Zealand markets. Since its launch, the Goldfinger has caught on in certain markets—notably Australia—but has yet to do so in North America and Europe.

References

External links

FHIA-01 Goldfinger presentation
by the FHIA.

FHIA-01
a description of FHIA-01 on Musapedia. {{Banana Banana cultivars