Abstract
In Hawaii, transgenic papaya resistant to Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) was developed starting in the 1980s and released commercially in 1998 to combat the widespread destruction of Hawaii's papaya industry. This review describes the proactive development of the transgenic papaya and its impact on stemming the destruction caused by PRSV in Puna, the main papaya producing area in Hawaii. It also focuses on the regulatory issues that were confronted in obtaining approval from the US government's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The performance of the transgenic papaya is traced over the last 8 years following commercial release, with special observations on the issues of environmental impact and coexistence with non-transgenic papaya. The latter is quite important since a significant part of Hawaii's papaya is exported to Canada and Japan. Canada has approved the transgenic papaya, but efforts to get approval for export of transgenic papaya to Japan are still ongoing.