Find out how GMOs are made by following the Hawaiian Papaya GMO case study. The Hawaiian Papaya is a good example of a GMO crop that was genetically modified because of a disease that had a negative effect on the quality of commercial food cultivation. The Papaya Ringspot Virus was ruining Hawaii’s papaya industry. So, scientists decided to use genetic modification to resolve this problem. GMOs are created to withstand certain environmental problems, like insects or diseases. In order to do this, biotechnologists take the following steps: first, they determine whether genetic engineering is the most effective way to solve the problem. Then they identify the genetic material that can solve the problem and copy the desired trait from a donor organism. This trait is then implanted into the host plant’s DNA. In this case, the GMO Rainbow Papaya was engineered to resist the virus.