PLANT BREEDING NEWS
EDITION 145
10 March 2004
An Electronic Newsletter of Applied Plant Breeding
Sponsored by FAO and Cornell University
Clair H. Hershey, Editor
CONTENTS
1. NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESEARCH NOTES
1.1 Yuan Longping and Steven D. Tanksley awarded 2004 Wolf Prize in Agriculture 1.2 Norman Borlaug Speaks out on International Agricultural Research 1.3 CGIAR Reforms to Feed the Poor 1.4 Global Funding to Boost Research in Poor Countries 1.5 Pakistan: Focus on Farmers_Battle with Cotton Leaf Curl 1.6 Have Seed Industry Changes Affected Research Effort? 1.7 Pooling Breeding Resources to Develop a Better Barley in Australia 1.8 New Genetic Research to Help Fight Leaf Rust of Wheat 1.9 Discovery of Disease-Resistance Genes to Help Bean Farmers in Central Mexico 1.10 Multinational Brassica Genome Project 1.11 African Farmers Increase Rice Harvests Due to "Nerica" 1.12 Scientists Develop Plant that Produces Potential Anit-Carcinogen 1.13 Global Crop Diversity Trust 1.14 Sugargeet Double Haploid Production Using Haploid Microshoots in Vitro 1.15 Genome of First Fungal Pathogen Unveiled 1.16 DNA-Based Methods in Sorghum Diversity Studies and Improvement 1.17 Cornell Plant Breeders Slice Through Onion's Sexual Barrier to Breed Disease Resistance into Crop 1.18 New Insights on Papaya Evolution 1.19 New Germplasm Promises Healthier Soybean Oils 1.20 Racing to Construct the Perfect Rice Plant 1.21 EMBRAPA Scientists Develop New GM Soybean 1.22 China Urged to Step up GM Efforts 1.23 Uganda Gives Cautious Approval to GM Food 1.24 Biosafety Protocol now Operational 1.25 Pew Initiative Releases New Issue Brief on World Hunger and Biotechnology 1.26 Can we Keep the Cap on Transgene Escape? 1.27 Despite confinement. Crop Genes can Spread Fast to Wild
2. ON THE WEB
2.1 The Sesame and Safflower newsletter 2003; The First Cyberspace Version of this Newsletter 2.2 HORTIVAR Database Developed by FAO 2.3 U.S. Regulatory Agencies Unified Biotechnology Website 2.4 Updates of FAO-Biotechnews 2.5 Conference 8 of the FAO Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture
3. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT
Professor and Director, Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II, Cornell University
4. GRANTS AVAILABLE
4.1 A Call for Grants from USAID
4.2 Biotechnology Biodiversity Interface Grants: Request for Applications
5. MEETINGS, COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
6. EDITOR'S NOTES
* Past issues of the Plant Breeding Newsletter are now available on the web. Normally the newsletter will be posted a week or two after it is distributed to the listserve. The address is: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/AGP/AGPC/doc/services/pbn.html
(See additional notes at end of newsletter)
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1. NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESEARCH NOTES
1.1 YUAN LONGPING AND STEVEN D. TANKSLEY AWARDED 2004 WOLF PRICE IN AGRICULTURE
The 2004 Wolf Prize in Agriculture will be jointly awarded to Yuan Longping, of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center (CNHRRDC) based at Changsha, Hunan Province, and to Steven D. Tanksley, of Cornell University, "for innovative development of hybrid rice and discovery of the genetic basis of heterosis in this important food staple."
Yuan Longping is a renowned hybrid rice breeder, and "one of the scientific giants in the history of modern agricultural research and has made dramatic impact on worldwide food production. Under his leadership, and after a decade of cooperative research efforts, among hundreds of rice scientists from numerous research institutes and universities, rice yields were generally enhanced by 20 percent, and China rice production, by 50 percent. To help increase world food supply, he has shared his knowledge, techniques, and breeding materials with scientists worldwide," added the Jury of the Israel-based Wolf Foundation.
Steven D. Tanksley, "is one of the world leaders in plant genomic research. He has contributed to the understanding of heterosis in rice by identifying genes in a wild ancestor that significantly increased yields." His research has led to the discovery of genetic basis of heterosis in rice, which well explains the advantages of hybrid rice over conventional rice in production.
The Wolf Prizes of $100,000 each have been awarded to four out of five fields by rotation each year since 1978, including Agriculture, Chemistry, Mathematics, Medicine and Physics, in addition to one prize to Arts. This prize was awarded to scientists and artists, "for achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among peoples, irrespective of nationality, race, color, religion, sex or political view." To date, a total of 214 scientists and artists from 20 countries have been honored with the Wolf Prize. This year the awarding ceremony will be presented by the President of the State of Israel, at the Knesset (parliament) in Jerusalem, on Sunday, May 4, 2004. More detail can be referred in the following links:
http://wi.mit.edu/nap/features/nap_feature_wolfprize.html
http://www.aquanet.co.il/wolf/
Contributed by Jiming Li, Dept. of Plant Breeding, Cornell University: "We, our plant breeding community, should be proud of this year's award because it comes back to the research field of plant breeding again!"
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1.2 NORMAN BORLAUG SPEAKS OUT ON INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH
A new evaluation by the World Bank of the Consultative Group for International Research (CGIAR) and its 16 research centers has prompted me to give my views on the importance and contributions of international agricultural research and the confusion in which CGIAR now finds itself.
The World Bank reports that plant breeding research at CGIAR centers has declined 6.5% annually for the last decade. Moreover, growing restrictions have been placed on the funding the centers receive.
International agricultural research began in Mexico in 1943 and has grown into an international system of collaborative research, seed exchange, and training organizations that helped build many national agricultural research systems in developing countries.
In only 10 years, wheat and rice harvests in Asia doubled, hunger declined, and incomes improved. The international wheat, rice, and maize programs that had developed high-yielding technologies became the models for a collaborative international research network.
In 1971, the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, the World Bank, FAO, UNDP, and USAID created CGIAR, a donors' club dedicated to funding an expanded international research system. Over the next 30 years, the number of research centers grew from 4 to 16, covering the major food crops and farming systems in food-deficit, low-income countries. The total budget increased 10-fold--to nearly US$400 million per year.
But somehow in this evolution, the CGIAR lost touch with its original purpose--to feed the hungry. It has become an unwieldy and uncoordinated beast, with too many masters and proliferating goals. Yet, a well-focused international agricultural research system that backstops and complements national agricultural research organizations and smallholder farmers is a vital component in a global research system.
CGIAR must return to its original purpose and to its greatest comparative advantage--developing improved food crop varieties, using a combination of conventional plant breeding techniques and new techniques of biotechnology, with complementary crop management practices, to address major production issues in both the favored and the more difficult marginal lands.
Another concern stems from the spilling over of the controversy about genetically modified (GM) varieties from industrialized into developing countries, which has paralyzed legislative action on GM crops. We should not underestimate the degree of resistance to GM crops in many countries, although it is heartening to see Argentina, Brazil, China, and India moving ahead with well-considered applications of biotechnology.
I am optimistic that multinational biotechnology companies are willing to devote more resources to solving the problems of poor farmers and consumers. Creative partnerships have been established between private and public research institutions--especially universities, but also CGIAR centers--with financial support provided by private Companies, governments, and private foundations. In addition, CGIAR, with seed collections representing much of the genetic diversity in the major food crops, is in a unique position to negotiate with the private sector to generate GM technology that benefits the poor, in return for access to its gene banks.
The World Bank is in a unique position, with its US$50 million of CGIAR funding (until recently completely unrestricted; it now assigns half its contribution to multicenter research initiatives called Challenge Programs), to work with other donors to expand unrestricted funding in the CGIAR, which will help greatly to rationalize priority setting. The Bank can also help refocus the CGIAR mission on raising smallholder agricultural productivity in the near term, rather than trying to be all things to all people.
Science, Vol 303, Issue 5661, 1137-1138
20 February 2004
Norman E. Borlaug
Texas A&M University,
College Station, TX 77843,
USA.
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1.3 CGIAR REFORMS TO FEED THE POOR
The 16 centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) are international veterans in crop research facing a shake-up in funding and research priorities. Now the centres want to pool resources and expertise to boost small farmers' production round the world.
In this article, Dennis Normile relates how members of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) near Mexico City initiated the idea. The two centres propose a merger, leading to new genomics research labs in India and China, while the others are seeking likely areas ofcollaboration.
The venture faces problems: some national agricultural research in the developing world is outstripping CGIAR's, for instance. But the vital test is donor response, and coupling genomics research with the centres' existing germplasm banks to forge new crop traits could prove attractive.
27 February 2004
Source:SciDevNet.com
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1.4 GLOBAL FUNDING TO BOOST RESEARCH IN POOR COUNTRIES
The InterAcademy Council, a coalition of 90 scientific academies worldwide, submitted to Kofi Annan, secretary-general, United Nations (UN), a report entitled "Inventing a Better Future: A Strategy for Building Worldwide Capacities in Science and technology," which calls for the establishment of two funds to boost research efforts in poor countries. Annan, however, stated that his top priority, if the said research funding will materialize, is the application of science and technology in agriculture.
The report recommends that a Global Institutional Fund be established to support the research efforts of 20 national or regional centers over a span of five to ten years. These centers will be selected based on the quality of their science, independence, management caliber, and relevance of their work to the needs of their respective regions. A second Global Program Fund would operate a competitive grant system, with international referees assessing proposed joint projects between laboratories in rich and poor countries.
Further, governments, foundations and existing international organizations are proposed to support these said funds - although the scale of their support is not yet specified.
The full story is available at http://rd.bcentral.com/?ID=1501646&s=48514244.
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1.5 PAKISTAN: FOCUS ON FARMERS' BATTLE WITH COTTON LEAF CURL VIRUS
A silent battle being waged on agricultural lands in southern Punjab, famous for their high-quality cotton output, has just been forced into a higher gear after the re-emergence of a deadly virus that wrought havoc with cotton crops in the early nineties. Eastern Punjab produces about 80 percent of the crop for Pakistan and the virus could devastate the local economy.
The Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV) first appeared in cotton fields in the eastern part of Punjab province in the 1992-93 season after the previous season had seen yields reach record highs with 12.8 million bales. Researchers and scientists managed to defeat the virus by the mid-90s.
However, the reprieve was short-lived. In the summer of 2003-04, farmers reported the re-emergence of the leaf curl virus. Soon afterwards, laboratory tests revealed that it was a newer, more deadly strain of the virus.
After failing in previous attempts to create a breed of cotton resistant to the leaf curl virus, scientists were now toying with the possibility of cross-breeding the conventionally grown crop with a breed that has grown wild for centuries, Mahmood said.
"We are trying to test wild varieties of cotton to see if they are resistant. There is no need to sow it. It just grows by itself. We're taking DNA from the wild variety and trying to cross it with conventionally grown cotton. But it's a difficult process - both have different chromosome numbers so when we try and cross them, the results differ each time", he explained.
Agricultural scientists across the country were collaborating as they tested out new, sometimes genetically modified varieties of cotton against the virus, he explained. "The problem is that this virus mutates every time we try out a new kind of cotton breed. That means we have to keep on trying again and again until we manage to find a variety that can withstand the virus' infiltration," Shabab-ud-Din maintained.
For Pakistan's cotton crop, which is grown on 12-14 million acres with an average production of about 210 kg/ha and 500 kg/ha of oil seed, the leaf curl virus, therefore, represents a serious threat to its growth in the world's fourth-largest producer.
"We can only minimise the effects of the leaf curl virus at present. We can't hope to defeat it right now, so we're just looking at ways to minimise the damage it causes. Hopefully, we should be able to come up with a long-term solution thereafter," he stressed.
February 2, 2004
Source: IRIN News.org
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
SeedQuest.com
2 Feb 2004
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1.6 HAVE SEED INDUSTRY CHANGES AFFECTED RESARCH EFFORT?
Early in the 20th century, agricultural productivity growth came primarily from innovations in mechanical inputs that replaced farm labor. Starting in the 1930s, increases in land productivity were driven largely by high-yielding crop varieties in concert with fertilizers and chemical pesticides. Average U.S. corn yields rose sevenfold from 20 bushels per acre in 1930 to 140 bushels by the mid-1990s, while wheat, soybean, and cotton yields increased 2-4 times. This unprecedented growth in U.S. agricultural productivity owes much to a series of biological innovations embodied in major crop seeds_in particular corn, cotton, soybeans, and wheat. Such innovations resulted from investments in crop variety research and development (R&D), including plant breeding. However, the seed sector has changed substantially in recent years, raising questions about whether the intensity of research effort on improved seeds and the contribution to productivity growth are being sustained.
Crop variety R&D over the past 30 years has moved from being predominantly public to predominantly private. Private sector firms have evolved from small operations to large integrated enterprises capable of variety development and seed production, conditioning, and marketing. Greater protection of intellectual property rights for crop-seed innovations through patents and certificates has spurred private investment in general and may increasingly stimulate private R&D, even on such crops as soybeans where farmers have often saved part of the current crop for use as seed the following year. Still, ERS analysis shows that consolidation in the private seed industry over the past decade may have dampened the intensity of private research undertaken on crop biotechnology relative to what would have occurred without consolidation, at least for corn, cotton, and soybeans.
Plant breeding, including genetic engineering and other biotechnology, constitutes the foundation of the modern seed industry. By using science to create a unique and marketable product, plant breeders develop varieties embodying such improvements as higher crop yields, better crop quality, greater resistance to disease and pests, or traits aligned with regional agroclimatic conditions. Because of high costs, large-scale research and development (R&D) is limited to a few large companies, Federal agencies, and land-grant colleges and universities. High R&D costs require that varieties developed by the private sector be commercially viable, highly competitive, and well protected by intellectual property rights. Given the size of their R&D investments, plant breeders seek a central role in managing seed production, distribution, and marketing. The result has been extensive vertical integration of the industry.
In addition to large integrated seed firms, the seed industry includes hundreds of companies operating under licenses and marketing agreements with the seed developers. Many firms are also involved in the production and distribution of public seed varieties. The absence of patents or plant variety protection (PVP) certificates on some seed varieties developed in the public domain allows individuals or firms to freely reproduce the seed.
Behind the growth in private R&D on crop varieties has been the legal protection of intellectual property rights in seed innovations. Two principal forms of legal protection are plant variety protection (PVP) certificates issued by the Plant Variety Protection Office of USDA and patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Both grant private crop breeders exclusive rights to multiply and market their newly developed varieties. However, patents provide more control since PVP certificates have a research exemption allowing others to borrow the new variety for research purposes.
Ag biotech patents, mostly dealing with some aspect of plant breeding, have outpaced the general upward trend in patenting throughout the U.S. economy. During the 1996-2000 period, 75 percent of over 4,200 new ag biotech patents went to private industry.
ERS analysis indicates that patent protection in particular increased private research during the 1990s on soybeans. However, patent protection seems to have been used less for hybrid corn and cotton, likely because firms perceive less need to protect their investments in these crops. Hybrid corn produces high yields with the first crop, but yields on homegrown seed decline quickly, discouraging use of crop output for seed. In the case of cotton, seeds are removed from the cotton lint at a mill and are not generally returned to farmers.
The number of PVP certificates issued has grown rapidly since the 1970 Plant Variety Protection Act, suggesting that certification has a positive effect on private sector crop variety R&D. Many of the certificates have been for genetically engineered (GE) varieties.
By the end of 2002, USDA had issued 2,584 PVP certificates (excluding certificates of foreign origin) for the four major field crops: 1,078 for soybeans, 648 for corn, 568 for wheat, and 290 for cotton. The private sector holds nearly all of the certificates for corn, 84-87 percent of those for cotton and soybeans, and two-thirds of those for wheat. In addition to new varieties protected by certificates, USDA and some land-grant universities have developed and released varieties that are freely available.
In the past two decades, U.S. companies embraced agricultural biotechnology research, as evidenced by the jump in USDA-approved applications for field testing of genetically engineered (GE) varieties. The number of applications received by USDA_s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service for GE varieties increased from 9 in 1987 to a high of 1,206 in 1998. By mid-2001, over 7,600 applications had been received and 6,700 (88 percent) had been approved.
As of mid-2001, USDA had received 79 petitions for permission to produce and sell GE varieties and granted 53 (18 for corn, 12 for tomato, 5 for soybean, 5 for cotton, and 13 for other crops). Thirty-six percent of the released varieties have herbicide-tolerance traits, 20 percent have insect-resistance traits, and 19 percent have product-quality traits.
Adoption of GE varieties in the U.S. has occurred rapidly despite consumer resistance in some other countries. Farmers planted herbicide tolerant
(HT) soybeans on 75 percent of U.S. soybean acres in 2002, up from 17 percent in 1997. HT cotton, at 58 percent of planted acres in 2002, was up from 10 percent in 1997. Use of insect resistant Bt cotton expanded from 15 percent of cotton acreage in 1996 to 35 percent in 2002. In contrast, adoption of GE corn varieties has been much slower: farmers planted HT corn on only about 10 percent of corn acreage in 2002 and Bt corn on 24 percent.
The U.S. commercial seed market totaled $5.7 billion in 1997, making it the world_s largest, followed by China_s ($3 billion) and Japan_s ($2.5 billion). Moreover, the U.S. seed market is growing, mainly from farmers increasing purchases of seed from seed firms and reducing the planting of homegrown seed.
The share of U.S. seed sales controlled by the four largest firms providing seed of each crop reached 92 percent for cotton, 69 percent for corn, and 47 percent for soybeans in 1997. One contrast to this general trend was wheat, with more than 70 percent of the planted wheat in 1997 coming from varieties developed in the public sector. However, herbicide-tolerant varieties of wheat developed by the private sector are on the horizon, so the private proportion could increase.
An indicator of research output (as opposed to expenditures, which is an input measure) is the number of applications to USDA for field testing of GE crop varieties. All newly developed GE crop varieties have to go through USDA-authorized field trials and receive USDA permission before being produced and sold. The annual number of field-trial applications for GE crops increased from 9 in 1987 to 1,206 in 1998. Dividing the annual number of field-trial applications from private firms by private industry sales of seed for each major crop provides a measure of research intensity (applications per million dollars of sales) comparable across crops.
Calculations for corn, soybeans, and cotton indicate that as the seed industry became more concentrated during the late 1990s, private research intensity dropped or slowed. Was there a connection between the concentrating industry and the slowing intensity? Further ERS analysis, using econometric methods, found a simultaneous self-reinforcing relationship. Those companies that survived seed industry consolidation appear to be sponsoring less research relative to the size of their individual markets than when more companies were involved. This finding runs counter to the hypothesis that dominant firms in consolidatedindustries conduct more new product research than they otherwise would in order to expand the size of their markets (because of less risk of being outcompeted during the long time periods required to bring new products to market). Also, fewer companies developing crops and marketing seeds may translate into fewer varieties offered. On the other hand, some multinational firms have recently spun off their agricultural divisions, in effect creating smaller new firms doing agricultural research. This reduction in concentration, after a time lag, could offset some of the prior dampening of research intensity.
Total spending on crop variety R&D will continue to increase and to contribute to agricultural productivity growth, but possibly dampened relative to what might otherwise exist in the absence of seed industry consolidation. One factor that could offset the dampening is additional public investment in crop variety R&D. ERS analysis indicates that public research on corn, soybeans, and cotton has a stimulative effect on private biotech research. Thus, increasing public research on these crops would not only sustain the oft-documented high rates of return to public research, but could also promote additional private research.
This article is drawn from:
The Seed Industry in U.S. Agriculture, by Jorge Fernandez-Cornejo, with contributions from Jonathan Keller, David Spielman, Mohinder Gill, John King, and Paul Heisey, AIB-786, USDA/ERS, January 2004.
The Impact of Seed Industry Concentration on Innovation: A Study of U.S. Biotech Market Leaders,_by David E. Schimmelpfennig, Carl E. Pray, and Margaret F. Brennan, in Agricultural Economics [in press].
Agricultural Research and Productivity Briefing Room
by Jorge Fernandez-Cornejo and David Schimmelpfennig
USDA Amber Waves
(Condensed by the editor)
Source: SeedQuest.com
3 Feb 2004
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1.7 POOLING BREEDING RESOURCES TO DEVELOP A BETTER BARLEY IN AUSTRALIA
Western and South Australia will link their barley breeding resources to quicken the development of superior varieties.
The Western Australia Department of Agriculture, University of Adelaide, South Australia Research and Development Institute and the Grains Research and Development Corporation have agreed to consolidate behind one breeding entity.
Consultation has begun with farming groups, grain handlers and marketers to direct the organisation's focus. Other states have been encouraged to contribute to the process. Barley breeding is especially challenging because besides agronomic, disease and pest considerations, new varieties must satisfy 35 other quality traits to qualify for malting grade.
Source: SeedQuest.com
22 January 2004
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1.8 NEW GENETIC RESEARCH TO HELP FIGHT LEAF RUST OF WHEAT
Leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina is one of the most important and widespread diseases of wheat. Growing resistant varieties is the most cost-effective means of managing leaf rust and has no negative impact on the environment. Breeders have developed resistant wheat varieties by incorporating genes for resistance, but the pathogen population has the ability to overcome all of the resistance genes that have been used. Combining more than one resistance gene in varieties is more effective than using the genes singly.
The objective of this research was to determine which genes for leaf rust resistance are in 116 contemporary soft red winter wheat varieties and breeding lines. Fourteen resistance genes and 44 different combinations of these genes were identified among the 116 lines. Genes Lr3, 10, and 11 were the most frequent and present in 23.3, 25.8, and 34.5% of the lines, respectively. Only four lines had a combination of three genes (Lr9, 24, and 26) that conferred resistance to all isolates of the pathogen used in the study.
Knowing which genes are in each of the lines provides an understanding of the genetic basis for leaf rust resistance in soft red winter wheat and will allow breeders to develop new varieties with more effective combinations of resistance genes.
The American Phytopathological Society
Plant Diseases
Interpretive Summaries
Seedling Resistance Genes to Leaf Rust in Soft Red Winter Wheat Yeshi A. Wamishe and Eugene A. Milus, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville 72701. Plant Dis. D-2003-1119-03R, 2004 (online).
SeedQuest.com
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1.9 DISCOVERY OF DISEASE-RESISTANCE GENES TO HELP BEAN FARMERS IN CENTRAL MEXICO
Anthracnose of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) caused by Colletotrichum lindemuthianum is widespread throughout the world and can cause partial or total loss of susceptible crops. The objectives of this research were to determine the pathotypes of isolates of C. lindemuthianum obtained from the central region of Mexico, to establish the genetic relationships between isolates from this region and isolates from other regions of Mexico, and to evaluate the resistance present in the National Research Institute for Forestry, Agriculture, and Animal Husbandry (INIFAP) elite collection of germ plasm of P. vulgaris to five different pathotypes of C. lindemuthianum found in Mexico. The pathotypes of 17 isolates of C. lindemuthianum from the central region of Mexico were determined. Eight pathotypes were identified, including pathotype 292, which is reported for the first time in Mexico. The lack of isolates infecting P. vulgaris cultivar TU carrying the Co-5 resistance gene suggests that this cultivar is a useful source of resistance.
Analysis of five different pathotypes of C. lindemuthianum on 21 elite genotypes of P. vulgaris identified four genotypes from different races of P. vulgaris that were resistant to all five pathotypes. This information will allow breeders and farmers to select the resistant genotypes most suited to their needs.
February, 2004
The American Phytopathological Society
Plant Diseases
Interpretive Summaries
Plant Dis. D-2003-1124-02R, 2004 (online).
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1.10 MULTINATIONAL BRASSICA GENOME PROJECT
With the exponential growth of both computational power and genomics information combined with the ability to exchange information country to country in a matter of seconds, research projects are taking on an international approach as with the Multinational Brassica Genome Project (MBGP).
At the recent Plant and Animal Genome XII (PAG XII) Conference in San Diego, Dr. Graham King, Research Leader at the Horticulture Research International, UK, introduced this new project. Initially in 2002, a website _www.brassica.info - was established to gather and exchange information as it pertains to Brassica genomics and genetics. From there, an International Steering Committee for the MBGP was established.
Committee members include scientists from nine different countries: Australia, Canada, China, France, Poland, Germany, South Korea, United Kingdom and the United States.
"Genetic information from fixed populations is valuable but very expensive to generate and maintain. By having a single port to accumulate and update data over time provides a valuable avenue to capture the complexity of comparative genomics in the Brassica species," said Dr. King. "Its value is even more enhanced by its international usage"._
The steering committee, representing the international Brassica research community, has taken on the role of promoting international cooperation.
They met for the first time last year at the PAG XI conference to outline their specific goals. At this years PAG XII conference, this committee met again on an expanded level to review their achievements and plan for their future direction. With an ultimate goal to promote international cooperation, the website provides an excellent portal to start this collaboration. The website details and links to a wide range of currently available experimental resources including plant and genomic resources, clone libraries and genetic markers, and an ever accumulating resource of background information. Perhaps most importantly, a brassica.info e-mail list has been established to encourage communication and discussion among the international Brassica research community.
The project will sequence the 500 Mb genome of Brassica rapa subspecies pekinensis or chinese cabbage by its common name. Brassica genomes demonstrate extensive collinearity, although not perfect, at both thechromosome and gene-to-gene level. Therefore, the complete genome sequence of one Brassica species is required. This sequence can then be used to compare with partial physical maps of other species, as well as for the preparation of microarrays to analyze the transcriptome or design specific markers for marker selected breeding programs.
Sequences from the ends of bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones provide highly specific markers. They will be used, at least initially, to produce a fully oriented, ordered sequence. This Brassica _A_genome sequence can then be used in a comparative physical map to identify related genome sequences of other Brassica species such as B. napus and B. oleracea and finally all three can be compared to Arabidopsis thaliana, a relative of the Brassicas. The initial stages of this work has already begun in the lab of Ian Bancroft, John Innes Centre, UK.
Here at the Saskatoon Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Derek Lydiate_s lab is working on sequencing the Brassica napus genome to elucidate the molecular and genetic structure and function. Homologous regions of the B. napus genome are being compared to the Arabidopsis genome through the Brassica/Arabidopsis Comparative Genome Browser (BioViz). Currently there are more that 70,000 3_and 5_Brassica napus EST (expressed sequence tags) sequences available in the browser, but future plans are to include Microarray and SAGE expression data.
The success of the Multinational Brassica Genome Project depends on the level of support and contributions from the international Brassica research community. For more information, I encourage you to check the website at: www.brassica.info
Sources:
Multinational Brassica Genomics Project website: www.brassica.info Brassica/Arabidopsis Genomics Initiative, Christopher Lewis, Canola Genomics Newsletter, Issue 2, January 2004 AgBiotech Bulletin - Volume 12, Issue 2
From AgBiotech Bulletin - Volume 12, Issue 2 (February 2004) Published by Ag-West Biotech Inc.
Source: SeedQuest.com
3 Feb 2004
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1.11 AFRICAN FARMERS INCREASE RICE HARVESTS DUE TO "NERICA"
Farmers in nearly a dozen countries in West and Central Africa are currently experiencing bountiful rice harvests. They are growing enough rice to feed their families, and have surpluses to sell in the markets. All these benefits are now taking place due to the "Nerica" - a new rice variety that is a cross between an ancient, hardy African rice variety, and a high-yielding Asian variety.
The Nerica, which was developed originally by the scientists of the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA), combines the features of both of its parent plants. Developed thru tissue culture technology, the Nerica is resistant to drought and pest, have higher yields even with little irrigation or fertilizer, and has more protein as compared to the other rice varieties.
In an interview with Africa Recovery, the WARDA Director-General Kanayo Nwanze said that the adoption of the Nerica would mean "more food on each household's table and more money in the (African) farmers' pockets." Nwanze added that this would also help women farmers, whose total labor input in rice production (about 40% to 60%) is spent in weeding. Due to the Nerica's ability to reduce weed growth, women now spend less time weeding.
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol17no4/174rice.htm.
CropBiotech Update
6 February 2004
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1.12 SCIENTISTS DEVELOP PLANT THAT PRODUCES POTENTIAL ANTI-CARCINOGEN
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University researcher has successfully engineered plants that may not only lead to the production of anti-carcinogenic nutritional supplements, but also may be used to remove excess selenium from agricultural fields.
By introducing a gene that makes plants tolerate selenium, David Salt, professor of plant molecular physiology, has developed plants capable of building up in their tissues unusually high levels of a selenium compound. His interest in selenium stems in part from recent research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health showing that selenium can reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer by 60 percent. "We now know how to genetically modify plants so they will make this anti-carcinogenic selenium compound," Salt said. "This research gives us the genetic means to manipulate the amount of this material that's produced in any plant."
By inserting the gene responsible for this conversion into Arabidopsis thaliana, a model lab plant that does not tolerate selenium, Salt and his colleagues produced plants that not only thrive in a selenium-enriched environment but also amass high levels of the selenium-containing MSC in their tissues.
However, he said the effectiveness of MSC in humans has not yet been tested, because to date there hasn't been a good commercial source of it that could be used in human trials.
"We would be very interested in knowing the efficacy of MSC in humans, clearly. The problem has been there's no material to run such an experiment, and that will be an important piece of this story down the road."
Writer: Jennifer Cutraro, (765) 496-2050, jcutraro@purdue.edu
Source: David Salt, (765) 496-2114, salt@hort.purdue.edu
Source: EurekAlert.com
(condensed)
3 Feb 2004
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1.13 GLOBAL CROP DIVERSITY TRUST
The Global Crop Diversity Trust, an international fund charged with securing long-term funding for the support of genebanks and crop diversity collections around the world, has obtained the commitments of Dupont and Syngenta for its program. The two companies pledged $1 M each.
Formed in 2002 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the 16 Future Harvest Centers of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research, the Trust has been charged with raising a $260 million endowment to maintain the world's most critical germplasm for agricultural and industrial crops as well as support struggling collections especially those in developing countries.
The crop diversity collections, holding millions of plant samples housed in gene banks, provide the raw material necessary for plant breeders to develop reliable, hardier, more productive and nutritious food crops for farmers.
More information on the Trust is available at http://startwithaseed.org.
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1.14 SUGARBEET DOUBLE HAPLOID PRODUCTION USING HAPLOID MICROSHOOTS IN VITRO
Tissue Culture Lab, Sugar Beet Seed Institute, Karaj-Iran
Double haploid plants are produced by diploidisation of plants obtained from anther or ovule culture in vitro. These are homozygous lines and excellent breeding material produced only in one generation. Colchicine treatment is an essential and critical step of the double haploid production program. This substance is a carcinogenic and expensive alkaloid extracted from Colchicum automnale, used for its antimitotic effect . In vitro colchicine treatment of haploid plants is being used in order to reduce the concentration of toxic substance, its handling risks and the costs of the program..
A study conducted on doubling haploid sugarbeet tissues in vitro showed that reduced concentrations of colchicine are effective in diploidisation of haploid microshoots at multiplication phase. Treatment dose of 0.1% and for 24 hours of culture resulted in diploidisation of sugarbeet microshoots after their transfer onto hormone free medium.
Contributed by Nasrin Yavari
nasrin_yavari@yahoo.com
March 6 2004
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1.15 GENOME OF FIRST FUNGAL PATHOGEN UNVEILED
Geneticists at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy (IGSP) and the University of Basel have unveiled the complete genome sequence of the pathogenic plant fungus Ashbya gossypii, which infects agricultural crops including cotton and citrus fruits in the tropics. The fungus has the smallest genome yet characterized among free-living eukaryotes. Eukaryotes are the single-celled and multicellular organisms that include fungi, plants and animals.
The team -- led by Fred Dietrich, Ph.D., of the IGSP's Center for Genome Technology, and Peter Phillipsen, Ph.D., of the University of Basel -- reported its findings online in the March 4, 2004, Science Express, the online version of the journal Science. The work was completed with the funding and collaboration of Novartis (now Syngenta) in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The researchers have no financial ties to Novartis or Syngenta.
The sequencing of the fungal genome has already shed light on the evolution of Saccharomyces cerevisiae -- the single-celled baker's yeast that scientists rely on for the study of many basic questions in cell biology. Furthermore, understanding the infectious microbe's genetic instructions might allow scientists to tease out the fundamental features responsible for some fungi's ability to cause disease, the researchers said.
Source: SeedQuest.com
4 March 2004
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1.16 DNA-BASED METHODS IN SORGHUM DIVERSITY STUDIES AND IMPROVEMENT
Diversity studies have been carried out in the Ethiopia/Eritrea area, which, like most areas, is threatened by loss of landraces due to introduction of improved varieties from elsewhere. Evaluating germplasm diversity can help to identify landraces with the greatest novelty and thus are most suitable for rescue or incorporation into crop improvementprograms. Genetic distance estimates determined by molecular markers help identify suitable germplasm for incorporation into plant breeding stocks. The greatest potential for markers perhaps is their potential to accelerate the rate of gain from selection for desirable genotypes and in the manipulation of quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Researchers at Purdue conducted experiments on QTL analysis of drought tolerance in sorghum and identified regions of the sorghum genome that condition the expression of drought.
A set of 15 SSRs has been developed for sorghum. Compared to other markers, SSRs exhibit uniform genome coverage, high levels of polymorphism and co-dominance. They are detected by specific PCR-based assays and can be used for pedigree analysis because they represent single loci and can uniquely define genotypes. Agrama and Tuinstra at Kansas State University recently compared SSRs with RAPDs. Their results indicated that SSRs were highly polymorphic compared to RAPDs (which had nearly 40% monomorphic fragments). Earlier, Ghebru et al. also reported genetic diversity of Eritrean sorghum landraces using SSRs.
Together, marker assisted selection and genetic transformation will help improvement of sorghum both as a food crop and as an industrial crop. An important development has been the Sorghum Genomics Project, Texas A & M University http://sorghumgenome.tamu.edu). The project was initiated out of a realization that sorghum could be a key species for comparative analysis of grass genomes, as well as a source of beneficial genes for agriculture. A comparison of rice, a C3 plant that is well adapted to wet environments, and sorghum, a C4 plant adapted to arid environments, may elucidate the combination of genetic traits required for adaptation to each of these extremes of agriculture.
Genetic mapping studies have revealed that genes for various traits are found on the same place on the chromosomes of similar organisms. For example, the genes for traits such as digestibility, dwarfism, and waxy skin (which protects a plant during times of drought) are found in the same approximate location on cereal grains such as wheat, maize, sorghum, and rice. Maize, however, has about three times as much genetic material as sorghum. Therefore, it should be easier to locate a desired trait in sorghum and then find the gene in maize, than it is to search through maize's entire genetic library. Information derived from such an initiative will be of relevance both to crop improvement by transgenesis and plant biology in general.
Tawanda Zidenga
Plant Biotechnology Center
Ohio State University
zidenga.1@osu.edu
(Condensed by the editor)
ISB News Report
March, 2004
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1.17 CORNELL PLANT BREEDERS SLICE THROUGH ONION'S SEXUAL BARRIER TO BREED DISEASE RESISTANCE INTO CROP
For onion growers battling botrytis leaf blight, a crop-decimating disease, relief is on the way. Cornell University plant scientists have breached the plant's tough sexual barrier to cross two species and develop a first draft of a botrytis-resistant onion. The way is now paved for scientists to bring the onion to commercial quality and, perhaps, make it resistant to other diseases as well.
Martha Mutschler, Cornell professor of plant breeding, will unveil her research team's results Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. at the 2004 Empire State Fruit and Vegetable Expo in the Riverside Convention Center's Bausch Room, Rochester, N.Y. Her research collaborators were Jim Lorbeer, Cornell professor of plant pathology; research associate Edward Cobb; and graduate student Pablo A. Goldschmied.
Mutschler's team obtained the resistance from A. roylei, a wild plant species related to the onion and held at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's germ plasm cold-storage facility at Fort Collins, Colorado. She describes this rock-garden plant as a "treasure trove of resistances." The major obstacle was breaking down the onion's sexual barriers to cross the two species. Strong sexual barriers reduced the onion plant's fertility and seed quantity. "Without seeds, a breeding program is stuck," she says.
In 2001 Mutschler and her colleagues concentrated on obtaining seed from
botrytis- resistant back-cross plants, their progeny and other resistant plants, but sexual barriers limited seed production from zero to 20 seeds per plant. However, three back-crossed plants produced more than 100 seeds. "This segregation for superior seed production shows that the sexual barriers are under genetic control and that fecundity is probably a recessive trait derived from the onion parent," she says.
By the summer of 2002, more than half of the back-crossed plants yielded resistance, and more than 94 percent produced onion like bulbs. Last spring a total of 112 resistant onion plants sprouted. Mutschler says bulbs were retested for botrytis resistance, evaluated for pollen production and used in seed production. About 20 of the botrytis-resistant, back-crossed plants had adequate pollen fertility and produced good seed levels.
"To put these results in perspective, we produced considerably more seed from botrytis- resistant plants in one year than we had produced in all prior years on the project combined," says Mutschler. "This is evidence that the inter-specific barriers between onions and A. roylei have been fully overcome in some of our selections and that completion of the transfer of the dominant botrytis resistance to the onion should proceed far more readily."
The seed will be grown in 2004 and screened for resistance. Mutschler says that with greater availability of seed, greater selection for plant type also should be possible, accelerating completion of the transfer. Over the next growing season, she hopes to improve the onion's firmness, size and number of centers. Botrytis-resistant onions could be ready within a few years.
The research was funded by the New York State Onion Growers Association's check-off program, administered through the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.
News release
Ithaca, New York
February 9, 2004
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1.18 NEW INSIGHTS ON PAPAYA EVOLUTION
Scientists led by a team from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) report the first direct evidence that papaya sex chromosomes are evolving from other chromosomes. This discovery may help scientists understand inheritance or traits responsible for the size, shape, and quality of the fruit. Papaya trees inherit a specific combination of genes on their sex chromosomes that produce fruit with the desired shape that consumers refer.
Genetic material from more than 2,000 fresh papayas were analyzed. Scientists found a chromosome with a small region of genes for male traits. This comprises only about 10% of the chromosome's length which actually determines sex in papaya.
The full article is available in the journal Nature but a short article from ARS can be viewed at http://www.ars.usda.gov/news.
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1.19 NEW GERMPLASM PROMISES HEALTHIER SOYBEAN OILS
USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists have developed a new germplasm that could pave the way in producing oils that have heart healthy levels of monounsaturated fats and could shortly become a strong contender of olive oil. The new germplasm, called N98-4445A, was developed through traditional breeding methods by scientists from the ARS Soybean and Nitrogen Fixation Research Laboratory in Raleigh, North Carolina. Led by agronomist Joseph W. Burton, the research team considers the new germplasm as an invaluable genetic resource for producing mid-oleic soybean varieties suitable for different growing regions. Oil from N98-4445A contains augmented levels of oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat stable enough for use in salad dressings or frying oils without undergoing hydrogenation.
Increased oleic acid levels also translate to a decrease in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). PUFAs are liquid fats (e.g. linolenic and linoleic acids) that are known to produce undesirable odors and break down when oxidized during aging or frying. Moreover, the new line of oils has only 3 percent PUFA as compared to commercial soy oils that contain 7 percent linolenic acid. These new oils also fall below a critical cut-off point under which no hydrogenation is necessary.
By 2006, U.S. Food and Drug Administration would require food manufacturers to state the amount of trans fatty acids in processed foods. The processed-food industry uses tons of vegetable oils annually and about half of all vegetable oils produced are from soybeans. The full story is available at http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/feb04/soy0204.htm
Source: CropBiotech Update
27 February 2004
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1.20 RACING TO CONSTRUCT THE PERFECT RICE PLANT
Rice, a crop that feeds half the world's people and supplies income for a billion more, will have to keep pace with surging demand using far fewer resources, a goal for which many scientists believe biotechnology will be indispensable. Even as public investments into the staple crop fall off, the cultural and economic importance of rice is gaining prominence. In its first-ever endorsement of a commodity, the United Nations declared 2004 _The Year of Rice_, in hopes of promoting research and addressing the problem of dwindling production growth.
Until 1960, the rate of production increase was four percent per year; today, it is stagnating at one percent, adds the United Nations.
With this in mind, scientists from around the world gathered in Rome earlier this month for a U.N.-sponsored rice conference to consider how to meet an estimated 40 percent jump in demand for the crop by 2025 _with less land, less water, less labour and fewer chemicals.
If they fail, desperate farmers will be forced to expand into fragile areas such as hillsides and wetlands, with dire consequences for wildlife and watersheds.
Many hopes are pinned on exploiting technological advancements like the decoding of the rice genome, announced simultaneously in January 2002 by Swiss agricultural giant Syngenta and a team of Chinese scientists from the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), working independently of each other.
Having revealed the DNA sequence of every rice gene, scientists are now focusing on _marking_the traits that each gene expresses in the plant, such as whether the grain's consistency is sticky or smooth.
_The most direct use of the sequence information for improvement of rice and other cereals is the genetic tagging of important phenotypes by DNA markers,_said Dr. Takuji Sasaki of the Japanese National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences.
_The next idea is to identify genes and their characteristics for physical roles,_he told IPS.
_These results must be transferred to the actual improvement of main staples,_Sasaki explained. _It will take time because the growth of plants takes time, (as does) investigating the target species._
While many of the benefits lie years away, progress is already being made. In India, scientists have engineered a strain of samba masuri rice able to withstand bacterial leaf blight, which destroys about 15 percent of the local crop every year.
Using DNA markers greatly accelerated the process of developing the pest-resistant rice to less than three years, compared to conventional breeding techniques that can take up to six years.
The new strain will be tested in large-scale field trials beginning with the next growing season.
Other recent advances include rice varieties enriched with vitamins and minerals, others that grow with less water or in salty soil -- key in light of Asia's looming water crisis -- and high-yield hybrids.
A key player in much of this research is the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), which presides over a gene bank of more than 100,000 rice varieties that it distributes free to researchers with the understanding that the resulting products will not be patented for profit.
_At IRRI, we use (the genome) to pinpoint candidate genes for conferring disease resistance, tolerance for submergence and phosphor