PLANT
BREEDING NEWS
EDITION 156
2 May 2005
An Electronic Newsletter of Applied Plant Breeding
Sponsored by FAO and Cornell University
Clair H. Hershey, Editor
CONTENTS
1. NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESEARCH NOTES
1.01 First
intensive investigation of early agriculture in Liangchengzhen
suggests rice was prevalent
1.02
Homer Chapman, one of UC Riverside's founding
faculty members, dies at age 106
1.03
Plant Breeders' Rights (PBR) Act Amendments
Consultation update
1.04
More Golden Rice
1.05 Regulating transgenic
crops sensibly: lessons from plant breeding, biotechnology and genomics
1.06 GM
rice 'good for Chinese farmers' health and wealth'
1.07 New
ISAAA information package: 'Molecular Breeding
and Marker Assisted Selection' April 28, 2005
1.08 CGIAR
drafts guidelines on unintended GMOs in genebanks
1.09
Participatory plant breeding: a fast track to variety development
1.10
Neglected crops 'crucial' to beating hunger
1.11
Preserving the grain crop finger millet
1.12
Poor countries are 'not mining their green gold'
1.13
Preserving wild rice and other crops
1.14 China opens centre of
excellence for agricultural biodiversity
1.15
CSIRO develops plants that produce DHA, a
healthy omega-3 oil component normally only available from fish sources
1.16
Ohio State University's Ornamental Plant Germplasm
Center revives old-style petunias
1.17
Australian researchers looking for 'tough genes' to overcome drought and
salinity
1.18 New
Nerica rice varieties added
1.19
Rice genome shuffles, loses plastic genes, research finds
1.20
Developing maize varieties tolerant to witch-weed
1.21
Genetic secrets of rice's worst fungal pest unveiled
1.22
Positive reactions to new technique using genetic engineering without foreign
DNA
1.23
Researchers discover chemical compounds that help plants deal with gravity
1.24
Researchers unlock mechanism creating jigsaw puzzle-like plant cells
1.25
Wheat diseases affected by pollutant emissions, paper reports
2. PUBLICATIONS
2.01
Population Improvement:
2.02
Now in paperback: Dangerous Liaisons? When Cultivated Plants Mate with Their
Wild Relatives
2.03
Invitation to submit manuscripts: Propagation of Ornamental Plants
2.04
Editorial policy: Innovation Strategy Today
2.05 IP
Strategy Today No 14
3. WEB RESOURCES
3.01 Global Plant Breeding: a
new plant breeding website
4 SCHOLARSHIPS/GRANTS AVAILABLE
4.01 PhD Scholarship from SARDI
4.02
New research grant opportunities for young researchers from developing
countries
4.03
Coordinated ag projects in applied plant genomics (CSREES/USDA)
5 POSITION ANNOUNCEMENTS
(None posted)
6
MEETINGS, COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
7
EDITOR'S NOTES
=========================
1. NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESEARCH NOTES
1.01 First intensive investigation of early agriculture in Liangchengzhen suggests rice was prevalent
Archaeologists from the University of Toronto, the Field Museum, and
Shandong University announce the results of the first intensive investigation
of early agriculture in Liangchengzhen, Shandong in
Northern China. The results are published in the April 2005 issue of Current
Anthropology. Several thousand crop and weed seeds were recovered by the team
at the 4000 year-old Liangchengzhen site, a regional
political center in Shandong.
Prior to the investigation, Longshan agriculture was
thought to have been millet-based, with rice having little importance. However,
nearly half the grains collected in the study were from rice while the
remainder was from fox-tail millet. According to radiocarbon dating, the grains removed from the pit date to 2000 B.C.
Modern grain agriculture in
"Not only does rice appear to have been more significant for eastern Longshan people than previously suspected but the presence
of wheat foreshadows more modern agriculture based on both rice and wheat.
Wheat is rare at Liangchengzhen and was likely just
being introduced to the region," the researchers contend.
A significant study of this kind has been needed. "Understanding of Late
Neolithic food production in
Crawford, Gary, Anne Underhill, Zhijun Zhao, Gyoung-Ah Lee, Gary Feinman,
Linda Nicholas, Fengshi Luan, Haiguang
Yu, Hui Fang, and Fengshu Cai. "Late Neolithic Plant Remains from
Source: EurekAlert.org
6 April 2005
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1.02 Homer Chapman, one of UC Riverside's founding faculty members, dies at age 106
Professor Emeritus Homer D. Chapman, a former director of the Citrus
Experiment Station and a founding faculty member at the University of
California, Riverside, died at the age of 106 on Monday, April 4. He lived in
Professor Chapman was one of the early pioneers in the development of leaf and
tissue analysis for diagnosing the nutrient status of citrus trees. He
contributed substantially to the work in citrus nutrition and soils research
that made citrus such an economic powerhouse for
http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=1037
Contributed by Kathy Barton
UCR College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
University of California - Riverside
kathryn.barton@ucr.edu
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1.03 Plant Breeders' Rights (PBR) Act Amendments Consultation update
This document is intended to clarify the role of the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency (CFIA), the Farmers' Privilege and
the Seed Sector Review (SSR) as they relate to the PBR Act Amendments Consultation, which ended March 8, 2005.
Consultation
Discussion Paper
General Information:
Plant Breeders' Rights (PBR) is a form of
intellectual property rights, which allow plant breeders of new varieties the
exclusive rights to produce and sell propagating material of the variety in
Agricultural and horticultural varieties already in the marketplace, including
heritage varieties do not qualify for PBR. In
addition, a variety, must meet certain criteria to be eligible for plant
breeders' rights. The variety must be new (may not be sold in
The CFIA administers the PBR
Act in
PBR Consultation:
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's (CFIA)
consultation on the proposed amendments to the PBR
Act ended
These amendments are being proposed to ensure that
Role of the CFIA:
The CFIA administers the PBR
Act in
The consultation and the associated discussion paper are the result of
deliberations by the Plant Breeders' Rights Advisory Committee, which includes
representatives of plant breeders, farmers, growers, industry and other
stakeholders. The role of the PBR Advisory Committee
is to provide recommendations to the Minister responsible for Agriculture and Agri-Food (AAFC) and the CFIA on the administration of the Act, from a broad
stakeholder perspective.
Farmers Privilege:
There are some questions in the public forum regarding the potential impact
of the proposed amendments on farmers' rights to save seed.
As with existing PBR legislation, the proposed
amendments to the PBR Act would not affect farmers'
rights to save and use seeds of a protected variety. This is known as farmers'
privilege. The current PBR Act does not prohibit
farmers from saving and using seed produced from a protected variety; however,
this is not currently stated in the Act.
If
With respect to the cleaning (conditioning) of seed, the intent is not to
prevent farmers from having their seed cleaned (conditioned) for their own use.
Fact Sheet - Farmers
Ability to Save Seed Produced from Protected Varieties
Seed Sector Review (SSR)
The Seed Sector Review and the PBR Act Amendments
consultation are two separate and independent activities. The SSR was an industry-led assessment of the Canadian seed
sector and
Suggestions for changes to
Next steps:
The CFIA is reviewing comments and will seek the PBR Advisory Committees views on the feasibility of moving
forward with the proposed amendments.
Source: SeedQuest.com
6 April 2005
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1.04 More Golden Rice
An improved version of Golden Rice, rich in pro-vitamin A, is described in the
April issue of Nature Biotechnology. A team of industry scientists in
the UK and USA has produced an improved version of 'Golden Rice', which
contains significantly elevated levels of beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A) work
that could bring efforts to develop rice strains to help combat dietary vitamin
A deficiency closer to reality.
Dietary vitamin A deficiency affects over 250 million people around the globe
and can result in blindness and a depressed immune system. Golden Rice 2
accumulates more than 20 times the amount of beta-carotene produced in the
original Golden Rice, developed five years ago. Rachel Drake and colleagues
engineered the new strain following methodical screening and testing of
alternative versions of phytoene synthase
the first enzyme in the beta-carotene pathway to find the one that produced the
most beta-carotene. Among all the enzymes screened, a phytoene
synthase from maize gave the best results. The new
version of Golden Rice containing the maize enzyme is an excellent starting point
for breeding new varieties of rice rich in beta-carotene.
The original Golden Rice, although a valuable first step, was soon recognized
to contain insufficient levels of beta-carotene in its grains to allow
practical implementation in the field. Golden Rice 2, however, has the
potential to provide about 50% of the required daily allowance of vitamin A for
children, although this depends on overall diet composition in particular the
amount of dietary oils consumed together with it.
The company developing the new rice strain supports the Humanitarian Project
for Golden Rice and intends to donate the strain for further research and
development through a research license.
Improving the nutritional value of Golden Rice through increased pro-vitamin A
content pp 482 - 487
Jacqueline A Paine, Catherine A Shipton, Sunandha Chaggar, Rhian M Howells, Mike J Kennedy, Gareth Vernon, Susan Y
Wright, Edward Hinchliffe, Jessica L Adams, Aron L Silverstone & Rachel Drake
Published online: 27 March 2005 | doi:10.1038/nbt1082
Abstract
| Full
text | PDF
(accessible to subscribers)
Source: SeedQuest.com
April 2005
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1.05 Regulating transgenic crops sensibly: lessons
from plant breeding, biotechnology and genomics
ABSTRACT
The costs of meeting regulatory requirements and market restrictions guided by
regulatory criteria are substantial impediments to the commercialization of
transgenic crops. Although a cautious approach may have been prudent initially,
we argue that some regulatory requirements can now be modified to reduce costs
and uncertainty without compromising safety. Long-accepted plant breeding
methods for incorporating new diversity into crop varieties, experience from
two decades of research on and commercialization of transgenic crops, and
expanding knowledge of plant genome structure and dynamics all indicate that if
a gene or trait is safe, the genetic engineering process itself presents little
potential for unexpected consequences that would not be identified or eliminated
in the variety development process before commercialization. We propose that as
in conventional breeding, regulatory emphasis should be on phenotypic rather
than genomic characteristics once a gene or trait has been shown to be safe.
Nature Biotechnology Volume 23 No. 4,
pp 482 - 487 (April 2005)
Source: SeedQuest.com
6 April 2005
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1.06 GM rice 'good for Chinese farmers' health
and wealth'
Lei Du
[BEIJING] Genetically modified (GM) rice reduces health risks for farmers and
increases their profits because it demands far fewer pesticide applications
than conventional rice, according to research in China.
The joint Chinese-US study, published today (29 April) in Science, also
shows that one of the two types of GM rice under investigation had slightly
higher yields than non-GM rice.
Lead author Jikun Huang of the Beijing-based Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy says the team's goal
was to evaluate whether rice modified to resist attack by insect pests could
improve farmers' livelihoods and wellbeing.
The researchers found that farmers growing GM rice reduced their pesticide use
by nearly 80 per cent.
"In fact, 62 per cent of farmers who cultivated GM rice didn't use any
pesticide at all," says Huang. In contrast, farmers growing conventional
rice sprayed pesticides on average 3.7 times each season.
Farmers growing GM rice spent just 31 yuan (under
US$4) per hectare on pesticides, while those growing conventional rice spent
close to US$30 per hectare.
The benefits of GM rice were not only economic, the study found. Pesticides
which contain toxins that kill insects by affecting their nervous system can
also be toxic to people.
According to Huang, tens of thousands of Chinese farmers suffer acute pesticide
poisoning each year, and hundreds die because of exposure to the chemicals.
Huang's team found that while up to 11 per cent of farmers growing non-GM rice
had symptoms of pesticide poisoning, none of those growing GM rice did.
"The study shows that there is vast potential for gains, both economic and
health-wise, from adopting GM rice," says David Zilberman,
an agricultural economist at the
The research was done in
Huang is optimistic that the government will approve the GM rice soon.
If so, says Zilberman, "it will lead to the
adoption of GM rice in other Asian countries".
Huang and colleagues compared 123 household farms growing GM rice with 224
plots growing non-GM rice in 2002 and 2003.
The two types of GM rice assessed were Xianyou 63 and
II-Youming 86. The former contains a bacterial gene
that produces a poison that kills insects feeding on the rice, but is harmless
to birds or mammals.
The second variety is also toxic to insects but contains a gene from the cowpea
plant.
Link
to full paper in Science
Source: Sci.Dev.net
29 April 2005
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1.07 New ISAAA information package: 'Molecular Breeding and Marker Assisted
Selection' April 28, 2005
Pocket K No. 19 on Molecular Breeding and Marker Assisted Selection is now
available online on the website of the International
Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications - Global Knowledge
Center on Crop Biotechnology. It discusses the techniques behind marker
assisted selection (MAS), how MAS can lead to new crop varieties, and the
various methods used by scientists involved in MAS.
The process of developing new crop varieties can take almost 25 years. Now,
however, biotechnology has considerably shortened the time to 7-10 years for
new crop varieties to be brought to the market. One of the tools which can make
it easier and faster for scientists to select plant traits is marker-assisted
selection (MAS).
Complete document in PDF format (large file):
http://www.isaaa.org/kc/Publications/pdfs/pocketks/Pocket%20K19%20(English).pdf
Pocket Ks are Pockets of Knowledge, packages of information on crop
biotechnology products and related issues. They are produced by the
Source:
SeedQuest.com
28 April 2005
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1.08 CGIAR drafts
guidelines on unintended GMOs in genebanks
The Genetic Resources Policy Committee (GRPC) of
the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has circulated for comments a draft of the guiding
principles for the development of the Future Harvest Centers'
policies to address the possibility of unintentional presence of transgenes in ex-situ collections. The GRPC
hopes to recommend its use by the centers of the CGIAR.
Dr. Emile Frison, Secretary of the GRPC and Director General of the International Plant
Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) said that
consultation was done widely. The GRPC recommended
that more efforts were needed to demonstrate the specific nature and qualities
of agricultural biodiversity to international groups such as the CBD and its open-ended working group on access and benefit
sharing. "Agricultural biodiversity is distinct from the wild biodiversity
the CBD generally focuses on," said Frison, "and restrictions on the exchange of
agriculturally important germplasm could have
negative consequences."
The draft document is available online at http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org.
Read the IPGRI release by Jeremy Cherfas
at http://ipgri-pa.grinfo.net/index.php?itemid=788
Source: CropBiotech Update 15 April 2005:
Contributed by Margaret Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Cornell University
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1.09 Participatory plant breeding: a fast track to
variety development
Participatory plant breeding (PPB) has been proposed as a way to address
three problems of conventional plant breeding, namely its low effectiveness in
marginal environments, the long time needed to develop a variety and the poor
level of adoption, particularly in developing countries. PPB complements both Mendelian and molecular breeding and being based on the
same genetic principles as formal breeding, incorporates and takes full
advantage of the use of modern biotechnological techniques.
PPB turns upside down the delivery phase of a plant breeding program by using
adoption as a driving element of variety release and certified seed production.
Therefore adoption rates are higher, risks are minimized, and last but not
least, the investment in seed production is nearly always paid off by farmersadoption.
These advantages are particularly relevant to developing countries where large
investments in plant breeding have not resulted in production increases,
especially in marginal environments.
There are currently more than 80 programs worldwide using PPB in a number of
different countries and crops (http://www.prgaprogram.org).
ICARDA is currently using PPB in
The NARS in
The ICARDA PPB program has been used by IDRC as one of the six case studies to mainstream PPB.
References
Vernooy R. 2003. Seeds that give:
participatory plant breeding.
Lilja N., Aw-Hasaan A.
2002. Benefits and costs of participatory barley breeding in
Ashby J. A. and Lilja N. 2004. Participatory
Research: Does it Work? Evidence from Participatory Plant
Breeding. Proceeding of the 4th International Crop Science Congress New
Directions for a Diverse Planet26th September-
Cleveland D. A. and Soleri D. (eds.).
2002. Farmers, scientists and plant breeding: Integrating Knowledge and
Practice.
Contributed by Salvatore Ceccarelli, ICARDA
s.ceccarelli@cgiar.org
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1.10 Neglected crops 'crucial' to beating hunger
T. V. Padma
22 April 2005
Source: SciDev.Net
[CHENNAI] Eradicating hunger will require more research on nutritious but
largely ignored crop species, said specialists in agriculture and biodiversity
who met this week (19 April) in Chennai, India.
Participants in the meeting said farmers in developing countries should be
encouraged to grow a wider range of native crops to provide local populations
with greater dietary diversity.
In
The current focus on just a few crops means there is "a strong chance that
the global community will miss the first UN Millennium Development Goal on
hunger by several decades beyond 2015," said Olanrewaju
Smith, executive secretary of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research.
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG)
are a set of international targets that member nations
of the UN have pledged to meet by 2015. The first MDG
is to "reduce by half the number of people who suffer from hunger".
Participants in the Chennai meeting said national development plans should make
better use of agricultural biodiversity and that there needs to be better
access to traditional foods.
The world increasingly relies on a "shrinking food basket" of a few
crops to fulfil the dietary needs of its people, said M. S. Swaminathan,
chair of the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation.
Of the 7,000 plant species that are cultivated worldwide, just 30 provide 90
per cent of human calorie intake. Three rice, wheat and maize provide more than
half of the planet's food.
The International Plant Genetic Resources Institute warns that interpreting the
first MDG as meaning that each person gets more food,
ignores the fact that malnutrition is also about people not getting enough of
micronutrients, vitamins and minerals.
Malnutrition contributes to at least half the of the 10.4 million child deaths
each year, according to the institute.
Swaminathan said that tackling malnutrition by
increasing dietary diversity would not only help address this 'hidden hunger'
but could also help achieve two more of the Millennium Development Goals,
namely reducing infant mortality and reducing the number of women who die in
childbirth.
The meeting's recommendations are being finalised, and will taken into
consideration when the UN reviews progress in achieving the MDGs
in September.
More than 100 participants from 20 countries attended the meeting. It was
organised by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute and Global
Facilitation Unit for Underutilised Species, both based in
Source: SciDev.net
22 April 2005
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1.11 Preserving the grain crop finger millet
ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Sharon Durham, (301) 504-1611, sdurham@ars.usda.gov
April 6, 2005
Seeds of finger millet, a staple grain in parts of Africa and India, are now
being preserved and studied by Agricultural Research Service scientists as part
of the continuing effort to maintain genetic diversity in agricultural crops.
ARS agronomist Melanie Newman, the curator for finger
millet and other warm-season cereal, forage and turf grasses, maintains a wide
variety of species in the agency's collection. The ARS
Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit in
According to Newman, it's crucial to agriculture to maintain a collection with
key genetic traits. She and plant geneticist Ming Li Wang are busy genetically
fingerprinting the germplasm in the collection to
provide researchers with a set of genetic markers needed to evaluate germplasm and identify various traits. Yield and resistance
to a fungal disease called blast are important for growing finger millet as a
food crop.
Maintaining the collection is vital to future research on finger millet.
Researchers have to retain an adequate amount of seed from each sample, or
accession. The seeds stored at the
Newman also receives requests for finger millet for nutritional studies to
increase its utility as a food staple in developing countries.
Read more about this research in the April issue of Agricultural Research
magazine, available online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/apr05/millet0405.htm
ARS is the
Source:
SeedQuest.com
6 April 2005
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1.12 Poor countries are 'not mining their
green gold'
Mike Shanahan
Developing nations could make better use of the potential their natural
resources have to yield profitable products such as drugs, says a researcher
from the United Nations University.
In her book Regulating Bioprospecting,
published today (19 April), Padmashree Gehl Sampath recommends policies
for developing countries to implement to encourage fair and sustainable use of
their biological wealth or 'green gold'.
Gehl Sampath says that
properly regulating the use of natural resources could help build research
capacity and strengthen healthcare in developing countries.
In theory, screening biological resources for marketable products a process
known as 'bioprospecting' could contribute to
sustainable development.
Attracted by the prospect of new drugs, foreign pharmaceutical companies would
screen biological resources (such as plants and corals) from a developing
nation. When a successful drug comes out of their research, the company would
share the profits with the country that the resource was taken from. Agreements
would ensure that benefits reach any local communities whose knowledge informed
the research.
Thousands of drugs have already been developed from plants, and the diversity
of plant life in many developing countries suggests that many more are waiting
to be discovered.
In addition, traditional medicine in such countries relies heavily on natural
products, which means that local communities already know some plants with the
potential to yield drugs.
To ensure that biological resources are not exploited through unfair or
unsustainable use, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity allows national
governments to regulate access to their natural resources, and recognises the
rights of local communities to their traditional knowledge.
However, says Gehl Sampath,
most bioprospecting partnerships set up since the
convention came into force in 1993 have failed to produce the expected drugs.
In addition, bureaucracy, legal uncertainties and weak regulatory frameworks in
developing countries have made pharmaceutical companies hesitant to invest in bioprospecting.
Gehl Sampath says that to
recapture the interest of these investors, developing countries should enact
laws balancing the needs of drug companies, local communities, and governments,
and create relevant institutions to implement the regulations.
She says it is important that these stakeholders do not view bioprospecting agreements as one-off deals to yield high
short-term profits. Rather, she says, the agreements should be part of
long-term research and development collaborations.
Gehl Sampath says
developing countries could improve their healthcare by demanding that
pharmaceutical companies help them improve their ability to research and
develop their own drugs in exchange for access to their natural resources.
Developing countries have so far been unrealistic about how much they should
expect to gain from bioprospecting agreements, she
adds.
She warns that developing countries must accept the need to offer incentives to
companies to invest "if they are to harness the true potential of these
resources".
"Bioprospecting is not a panacea, it is only one
solution to the health care problems faced by developing countries," she
concludes.
"Gehl Sampath offers a
much more realistic and rational basis for fair, wealth-generating bioprospecting deals than we have seen so far," says
Graham Dutfield, senior research fellow at the Queen
Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute,
Gehl Sampath is based at
the United Nations University's Institute for New Technologies,
Link
to Gehl Sampath's summary of key policy recommendations in her book
Regulating Bioprospecting. (PDF)
Source: SciDev.Net
19 April 2005
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1.13 Preserving wild rice and other crops
ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Marty Clark, (301) 504-1024, MartyClark@ars.usda.gov
April 20, 2005
Nearly half a million samples of plant and animal germplasm
are tucked away at the Agricultural Research Service's National Center for Genetic Resources
Preservation in Fort Collins, Colo. But some
species do not store well using conventional storage methods.
That's where plant physiologist Christina Walters' team in the Plant Germplasm Preservation Research Unit plays an important
role. Team members find new methods to preserve samples that don't store well.
For example, wild rice seeds don't survive long and don't preserve easily. Many
breeders just stick their wild rice seeds in a refrigerator.
Walters found that the water content of seeds can be optimized to make them
neither too wet nor too dry. Some drying slows down seed aging and germination
but does not hurt the seed. Drying also means less chance that lethal freezing
will occur, so the seeds can survive at lower temperatures for longer times.
Walters' group has shown that wild-rice seeds can be stored for at least three
years at -5 degrees Celsius.
Scientists in Walters' unit are trying to solve a diverse array of germplasm-storage problems. Some recent projects include
looking at ways to correctly identify garlic varieties--which are impossible to
distinguish by variety name, and difficult to identify by appearance--to
prevent unnecessary duplication in storage; trying to assess the genetic
diversity of the bristlecone pine, which could be one of Earth's oldest living
inhabitants; and developing new methods for storing grape germplasm.
Read more about the research in the April 2005 issue of Agricultural Research
magazine, available online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/apr05/plant0405.htm
ARS is the
Source:
SeedQuest.com
20 April 2005
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1.14 China opens centre of excellence for
agricultural biodiversity
Beijing, China
The longstanding partnership between the International
Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) and the
Chinese Academy of
Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) received a boost
today with the launch of a new phase in co-operation. The joint CAAS-IPGRI Centre of Excellence in Agrobiodiversity
Research and Development (CEARD) opened in the
presence of Dr Huqu Zhai,
President of CAAS, and Dr Emile Frison,
Director General of IPGRI.
The Centre will be a focal point for research on agricultural biodiversity with
a particular emphasis on neglected crops -- and a training centre for the
entire region. It will also host interns and play an important role in
promoting cooperation and networking among different actors in the region.
In his remarks at the Centres opening seminar on agricultural biodiversity, Dr Frison praised Chinas efforts to use diversity to boost
food production. Planting mixtures of disease-susceptible and disease-resistant
rice varieties enables farmers to do away with fungicides and gives them higher
incomes from sales of susceptible, but valuable, traditional varieties. Chinese
farmers are now experimenting with mixtures of different species and one of the
Centres first tasks will be to extend these principles to examine the wider
value of genetic diversity in controlling pests and diseases.
In the immediate future, work will concentrate on molecular characterization of
buckwheat diversity in
The Centre has a branch at
Source: SeedQuest.com
15 April 2005
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1.15 CSIRO develops plants that produce DHA, a healthy omega-3 oil component normally
only available from fish sources
Australia
In a world first CSIRO Food Futures Flagship
has developed plants that produce DHA, a healthy
omega-3 oil component normally only available from fish sources, and vital for
human health.
"Showing that plants can produce DHA in their
seeds is a remarkable scientific feat," says Dr Bruce Lee, Director of the
CSIRO Food Futures Flagship responsible for the project.
"It is an important first step towards improving human nutrition, reducing
pressure on declining fish resources worldwide and providing Australian grain
growers with new high-value crops."
DHA and other long-chain omega-3 fatty acids are made
by lower plant forms, like microalgae, which are then
acquired by fish through the food chain, but more advanced plants that grow on
land cannot produce them.
"The prototype plants we developed show for the first time that land
plants can indeed make their own DHA and other
important long-chain omega-3 fatty acids when we equip them with the required
genes," says research team leader of Food Futures Advanced Genetics, Dr
Allan Green.
DHA is vital for optimal brain and eye development
and is recognised for its health attributes including; lowering coronary heart
disease risk, Type-2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and asthma.
Nutritional authorities recommend a daily intake of at least 500mg of
long-chain omega-3 including DHA, yet dietary surveys
show that most Australians consume only a tenth of this amount.
To increase intake, many foods are now supplemented with omega-3 oils from
fish, but with declining natural fish stocks, and aquaculture's current
reliance on fish-based feeds, additional sources of long-chain omega-3 oils are
urgently needed.
"Commercially available omega-3 enriched crop plants may be some years
away, but they would enable the average Australian to obtain healthier levels
of DHA through a wider choice of foods," says Dr
Green.
Dr Lee says that this discovery is an example of the successful collaboration
of multi-disciplinary science drawing together CSIRO's expertise across the
different CSIRO divisions of Plant Industry, Marine Research, Health Sciences
& Nutrition, Entomology, Livestock Industries, and Food Science
"This result positions
Source: SeedQuest.com
5 April 2005
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1.16 Ohio State University's Ornamental Plant Germplasm Center revives
old-style petunias
Columbus, Ohio
April 11, 2005
Petunias with blooms of white, purple, pink, red and yellow populate
greenhouses at Ohio State University's Ornamental Plant Germplasm Center (OPGC). Petunias are not uncommon, but what makes these so
special is that they haven't been in the public eye for nearly 40 years.
Researchers at the OPGC, located on the campus of the
We were told that the viability of the seed was very low,said David Tay, OPGC
director. It was our job to try and save that seed and produce germplasm of the cultivars produced for future research and
perhaps renew market interest.
So far, five different open-pollinated heirloom petunia cultivars have been
restored and researchers are working on another 25. The plants come in a
variety of flower colors and sizes. The petunia, a
summer annual, is known for its diverse colors and
easy maintenance, both in the landscape and in gardens (including container
gardening).
These plants are frozen in time. No one is growing these cultivars anymore,said
For more information on the project, contact David Tay at (614) 292-3708 or tay.1@osu.edu, or OPGC
curator Susan Stieve at (614) 292-3726 or stieve.1@osu.edu.
The OPGC, a cooperative effort between
Source: SeedQuest.com
11 April 2005
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1.17 Australian researchers looking for 'tough
genes' to overcome drought and salinity
Adelaide, Southern Australia
by David Ellis, The University of
Adelaide
Adelaide has a major role to play in the development of salt-tolerant crops
that could potentially feed millions of starving people worldwide.
According to statistics, world food grain production must be doubled by the
year 2050 to meet the demands of a growing global population.
Even under ideal conditions, it would be difficult to increase crop production
much beyond current levels,said
Professor Mark Tester, Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellow at the University of Adelaide.
Based at the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics at the Waite
Campus, Professor Tester is a key researcher in international efforts to turn
the tide of crop production.
With the greatest population increases being in the cities of developing
countries, it is an economic necessity that the majority of any increased food
production should occur in the countries in which these growing cities are located,he said.
Most crop-growing conditions are far from ideal. Particularly challenging is
that increased production must be achieved in the face of decreased land area
for cropping, diminishing water resources and worsening environmental
constraints, such as drought and poor soil.
There are both practical and theoretical constraints which limit just how much
a plant can do!
Globally, cereal production is reduced by approximately one-third due simply to
the effects of drought, salinity and low temperatures, Professor Tester said.
The difference between the potential yield and that actually achieved is termed
the yield gap. Most practical increases in global food production will occur
through the closing of this yield gap. In other words, we need to develop
crops, particularly the cereals, that will be more tolerant to the so-called abiotic stresses, notably drought, salinity and low temperatures.Abiotic stresses are a problem not only in
developing countries.
The devastating effects of drought and salinity both on the environment and on
the farmers of
A recent market analysis of cropping identified drought and poor soil
conditions (mainly salinity) as the two most significant factors limiting the
yield of cereal crops in
The research underway in Professor Testers laboratory
is focused on increasing the tolerance of crops to saline soils.
Central to this work is the stark observation that some plants manage to keep
growing well on saline soils (tough plants), whereas others grow poorly (the
wimps). Were identifying genes that make the tough plants tough, and then
moving these genes into the wimps, in order to toughen up the wimps.
The toughness genes may be derived from plants that are closely related to the
crops we want to make more tolerant, or else they may be found in more
evolutionarily distant plants, that display tolerance to greater extremes than
do the crop relatives.
It is not only the presence of a particular gene that is important, but also
where in the plant the gene is activated, and when the gene is activated. It is
these cell-specific genetic issues that are a major focus of the research
program in Professor Testers laboratory.
With the new developments in biology that exploit the power of robotics and
computing, extraordinary and exciting new advances are now possible,Professor Tester said.
In large centres such as the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics
and the Waite campus of the
Source: SeedQuest.com via Checkbiotech
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1.18 New Nerica
rice varieties added
The latest batch of New Rice for Africa (NERICA)
varieties were recently named by the Africa Rice Center
(WARDA) Variety Nomination Committee, as based on
their performance and popularity in the field. The 11 new varieties have been
tested in national programs in
NERICA varieties been planted on more than 100,000 ha
across
For more information, visit http://www.warda.org.
Source: CropBiotech Update 1 April 2005:
Contributed by Margaret Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Cornell University
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1.19 Rice genome shuffles, loses plastic
genes, research finds
Mitsuhiro Matsuo and colleagues from the Center
for Gene Research, Nagoya University, Japan report that "The Rice Nuclear
Genome Continuously Integrates, Shuffles, and Eliminates the Chloroplast Genome
to Cause Chloroplast-Nuclear DNA Flux." In the report, Matsuo reports
that, although DNA sequences constantly migrate from rice chloroplasts to the
nucleus, these sequences are continuously shuffled until they are lost. The
paper appears in the latest issue of The Plant Cell.
Using the rice nuclear genome database (http://rgp.dna.affrc.go.jp/),
which includes >85% of the total genome sequence of Oryza
sativa ssp japonica,
researchers found that gene sequences are constantly transferred from plastids
(such as chloroplasts) to the nucleus, constant gene reshuffling occurs within
the nucleus itself, and this reshuffling results in the eventual elimination of
plastid DNA sequences within two million years of their integration.
Calculations also show that the rice nuclear genome incorporated a large
portion of plastid genome at least three times in the past 1.7 million years.
These data indicate that the plant nuclear genome is in equilibrium between
frequent integration and rapid elimination of the chloroplast genome, which may
explain why plant genomes do not seem to be expanding, despite the frequent
integration of plastid DNAs.
Read the complete article at http://www.plantcell.org/
cgi/reprint/17/3/665
Source: CropBiotech Update 8 April 2005:
Contributed by Margaret Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Cornell University
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1.20 Developing maize varieties tolerant to
witch-weed
Nairobi, Kenya
April 18, 2005
By Ken Ramani , The East African Standard via Checkbiotech
Kenyatta University (KU) has embarked on research
aimed at developing maize varieties tolerant to witch-weed.
The dreaded weed is seen as a serious constraint to maize production in the
country and sub-Saharan
This was disclosed yesterday during the launch of Level two Biosafety
Plant Genetic Transformation facility at the university.
Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate has already certified the laboratory to
undertake this home-grown biotechnology research.
Education minister, Prof George Saitoti, said Kari
and national universities have started using molecular markers to speed up animal
breeding efforts through conventional approaches.
"We cannot afford to ignore the use of this and other emerging
technologies if we intend to be globally competitive.
"
President Kibaki last year opened the first
bio-safety glasshouse in
The local university and the
Saitoti said the facility would make a contribution
in empowering African scientists to embrace biotechnology to do research that
addresses the problems of the continent.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof Everret Standa,
said KU researchers had entered into a working relation with other institutions
such as Kari and Kemri.
He said donors, notably RF, AATF,
USAid, USDA and the private
sector, are among those that KU researchers are
closely working with in the field of genetically modified foods.
Standa said KU welcomes the collaborative efforts and
financial support aimed at benefiting farmers and consumers of their produce.
It was further disclosed that during the 2005/6 academic year, KU would admit
students from
Education Permanent Secretary, Prof Karega Mutahi, who read Saitoti's
speech, said the Attorney General's office had approved a Draft Bill on GMO foods.
"Anytime from now the Bill will be presented to the Cabinet for approval
before being taken to Parliament for debate and approval," Mutahi told The Standard.
Other
news from this sourceThe East African
Standard via Checkbiotech
Source: SeedQuest.com
20 April 2005
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1.21 Genetic secrets of rice's worst fungal pest
unveiled
Catherine Brahic
Scientists who mapped the entire genetic code of the world's most destructive
rice fungus say their research reveals what makes the fungus so powerful and
offers several avenues for research into combating it.
Each year the 'rice blast' fungus, Magnaporthe
grisea, destroys enough rice to feed 60 million
people.
Its genetic code was mapped in 2002 by a team led by Ralph Dean, director of
the Fungal Genomics Laboratory at
The team's first analysis of the sequence is published today (21 April) in Nature.
The fungus gets its name from the way it blasts its way into the leaves of rice
plants by growing a small 'bubble' that sticks to the plant. Pressure inside
the bubble builds up until it bursts, allowing the fungus to push through the
leaf's protective surface and into the plant.
The fungus can then invade the plant tissue, reproduce
and infect other plants. When the fungus infects young rice seedlings it often
kills the whole plant. Older plants infected yield little grain.
Dean's team compared the rice blast genome to those of two other fungi that do
not kill plants but grow on dead matter. Because the fungi are related, any
differences might reveal genes that help M. grisea
infect live plants.
For instance, the researchers showed that the rice blast fungus produces
several enzymes that break down the waxy coating that protects rice leaves. The
fungi that feed on dead matter do not have any genes that make these enzymes.
Previously, a team had looked at one of these enzymes and decided that the rice
blast fungus did not need it to penetrate leaves.
"What they didn't know at the time," says Dean, "is that M. grisea has a whole arsenal of these enzymes."
The data suggests that breaking through the waxy coating is very important for
the rice blast fungus's survival.
"Without the genetic sequence we might never have gone back to revisit the
story," says Dean.
The researchers also showed that the rice blast fungus has an unusually high
number of genes that help fungi respond to changes in the environment around
them. Moreover, they showed that some of these genes are 'switched on' when the
fungus attacks plant leaves.
They conclude that the rice blast fungus can respond to its environment better
than other fungi, and that this could be important in helping it infect plants.
Dean describes the rice blast's invasion of rice plants as "stealth
warfare". Rice plants have defence systems that can tell if they are under
attack by recognising some of the fungus's proteins. Part of the reason that M.
grisea is so successful is that it can adapt
its attack to avoid being detected.
It does this with the help of viruses that effectively live inside it by
inserting their DNA into the fungus's DNA.
To survive, these viruses need the fungus to reproduce, copying both fungal and
viral DNA. By scrambling the fungal DNA, the viruses make it more difficult for
the plants to recognise the rice blast fungus, meaning that both fungus and
virus have a better chance of reproducing.
"Together they enhance each other's livelihood," says Dean.
He and his team found that the viruses "hide" in very specific parts
of the rice blast DNA. Uncovering clues such as this,
could help them understand more about how the viral and fungal DNA interact,
which could in turn help explain the fungus's adaptability.
Researchers hope that knowing the sequence of the rice blast fungus's genome
will help them find ways of enabling plants to better resist the fungus or of
disarming the fungus itself.
Combined with the full sequence of the rice genome, completed in 2002, the
fungal genome sequence offers a powerful tool for understanding the
relationship between the pathogen and the host, and for determining the best
way to defeat the fungus.
Click here
to see the freely available completed sequence
Link to full
paper in Nature
Reference: Nature 434, 980 (2005)
Source: SciDev.Net
21 April 2005
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1.22 Positive reactions to new technique using
genetic engineering without foreign DNA
New Zealand
April 14, 2005
By Tim Cronshaw, Fairfax New Zealand Limited via Checkbiotech
European countries with strong lobbying against GM crops have reacted
positively to a new technique developed by Lincoln scientists using genetic
engineering without foreign DNA.
Most interest in the new way to genetically modify plants has come from Europe,
to the surprise of even Crop & Food
Research, which holds the technique's intellectual property rights (see
related release: Precision
breeding: a new genetic technique providing international opportunities for
crop improvement, November 2004)
The method called precision breeding allows for the transfer of plant genes
without introducing genetic material from another species.
Senior scientist Dr Tony Conner says the research organisation has received
many inquiries from around the world since the work was introduced at
international science conferences late last year.
"To our surprise (the interest is) largely from
It is being warmly received by developing countries in
Dr Conner says
He says smaller companies that do not have the big expense accounts of large corporates view it as a means of using the technology.
"There has been a lot of support for the idea. I think people see it as a
way forward in the GM debate. It overcomes the big issue of public concern
about ethics and how they feel uncomfortable about moving genes across the wide
boundaries from animals to plants or bacteria to plants."
Dr Conner says scientific and industry groups recognise that there is still
much work that can be done with same-species genetic modification, without
causing public concern.
Only genetic material that naturally crosses within the same species is
transferred and the method avoids established GM methods using bacterial DNA.
The next stage is to isolate a range of valuable potato genes to improve
existing potato cultivars.
The characteristics being targeted include nutritional value, visual appearance
and disease resistance.
He admits the work had drawn a mixed reaction.
"We have to recognise that there are portions of the public that we will
never be able to convince. But we hope to appeal to mainstream New
Zealanders," he says.
Greenpeace spokesman Steve Abel says the main concerns are the lack of
knowledge of the effect of releasing new genetically modified organisms into
the environment and the random enforced insertion of DNA into a living
organism.
"We don't have an ethical issue of GM itself with its lab use. Our concern
is of the long-term irreversible effects on environmental release."
Mr Abel says Crop & Food has given the precision-breeding technique a fancy
name, but it is still GM and would be regarded as this by an international
agreement between countries to manage international trade of live GM organisms.
Dr Conner says the random insertion issue is already present in all crop plants
through other advanced breeding techniques and is not a new issue to be
concerned about.
Precision breeding is being seen as valuable for any crop and particularly
those that are vegetatively propagated such as
potatoes and fruit trees.
Crop & Food estimates it could be a year or two before precision-bred
cultivars of potato are ready for field testing.
© Fairfax New Zealand Limited 2005.
Source: SeedQuest.com
14 April 2005
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1.23 Researchers discover chemical compounds that
help plants deal with gravity
A team of biologists from the University of California, Riverside has used
chemical genomics to identify novel compounds that affect the ability of plants
to alter their direction of growth in response to gravity, a phenomenon known
as gravitropism.
The researchers screened a library of 10,000 small molecules, the practice is
known as chemical genomics, to identify those that could positively or
negatively affect gravitys effect on plant growth,
which is closely linked to the movement of proteins through plant cell
membranes, a process known as endomembrane
trafficking.
Well-characterized bioactive chemicals and their targets identified in the
model plant, Arabidopsis, can be used in non-model species to improve agronomic
traits and increase crop value,said
research team leader, Distinguished
Professor of Plant Cell Biology Natasha Raikhel.
The team published its findings in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition of March 14 in a
paper titled, "The Power of Chemical Genomics to Study the Link between Endomembrane System Components and Gravitropic
Response." The teams chemical genomics approach
focuses on the use of small molecules to modify or disrupt the functions of
specific genes or proteins. NASA supported the research.
This contrasts with classical genetics, in which mutations disrupt gene function,Raikhel said. The
underlying concept is that the functions of most proteins can be altered by the
binding of a chemical, which can be found by screening large libraries for
compounds that specifically affect a measurable process.
The scientists found 219 chemicals that affected the direction of plant growth
due to gravity. Further screens reduced this number to 34, then down to 4
chemicals, which affected gravitropism and the
movement of proteins through membranes within the plant cell.
Only one of these resembled auxins, a plant-produced
growth hormone involved in gravitropic responses,
while two of the four did not work through known auxin
pathways. One of the chemicals resembled pyocyanin a
product of bacterial metabolism thought to target yeast cell membranes. With
chemical genomics, the team could identify valuable genetic characteristics
beyond the reach of conventional mutations, which are often lethal when present
in essential genes such as those that encode many cellular membrane components.
Combined with the formidable genetic mapping and information available from the
Arabidopsis plant, chemical genomics is becoming a powerful new tool in plant
biology. It is helping scientists better understand protein transportation and
genetic signaling in a plants cellular membrane
system, which is essential to plant growth, yet is poorly understood.
The researchers can now use the compounds they have discovered to identify
target pathways and proteins within the endomembrane
system.
http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=1020
Contributed by Kathy Barton
UCR College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
University of California - Riverside
kathryn.barton@ucr.edu
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1.24 Researchers unlock mechanism creating jigsaw
puzzle-like plant cells
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have unlocked the
molecular give and take that allows cells in thin structures such as leaves to
develop in a jigsaw-like pattern, providing the leaf a surprising degree of
strength. The findings were published in todays
edition of the journal Cell.
Zhenbiao Yang, a professor
of plant cell biology at the UCR's Center for Plant Cell Biology and Institute
for Integrative Genome Biology, worked with a team of researchers which
included Geoffrey Wasteneys from the University of
British Columbia, Vancouver; fellow UCR colleagues
Ying Fu, Ying Gu, and Zhiliang
Zheng.
The findings, described in a paper titled Arabidipsis
Interdigitating Cell Growth Requires Two Antagonistic
Pathways with Opposing Action on Cell Morphogenesis, explained a complicated
and coordinated series of chemical interactions in a group of cellular
proteins, known as GTPases (guanosine
triphosphatases) that act as molecular switches,
which regulate how plant cells grow into interlocking patterns resembling
jigsaw puzzle pieces.
These proteins tell one part of a cell to grow outward while telling its neighbor to recede or indent itself in a finely tuned
biological dance. The results are structures that, despite their delicate
appearance and slenderness, provide the strength necessary to allow the plant
to grow and thrive.
The findings point out that these distinct signals play a critical role in the
development of leaf cell walls and leaf structures in a controlled and ordered
way and that genetically over expressing one or the other leads to cells
lacking the interlocking jigsaw puzzle appearance.
While the researchers unlocked a fascinating mechanism of biochemical crosstalk
that coordinates cells into tissues, a deeper understanding of how plant cells
chemically talk to each other to grow or recede in an ordered way remains
unclear.
http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=1015
Contributed by Kathy Barton
UCR College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
University of California - Riverside
kathryn.barton@ucr.edu
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1.25 Wheat diseases affected by pollutant emissions,
paper reports
Sarah Bearchell and colleagues of the University
of Reading, United Kingdom, recently found, through their research, that their
local "Wheat archive links long-term fungal pathogen population dynamics
to air pollution." Their findings are published in the latest online issue
of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Bearchell was interested in the abundance of two
important wheat pathogens, Phaeosphaeria nodorum and Mycosphaerella graminicola, in wheat samples archived in the last 160
years. Using PCR to detect the pathogens, as well as
records of weather conditions during the time period, researchers discovered
that changes in the ratio of the pathogens over the 160-year period were very
strongly correlated with changes in atmospheric pollution, as measured by SO2 (sulfur dioxide) emissions. Sulfur
dioxide is known to affect physiological processes in plants and may impair
disease resistance mechanisms. There was no relationship established between
changes in the pathogen DNA ratio and changes in lead, cadmium, polychlorinated
biphenyls, or polyaromatic hydrocarbons.
Both pathogens studied cause septoria
blotch diseases in wheat, resulting in losses of millions of tonnes of grain
worldwide every season. The two fungal pathogens frequently coexist on leaves, and both damage plants by decreasing photosynthetic
areas of upper leaves that fill grain.
Download the complete article at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/short/102/15/5438.
Source: CropBiotech Update 1 April 2005:
Contributed by Margaret Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Cornell University
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2 PUBLICATIONS
2.01 Population Improvement: A Way of Exploiting the Rice
Genetic Resources of Latin America
Edited by Elcio Perpetuo
Guimaraes
CONTENTS
PART 1: TOOLS
Ch. 1. Exploiting rice genetic resources through
population improvement
Ch. 2. Genetic mean and variability in
recurrent selection
Ch. 3. Selection indices for population improvement programmes
Ch 4. Using molecular markers in rice population
improvement through recurrent selection
Ch. 5. Molecular markers as tools for rice
population improvement
Ch. 6. Participatory rice breeding, using population improvement:
a new methodology adapted to the needs of small farmers in
PART 2: ADVANCES
Ch. 7. Exploiting the genetic resources of rice in
Ch. 8.
Improving irrigated rice populations for the temperate climate of
Ch. 9.Advances in population improvement of irrigated rice in
Ch. 10. Advances in the Venezuelan recurrent selection programme for population
improvement in rice
Ch. 11. Acquiring a basic understanding of rice population
improvement for use in
Ch. 13.
CIRAD/CIAT Rice Project: population improvement and
obtaining rice lines for the savannah ecosystem
Ch.14. Creating a rice population resistant to Rhizoctonia solani Kühn
PART 3: THESES
Ch. 15. Genetic progress towards grain quality in rice (Oryza sativa L.)
through recurrent selection
Ch. 16. Genetic gain for resistance to blast in a rice
population
Ch. 17. Effects of selection and of recombinations
on an upland-rice population
Excerpts from the PREFACE
This publication is the third of a series that
aims to document progress made in the advanced use of rice genetic resources in
Some national programmes opted for using mass selection to improve the general
level of the populations and fixing traits that were not of interest but were
variable. Others sought to conduct evaluations in the second selfing generation (S0:2), and yet others
decided to carry out more than one evaluation and begin in the generation of
greatest segregation (S0), and then immediately advance the
materials for selection in S0:2. Such focuses and methodological
variants indicated that the countries quickly took ownership of the idea and of
the materials, and are proceeding confidently towards reaching the specific
objectives of their respective programmes.
We cannot conclude this preface without highlighting two aspects that
characterize this work. The first refers to the release, in
This book is available by contacting the editor, Elcio
Guimaraes (FAO/AGPC) at Elcio.Guimaraes@fao.org
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2.02 Now in paperback: Dangerous Liaisons? When
Cultivated Plants Mate with Their Wild Relatives
The hardcover version of Dangerous Liaisons?
When Cultivated Plants Mate with Their Wild Relatives by Norman C. Ellstrand
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003) sold out after receiving favorable reviews in Nature, Nature Biotechnology,
American Journal of Botany, Environmental Biosafety
Research and several other journals.
The publisher decided to release the second edition as a paperback to make it
at a price accessible for scientists and decision-makers in developing nations.
You can now obtain it at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801881900/qid=1114021014/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/102-4434765-5668138
Contributed by the author, Norman Ellstrand
ellstrand@ucr.edu
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2.03 Invitation to submit manuscripts: Propagation of
Ornamental Plants
Dear colleague,
I would like to inform you that the International Scientific Journal
"Propagation of Ornamental Plants" is printed 4 times per year from
2005 (www.journal-pop.org). I would
kindly invite you to submit your manuscript for publishing. Also, I would
kindly ask you to send me your name and family name.
Please do not hesitate to get into contact with me if you need.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ivan Iliev
Editor-in-chief
University of Forestry
Sofia, Bulgaria
E-mail: iviliev@ltu.bg or: ivilievltu@yahoo.com
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2.04 Editorial policy: Innovation Strategy
Today
Innovation Strategy Today is an eJournal
sharing creative and innovative ideas and experiences about global issues in
agriculture, health, and the environment facing developing countries.
Papers must have a problem solving orientation and demonstrate originality and
innovation in thinking, analysis, methods or application. Issues related to
research investments and management, bilateral and multilateral donor policies,
extension, teaching, public-private partnerships are equally encouraged, as is
interdisciplinary research with a significant innovation and international
development component. Manuscripts, review articles and working papers that
offer a comprehensive and insightful survey of a relevant subject, consistent
with the scope of Innovation Strategy Today, are welcome. All articles
published, regardless of their nature, will be reviewed anonymously by members
of the editorial board.
Contributed by Anatole
F Krattiger
anatole@bioDevelopments.org
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2.05 IP Strategy Today No 14
Dear Colleagues:
We are pleased to announce the publication of IP Strategy Today No 14
containing the following two papers:
Huang WH, JJ Yeh and D Fernandez. 2005. Patent Prosecution Strategies
for Biotechnological Inventions. IP Strategy Today No 14-2005. pp. 1-10.
Huang WH,
As always, you are welcome to download it for free
from www.biodevelopments.org/ip/
where you may also subscribe to automatically receive future volumes.
Anatole F. Krattiger
Chair, bioDevelopments-International Institute
Cornell Business and
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=========================
3. WEB RESOURCES
3.01 Global Plant Breeding: a new plant breeding
website
Global plant breeding was organized to provide information and support for
plant breeders in all parts of the world, working on all crop plants, in public
service and private industry. See:
http://globalplantbreeding.ncsu.edu/
The following is copied from the website homepage:
Plant breeding is everywhere in the civilized world, providing new cultivars
(cultivated varieties) of useful crops for commercial growers, subsistence
farmers, and home gardeners. Agriculture is the foundation of civilization, and
plant breeding is the foundation of agriculture. Plant breeders work with field
crops (grains, legumes, forages, roots, and fiber),
forest crops (lumber, paper, and mu