PLANT BREEDING NEWS
EDITION
167
31 May 2006
An Electronic Newsletter of Applied Plant
Breeding
Sponsored by FAO and Cornell University
Clair H. Hershey,
Editor
Archived issues available at: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/AGP/AGPC/doc/services/pbn.html
CONTENTS
1. NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESEARCH
NOTES
1.01 Young blood to bring new life to agricultural research
1.02 Few young Asians are choosing
careers in rice science, despite its vital importance to the region
1.03 Orphan crops
1.04 GGE Biplot Workshop held at
IITA
1.05 Public comment on the
proposed deregulation of the transgenic plum resistant to plum
pox virus
1.06 100 countries have ratified the international plant genetic resources
treaty
1.07 FAO
voices concern about decreasing wild banana species
1.08 CIP contributes native potatoes to
potato park
1.09 Plant protection from cold decoded
1.10 Uncovering genetic diversity of
rice varieties could improve nutritional value, productivity of world's greatest
food source
1.11 No-mow grass may be coming to your yard soon
1.12 New method for screening cowpea germplasm for resistance to Cucumber mosaic virus
1.13 Silencing wheat and barley
scab
1.14 14
Imminent threat of stem rust pandemic in wheat
1.15 15 Bioassay developed for wheat
crown rot
1.16 Paper tracks cocoa bean boring, relation to insect resistance
1.17 African agriculture experts tackle
biofortification
1.18 Allergen-free soybeans from Chinese soybean lines
1.19 Improved quinoa to
help Andean farmers
1.20 Improving the availability of foundation (basic) seed of
publicly developed varieties in Africa
1.21 Single gene is both friend and foe
to rice
1.22 Complex genetic
networks underlying the defensive system of rice (Oryza sativa L.) to
Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae
1.23 Super-sized cassava plants may help fight hunger in
Africa
1.24 Not
just weapons: nuclear science for development
1.25 Update 3-2006 of FAO-BiotechNews
(57th edition)
2. PUBLICATIONS
2.01 Hort Sci papers from the MSU plant
breeding education symposium, Feb 2006
2.02 Publication of Brazilian crops’ wild relatives goes
online
3. WEB RESOURCES
3.01 Plant, grow and
harvest virtual crops - Crop modeling program growing popular worldwide
3.02 Agricultural supercourse - a global repository of lectures
4 ERRATA: CORRECTIONS TO EDITION 166
4.01 Association among pollen grain
features to maximise reproductive fitness: A study in Dianthus
species
4.02 Selection of potato lines resistant to multiple pathogens
5 POSITION ANNOUNCEMENTS
(None submitted)
6 MEETINGS, COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
7 EDITOR'S
NOTES
=========================
1. NEWS,
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESEARCH NOTES
1.01 Young blood to bring new life to agricultural
research
Rice research in Vietnam
Wagdy Sawahel
An
association is being formed to bring fresh blood and an injection of new ideas
into agricultural research and policymaking in developing countries.
The
Young Professionals' Platform for Agricultural Research for Development (YPARD)
will be formally launched in November during the Global Forum on Agricultural
Research in New Delhi, India.
The organisation is the brainchild of
Balasubramanian Ramani, an Indian crop researcher based at the University of
Hannover in Germany.
He says YPARD is needed to give prominence to the
needs and views of young professionals active in development-related
agricultural research.
Ramani and 25 colleagues from 16 nations met
earlier this month in the Netherlands to develop the organisation's strategic
plan for 2006-2008.
Under the plan, YPARD will encourage professionals
under the age of 40 to share information and engage in policy debates on issues
such as research priorities and genetic engineering.
The organisation
also aims to promote farming and agricultural research as career options by
creating links with secondary schools and universities.
Next month, it
will create a website (www.ypard.org) to host online forums and databases of young
professionals' contact details. It will also list training opportunities,
funding, jobs, conferences and relevant organisations.
This month's
meeting heard calls for YPARD to be proactive in creating opportunities for
young people instead of waiting for the old guard of agricultural researchers to
hand over.
YPARD has the backing of the Global Forum on Agricultural
Research, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and the
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation.
Despite this
high-profile support, Ramani says there are challenges ahead for the
organisation. "We still have work to do to convince those who are still
sceptical about YPARD and its role in agricultural research for development," he
told SciDev.Net.
Source: SciDev.Net
23 May 2006
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1.02 Few young Asians are choosing careers in rice
science, despite its vital importance to the region
Los Baños,
Philippines, and Bangkok, Thailand
The young people of Asia are being
encouraged to consider a future in rice.
Whether it's rice farming or
rice research, very few of Asia's best and brightest young people are interested
in a career in an industry that has been a foundation of the Asian way of life
for generations. Few rice farmers want their children to be rice farmers, and
even fewer young Asians are choosing careers in rice science, despite its vital
importance to the region.
However, an innovative project being launched
this week in Thailand and the Philippines marks the start of a major new effort
to encourage young Asians to consider a future in rice.
"It's a sad fact
of life in modern Asia that many young people in the region don't think of rice
as offering an exciting or promising career, so they focus on other industries
and other careers," says Robert S. Zeigler, director general of the
Philippines-based International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI). IRRI, together with the Thai Rice Foundation under Royal
Patronage (TRF) and Philippine Rice
Research Institute (PhilRice), is hosting ten Thai teenagers and nine young
Filipinos for a week of activities designed to boost their interest in rice and
science.
Dr. Zeigler says it's vital for Asia's future development that
the rice industry attract the region's best and brightest young people. "Rice
and agriculture are still fundamental to the economic development of most Asian
nations, not to mention their cultural and social identities," he added.
Working together with the TRF and PhilRice, IRRI is hosting a five-day
rice camp (24-28 April 2006) at its headquarters in Los Baños for the Thai and
Filipino students who are aged 16–18. During the five days, the students – all
of whom have been selected because of their interest in, or knowledge of, rice – will learn the very latest scientific techniques in rice research and, more
specifically, be convinced of how rice research can provide a brighter future
for rice in the region.
"We want them to understand that rice research
is not some sleepy little scientific backwater, but is, in fact, right on the
cutting edge of international scientific activity," Dr. Zeigler said. "The
recent sequencing of the rice genome attracted enormous international attention,
especially among the scientific community, yet most young Asians still don't
know it even happened, let alone understand its implications for the food they
eat each day."
During their five days at IRRI, the students, who will be
accompanied by their teachers, will learn about new techniques such as DNA
extraction and how to insert a gene into rice as well as more basic information
such as how to prepare a field for rice transplanting. "We hope they will then
return home with a new sense of excitement about rice and its potential both in
science and in the future development of Asia," said Dr. Kwanchai Gomez, the
TRF's executive director.
"Rice has played a vital role in Thailand's
economic development, not to mention its history and culture," Dr. Gomez added.
"The challenge is to try and translate this into a sense of excitement and
interest amongst young people in Thailand and all over Asia."
Source:
SeedQuest.com
5 May 2006
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Contents)
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1.03
Orphan crops
Importance, Neglect and
Potential
During the Depression in the United States in the 1930s, it is said
that some parents too poor to care for their children would put them on a
freight train, wave good-bye and hope for the best. Maybe that’s what happened
with yams.
Like the children placed on the trains, yams are orphans. So
are millets, cassava, taro, tef and cowpea. In fact, there are dozens of orphan
crops, crops that receive little, if any, care or attention relative to their
value and importance.
There are more than 50,000 edible plants in the
world. A few hundred make a significant contribution to food supplies, according
to FAO. Some 150, historically, have entered into world commerce. And yet a
sizeable portion of these – perhaps the majority of those FAO is referring to -
and perhaps even a majority of those that have circulated in world trade - have
never benefited from the efforts of a single scientifically-trained plant
breeder.
Consider yams. Nearly 40 million metric tons were produced last
year. Have trouble comprehending that quantity? It’s an amount that would fill
about a million train cars – more than the railroad companies in North America
own. But, don’t worry. That’s not where the demand is.
More than 95% of
yams are grown in sub-Saharan Africa, primarily in Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin,
Togo, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. Millions of people – primarily poor people -
depend on yams as a staple crop. But how many people do yams depend on? About a
half-dozen. There are about six yam breeders in the world, the greatest
concentration at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in
Nigeria. Of course, yams actually benefit from the efforts of many, many people,
not the least being farmers. But, you get the point – relative to the importance
of the crop, formal investment in it is scandalously low. And food security for
millions is therefore put at risk.
Bananas are another orphan crop. In
weight terms, banana production is almost double that of yams. In terms of gross
value of production, bananas and plantains are the developing world’s fourth
most important crop after rice, wheat and maize. Millions of people – chiefly in
Africa - depend on bananas as their primary staple crop. Per capita consumption
in some places exceeds a kilo a day! Like yams, however, there are only a
half-dozen banana breeders in the world. Major diseases threaten the crop. In
the long run it is unlikely that the single variety that supports the entire
industry exporting bananas from the tropics to Europe and North America can
survive the onslaught. New, disease resistant varieties are desperately needed,
which is one reason why existing banana collections, small in number, are so
very important and vital to conserve.
Orphan crops are not minor or
insignificant crops. Writing in the journal, Food Policy, Naylor, Falcon, et al,
observe that they are “valued culturally, often adapted to harsh environments,
nutritious, and diverse in terms of their genetic, agroclimatic, and economic
niches.” Collectively, 27 “orphan” crops with a value of $100 billion are grown
on 250 million hectares (618 million acres) in developing countries. Hardly
trivial sums.
Despite their importance in the diets of millions of poor
people, and their contribution to already fragile household and national
economies, orphan crops receive relatively little scientific attention or
private research investment. They are simply too difficult, time-consuming and
expensive to breed for a target market of poor farmers.
Similar reasons
conspire against assembling and maintaining collections of the diversity of
orphan crops, making the task of the few breeders that work with them that much
more difficult and precarious. Donor funding for maintaining the diversity of
yams or the diversity of tef, the most important cereal crop in Ethiopia, rises,
falls and sometimes just disappears according to fashion and whim, leaving
collections imperiled or worse.
A few breeders working with secure and
well-managed, well-documented crop diversity collections can accomplish a great
deal. Burdening the same breeders with vulnerable, resource-starved collections
of breeding stock is a recipe for failure, and a disaster for the future of many
of these crops and the people they sustain.
Modest Investment - Big
Returns
The importance of orphan crops in reaching the Millennium
Development Goals is out of all proportion to the low levels of investment which
they receive. By guaranteeing funding for the conservation and availability of
these crops, the Global Crop Diversity Trust will ensure that collections of
these crops have a good safe home as well as a future in the global effort to
strengthen food security and alleviate poverty.
Collections of breeding
materials for orphan crops are often relatively small – fewer than 2000 types of
bananas represent/contain the diversity in that crop, for example, compared to
well over 100,000 for rice. Conservation costs should, therefore, be reasonable,
while future returns to investment in this effort will, as a consequence, be
tremendous. Moreover, as the article in Food Policy notes, modern technologies
applied by breeders working with crop diversity collections may produce rapid
productivity gains in orphan crops – gains that by definition will accrue to
some of the poorest people on earth.
The choice is clear. We can adopt
these orphans and help them become even more productive citizens. Or, we can
take them to the station, put them on a train, and wave good-bye.
TO
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE TOPIC
- Center for New Crops, Purdue University: www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/
- Global
Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species: www.underutilized-species.org
-
International Centre for Underutilized Crops: www.icuc-iwmi.org
- International
Institute for Tropical Agriculture: www.iita.org
- International Plant Genetic
Resources Institute: www.ipgri.org
-
International Society for Horticultural Science: www.ishs.org
- World Vegetable Center: www.avrdc.org
"Biotechnology in the
developing world: a case for increased investments in orphan crops." By Rosamond
L. Naylor, Walter P. Falcon, Robert M. Goodman, Molly M. Jahn, Theresa Sengooba,
Hailu Tefera, and Rebecca J. Nelson. Food Policy, Vol. 29, 1 (February 2004)
biotechnology_Naylor_Falcon_2004_web.pdf
Source: The Global Crop
Diversity Trust via SeedQuest.com
11 May 2006
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1.04 GGE Biplot Workshop held at IITA
A 2-day
international workshop on the use of GGE Biplot software developed by Weikai Yan
was held at the conference center of the International Institute of Tropical
Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria, on 17 and 18 May 2006. This workshop
brought together 86 participants from the Republic of Benin, Cameroun, Ghana,
Guinea, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and 15 States in Nigeria. The objectives of
the workshop were to improve the analytical minds of Scientists in Africa and
arm them with an efficient statistical tool (GGE Biplot) to handle genotype by
environment interactions (GxE) in breeding, and similar interactions in the
field of natural science, biotechnology, microbiology, and plant
pathology.
Declaring the workshop open, the Director for Research, IITA,
Dr Stan Blade said that over the years several successes has been documented in
plant breeding, but now people are concerned about what the future of plant
breeding might be, because the number of students in plant breeding is
decreasing world wide, even where it is going up, the increase rate is not
commensurate with the tasks plant breeders will be faced. Thus the substance of
this workshop is a key one, because Scientists will always need to have
information about mega environments, to enable them reduce the number site
testing when resources are low, and extrapolate especially for regional testing.
He also said that IITA has a direct link to research for development, and so
research must be for a purpose. It must focus on solving problems, having
impacts for producers and other consumers within the value
chain.
Participants learnt how to use the software for the exploitation
of interactions such as GxE, QTL-by-Markers, and other biplots. They also learnt
about Stability Concepts, Ecovalence, Shukla ?sup>2i,
Eberhart-Russell Regression, and Yield-Stability Statistic (YSi)
using another software called STABLE. The additive main effect and
multiplicative interaction (AMMI) model analysis was taught using a third
software called MATMODEL. Complementarities and similarities between these GGE
biplot and MATMODEL were reviewed. There were sessions to use own data, and
general statistics questions concerning GxE were interactively
tackled.
The resource persons were Dr Manjit S. Kang, Professor of
quantitative genetics from Lousiana State University, USA, Dr Weikai Yan, Oat
breeder from Agri-food and Agriculture, Canada, and Dr Richardson Okechukwu,
Database and statistics manager from IITA. At the end of the course, IITA
arranged to purchase a 2-year Institute license of the GGE Biplot, and
certificates were awarded to participants. In his closing remarks, Dr Alfred
Dixon, IITA Cassava Breeder, thanked the resource persons for coming and said
that IITA plans to hold similar workshop annually to continue to help develop
human capacities in Africa. Participants applauded the workshop, and through a
representative, Dr(Mrs) H.O. Oselebe, promised to utilize what they have learnt
to publish more scientific papers.
Submitted by Richardson
Okechukwu
IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria
r.okechukwu@cgiar.org
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1.05 Public comment on the proposed deregulation of the
transgenic plum resistant to plum pox virus
The
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the United States Dept. of
Agriculture has published a notice in the Federal Register requesting public
comment on the proposed deregulation of the transgenic plum resistant to plum
pox virus, developed by Ralph Scorza of ARS. This notice, dated May 16,
2006, can be found at http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main.
At this site, to comment select "Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service" then select APHIS-2006-0084.
The ARS petition to APHIS
for deregulation, and the APHIS Environmental Assessment, are available on the
APHIS website at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/aphisdocs/04_26401p.pdf
and http://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/aphisdocs/04_26401p.ea.pdf,
respectively. Public comment will be accepted until July 17, 2006. Comments will go on record about the proposed action.
Dr. John W.
Radin
USDA-ARS, National Program
Staff
john.radin@nps.ars.usda.gov
Contributed by Ann Marie
Thro
USDA (CSREES)
athro@csrees.usda.gov
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1.06 100 countries have ratified the
international plant genetic resources treaty
Rome, Italy
Iran has
ratified the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and
Agriculture, bringing the number of countries that have deposited their
instrument of acceptance to 100, the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today.
The treaty, which was
approved by the FAO Conference in November 2001, entered into force on 29 June
2004, the ninetieth day after the deposit of the fortieth instrument of
ratification, acceptance, approval or accession in accordance with the
provisions of the treaty.
FAO Director-General Dr Jacques Diouf said that “this is a legally binding treaty that will be crucial for the sustainability of
agriculture. The treaty is an important contribution to the achievement of the
World Food Summit's major objective of halving the number of hungry people by
2015.”
The main objectives of the international treaty are the
conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and
agriculture and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of
their use, in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity, for
sustainable agriculture and food security.
According to Mr Clive
Stannard of the Interim Secretariat for the Treaty, “this record speed and level
of ratification is an indication of the huge importance that countries attach to
the objectives of the Treaty to ensure that plant genetic resources for food and
agriculture, which are vital for human survival, are conserved and sustainably
used and that benefits are equitably and fairly distributed.”
The first
session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture will take place in Madrid, Spain, from 12 to
16 June 2006. This will be the first occasion in which the contracting parties
to the treaty will meet to discuss its implementation.
Source:
SeedQuest.com
5 May 2006
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1.07 FAO voices concern about decreasing wild banana
species
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is calling for a
systematic exploration of the wild bananas' remaining habitat in India due to
the rapid loss of these species. There is a need, FAO says, to assess the damage
and catalogue the number and types of surviving wild species, many of which are
the ancestors of the Cavendish variety, which accounts for almost all of world
trade of banana.
The Indian subcontinent has contributed enormously to
the global genetic base of bananas, but many gene sources have been lost due to
ecosystem destruction, says FAO Agricultural Officer NeBambi Lutaladio. This
could cause serious problems because commercial bananas have a narrow gene pool
and are highly vulnerable to pests and diseases.
In addition, FAO voiced
the need for conservation efforts that focus on better land management by local
populations, and research on expanding the use of wild bananas in breeding
programs.
Read more on FAO's "Concern at vanishing bananas" at http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000285/index.html,
or contact Christopher Mathews at Christopher.matthews@fao.org
for additional information.
Source: CropBiotech Update 5 May
2006
Contributed by Margaret E. Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell University
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.08 CIP contributes native potatoes to
potato park
The International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, Peru has
repatriated 246 virus-free varieties of native potatoes to the Potato Park in
Cusco Department, Peru. These varieties are now yielding 30 percent more than
ordinary potatoes.
CIP scientists are collaborating with the Potato Park
to promote the crop, and the use and conservation of the diverse variety of
native potatoes found there. Using advanced molecular techniques, CIP is looking
into the possibility that the Park could be a minor center of origin of the
tuber.
The Park is one of the few conservation initiatives in the world
where residents manage and protect local genetic resources and traditional
knowledge about health, food, and agriculture.
Details of CIP's work in
the Potato Park are available at http://www.cipotato.org/news_more.asp?cod=23
Source:
CropBiotech Update 19 May 2006
Contributed by Margaret E. Smith
Dept.
of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.09 Plant protection from cold decoded
A biochemical
regulator described by UCR Plant Biologist Jian Kang Zhu explains how plants
protect themselves from cold temperatures.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – www.ucr.edu – In response to cold, plants trigger
a cascade of genetic reactions that allow them to survive. University of
California, Riverside Professor of Plant Cell Biology Jian-Kang Zhu has described
how a little-known biochemical reaction regulates that genetic cascade.
Zhu’s findings were published in the May 15 online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
in a paper titled The Negative
Regulator of Plant Cold Responses, HOS1 is a RING E3 Ligase That Mediates the
Ubiquitation and Degredation of ICE1. Zhu co-authored the paper with UCR
colleagues Chun Hai Dong and Manu Agarwal; and Yiyue Zhang and Qi Xie, from the
Institute of Genetics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in
Beijing.
This negative regulator, known as high expression of
osmotically responsive gene 1 (HOS1), acts essentially as a biochemical gate
that cuts off the plant’s cold protection, Zhu said. The HOS1 gene product
interacts with another gene product known as ICE1 that kicks off the genetic
cascade that provides the plant’s cold protection proteins, according to the
paper. The interaction worked both in the test tube and in the live plant.
“The better we understand this molecular mechanism, the better we can
control the process of increasing the plant’s freezing tolerance without causing
negative impacts,” Zhu said. “This process should apply to all plants and can
help us better use crops of subtropical origin such as corn, rice, avocadoes and
strawberries.”
Zhu said the discovery of how HOS1 acts on plants should
help his overall research efforts into how plants respond to environmental
stresses such as cold, soil salinity and drought.
“From a genetic and
molecular standpoint, these responses are all related,” Zhu said. “Some of the
same genes are involved in all of these responses and understanding how they
work can help us develop crops that can better withstand these conditions.”
Zhu said he plans on continuing his research on how HOS1 and ICE1
recognize each other and work together to help plants deal with cold weather
conditions. This line of inquiry should better explain how plant cells initially
respond to cold and other adverse conditions.
Source:
EurekAlert.com
16 May 2006
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1.10 Uncovering
genetic diversity of rice varieties could improve nutritional value,
productivity of world's greatest food source
Colorado State University, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), Perlegen Sciences, Inc. and the International Rice Research Institute are
joining forces to unlock the genetic secrets of rice, information that could
improve rice crops and help address hunger and malnutrition for millions of
people. Rice is the world's top food crop and the principal source of
nourishment for nearly half the world's population, particularly people in the
poorest but fastest growing nations.
The study will focus on the genetic
basis underlying important agricultural traits such as the nutritional value and
disease resistance of 21 diverse lines, or varieties, of rice, by identifying
and comparing differences in DNA sequences. This information will accelerate
development of hardier, more productive types of rice. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service -
National Research Initiative competitive grants plant genome program provided
$715,000 for the U.S. group's contribution to the collaboration. Additional
funding for international collaboration will be provided by other
sources.
"This collaboration will produce a powerful resource to
investigate the patterns of molecular variation across the rice genome, assess
evolutionary forces shaping rice and discover genes controlling important traits
such as disease resistance, drought tolerance and nutritional value," said Jan
Leach, the lead U.S. researcher on the study and a professor of bioagricultural
sciences and pest management at Colorado State University. "In the long term,
this information will be used to improve rice, and it will also help scientists
better understand how to improve other crop plants."
As populations boom
in countries with limited availability of productive land, the need for
additional information about agriculture and crops that can improve production
and nutritional values have become key in preventing hunger and malnutrition.
Much of the information scientists need may reside in the genomes of wild
species of rice.
DNA sequence variation accounts for many differences
between individual plants and different varieties of the same plant, such as how
the plant develops, how much a crop plant yields, the nutritional value and how
well the plant tolerates stresses such as drought or exposure to diseases. Much
of the variation in genomes is represented by single nucleotide polymorphisms,
known as SNPs, which are changes at single base positions in DNA.
This
collaboration will identify SNPs from across the whole genome of 21 rice strains
using methodologies developed by Perlegen Sciences. Wild species of rice are a
rich resource of diverse traits, and analysis of their genomic variations may
provide valuable information regarding phenotypic variation between different
rice strains.
SNPs are a marker of genetic variation between individuals
of a species, and they allow scientists to identify regions of genetic variation
that may be linked to traits. By identifying differences in SNPs among major
rice varieties, the study will help uncover the genetic basis behind important
agricultural traits.
"In addition to their importance in understanding
genome evolution, studying the SNPs of rice is valuable for several reasons,"
Leach said. "First, it reveals DNA variation among different varieties of rice,
which provides information for developing better varieties. It also provides the
ultimate anchor to relate the study of rice and other crops.
The
International Rice Research Institute is a non-profit agricultural research and
training center that was established to improve the wellbeing of present and
future generations of rice farmers and consumers, particularly those with low
incomes. It helps farmers in developing countries produce more food on limited
land, using less water, labor and chemicals. The institute has helped to develop
about 1,000 modern varieties of rice, which has increased the availability of
rice to populations in need and reduced the price.
Affymetrix Inc. is
supporting this important research effort and providing the GeneChip microarray
technology that will enable the group to identify SNPs from across the genomes
of 21 rice strains. Perlegen will perform the microarray experiments. Perlegen
uses microarray technology to quickly assess DNA variations and compare whole
genomes in an effort to identify those variations associated with human diseases
and to explain and predict the efficacy and adverse effects of prescription
drugs.
"Rice is an important crop for world agriculture and an excellent
candidate for DNA variation study," said Kelly Frazer, vice president of genomic
biology at Perlegen. "The combination of the methodologies and experience our
company can provide and the initial genomic research that has been conducted by
the International Rice Research Institute will give scientists the opportunity
to improve the quality of one of the most critical human food sources in the
world."
Source: SeedQuest.com
12 May 2006
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1.11 No-mow grass may be coming to your
yard soon
Chevy Chase, Maryland
For anyone tethered to a
lawnmower, the Holy Grail of horticultural accomplishment would be grass that
never grows but is always green.
Now, that vision of suburban
blissand moreseems plausible as scientists have mapped a critical
hormone signaling pathway that regulates the stature of plants. In addition to
lawns that rarely require mowing, the finding could also enable the development
of sturdier, more fruitful crop plants such as rice, wheat, soybeans, and
corn.
In a paper published in the May 4, 2006, issue of the journal Nature, Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists report
they have deciphered the signaling pathway for a key class of steroid hormones
that regulates growth and development in plants.
"By manipulating the
steroid pathway…we think we can regulate plant stature and yield," said Joanne
Chory, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the Salk Institute for
Biological Studies, and the senior author of the new report.
Manipulation of plant stature has been a longstanding goal in
horticulture, agronomy, and forestry. The ability to precisely control plant
size would have broad implications for everything from urban forestry to crop
and garden plant development. Beyond perpetually short grass, trees could be
made more compact for better growth in crowded cities, and berry bushes could be
made taller for ease of harvesting.
To chart the pathway, Chory and
colleague Grégory Vert of the Salk Institute's Plant Biology Laboratory examined
the molecular influence of a family of plant hormones known as brassinosteroids.
Scientists have found brassinosteroids in all plants where they have looked for
them. As critical chemical messengers of plant development, they are found in
low levels in virtually all plant cells, including seeds, flowers, roots,
leaves, stems, pollen, and young vegetative tissue.
"Without them,
plants are tiny dwarves, with reduced vasculature and roots, and are infertile,"
Chory explained. "They also regulate senescence or aging. Since brassinosteroids
mainly regulate cell expansion, though, they are one of the most important
hormones that regulate stature."
Knowing the molecular chain of
commandhow the hormone acts to influence genetic events that govern
development at the cellular levelgives scientists a way to reshape the
steroid pathway to develop plants that grow in specified ways.
"We might
be able to dwarf grass and keep it green by limiting brassinosteroids or
increase the yield of rice by having more brassinosteroids in seeds," Chory
said. Another recent study by Makoto Matsuoka's group in Japan, she said, showed
that limiting brassinosteroids in rice affected leaf angle and improved yield in
densely planted fields.
Vert and Chory's work helps trace a molecular
pathway that is ancientperhaps more than a billion years oldin both
plants and animals. "Remarkably, steroid biosynthetic enzymes are highly
conserved from plants to metazoans (animals), suggesting that the use of
steroids as hormones preceded the plant-animal split over a billion years ago," Chory explained.
In animals, the route steroid hormones use to exert
their influence in the nucleus of a cell, where gene expression is regulated, is
direct, through the use of nuclear receptors. Plants, said Chory, don't have
nuclear receptors, which would provide more direct access to the nucleus.
Rather, plant steroids are perceived outside the cell by the extracellular
domain of a cell surface receptor. Perception then regulates genetic events in
the nucleus in a more roundabout way, similar to a well-studied pathway in
animals known as the Wnt signaling pathway. Wnt is a secreted molecule that
influences the nucleus of a cell through cell surface receptors to regulate
cell-to-cell interactions and many of the events of embryogenesis in metazoans.
"Because one of the brassinosteroid signaling components was similar to
a protein found in the Wnt signaling pathway, we thought that the logic for
brassinosteroid signaling (in plants) would be very much like the Wnt pathway,"
said Chory. "We were wrong."
Instead, brassinosteroid perception leads
to a cascade of biochemical events that alter the ability of key proteins to
dimerize and activate gene expression within a cell's nucleus. In plants, there
are scores of genes involved in growth and development that can be influenced by
brassinosteroids, Chory noted.
"Many of these genes are predicted to be
involved in growth, like cell wall metabolism. Their up-expression would be
predicted to promote cell expansion," according to Chory.
The work of
other groups, she noted, has shown that brassinosteroids can negatively regulate
their own expression as part of a feedback loop that, ultimately, determines the
size of a plant. In nature, that feedback loop has served plants well, helping
them adjust their height and size to fit the growing conditions of any
environmental niche.
Through traditional methods of plant breeding,
humans have been manipulating plant stature for thousands of years. In recent
years, through the methods of genetic engineering, more precise methods for
altering industrial plant strains have come into play.
But access to a
pathway used by plant hormones to dictate size promises broader influence over
the many genes involved in the process of growth. Levers that could be used to
alter a hormone pathway to influence plant development and stature, according to
Chory, include modifying the levels of the hormone, manipulating the chemical
structures of hormones, and recoding the signals sent along the
pathway.
Howard Hughes Medical
Institute news release
Source: SeedQuest.com
4 May 2006
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1.12 New
method for screening cowpea germplasm for resistance to
Cucumber mosaic virus
Cowpea is widely used as food and animal feed,
but it is also beset by viruses and pests. Important viruses include the
cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and the blackeye cowpea mosaic virus (BlCMV).
Together, these two viruses cause cowpea stunt disease, which results in
significant losses in the crop. There are available sources of resistance to
BlCMV, but these need to be investigated.
A. G. Gillaspie, Jr. of the
United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service
(USDA-ARS) reports on a “New Method for Screening Cowpea Germ Plasm for
Resistance to Cucumber mosaic virus” in the latest issue of Plant Disease.
Gillaspie screened 350 cowpea lines from a core collection maintained by the
National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS).
To select for CMV-resistant
lines, Gillaspie inoculated freeze-dried cowpea tissue with the virus. He
employed several assessment methods to measure virus buildup in the infected
plants. The candidate lines were subsequently tested in greenhouse and field
conditions to confirm resistance. Four CMV resistant lines, as well as four
other lines with possible BlCMV resistance, were identified.
Subscribers
to Plant Disease can read the complete article at http://www.apsnet.org/pd/search/2006/PD-90-0611.asp.
Source:
CropBiotech Update via SeedQuest.com
26
May 2006
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1.13 Silencing wheat and barley scab
A new test to find
scab-resistance genes in wheat and barley seed heads uses the plants’ natural
viral defense mechanism to temporarily “silence” the gene to be tested. The test
is an adaptation of a technique called Virus-Induced Gene Silencing
(VIGS).
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) geneticist Steven Scofield
and colleagues developed the test with funds from the U.S. Wheat and Barley Scab
Initiative managed by ARS. Scofield is in the ARS Crop Production and Pest
Control Research Unit at West Lafayette, Ind.
Under the initiative,
farmers and scientists work together to combat scab -- also known as Fusarium
head blight -- one of the most devastating wheat and barley diseases worldwide.
Currently, there are only a few wheat and barley varieties with effective levels
of resistance to scab.
The test temporarily incapacitates wheat or barley
genes thought to be important to scab resistance, to see if the plant’s scab
resistance also disappears temporarily.
Scofield began experimenting with
VIGS when he first came to ARS in 2002. With it, he found four genes key to leaf
rust resistance in wheat and barley plants. He is working to adapt VIGS to find
resistance genes for each major wheat and barley disease, one at a
time.
Before this VIGS-based test, there was no way to assess probable
genes for scab resistance other than through breeding, or by inserting them into
tissue cells and then regenerating whole plants for testing. The new test is
much quicker and more efficient since it can be done shortly after a plant is
infected with a virus, without waiting to grow a new plant.
VIGS has been
used for about 10 years. Scientists first used it with tobacco, then tomatoes,
potatoes and Arabidopsis thaliana.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s chief scientific research agency.
Don Comis
Source:
ARS News Service via SeedQuest.com
26 May 2006
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1.14 Imminent threat of stem rust
pandemic in wheat
The International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI) reports that a highly virulent strain of the fungal pathogen responsible
for stem rust disease in wheat, named Ug99, has emerged and has reduced grain
yields by as much as 71% in experimental plots in Africa. International wheat
experts led by Nobel Prize laureate Norman E. Borlaug briefed officials of the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington, D.C.
about a possible stem rust pandemic in wheat, and suggested ways to contain
it.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) said
that all wheat farms in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia were affected by the new
strain, and that small farmers in Kenya have already suffered yield losses.
Scientists note that the disease could approach US$1 billion in value, causing
global prices to go up and lead to food shortages.
An initiative in
already in place to coordinate efforts against the threat. CIMMYT and the
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)
launched the Global Rust Initiative (GRI) at an international summit held in
2005 in Nairobi, Kenya. The GRI is a multidisciplinary research and development
consortium, which will develop and deploy appropriate wheat varieties possessing
stable resistance to the new race of stem rust.
Read more on this
initiative at http://www.ifpri.org/pressrel/2006/20060502.asp.
Source:
CropBiotech Update 5 May 2006
Contributed by Margaret E. Smith
Dept.
of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.15 Bioassay developed for wheat crown rot
Crown rot of
wheat is caused by the pathogen Fusarium pseudograminearum. Infected
crowns appear brown and rot to a greater or lesser extent depending on the stage
of the disease and on the severity of the infection. Plants with severe
infections generally do not survive, and F. pseudograminearum persists in
the soil in infected plant matter, representing a chronic source of infection in
affected fields.
Crown rot is mainly managed by controlling grass hosts
prior to cropping, rotating susceptible cereals with non-host break crops,
burning infected stubble, and selecting tolerant wheat varieties. Tolerance,
however, refers to the ability of a plant to withstand infection, while
resistance describes the ability of a host to resist or prevent infection by a
pathogen, with minimal damage to the plant tissues. Resistant plants will also
reduce the number of spores the pathogen is able to produce, minimizing the
risks for future crops. The isolation of wheat varieties with genetic resistance
to crown rot is therefore essential for controlling the disease.
Mittera
and co-workers in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation (CSIRO) Plant Industry, the University of Ballarat in Australia,
and the Hebei Academy of Agricultural Sciences of China, report on the
development of a new high-throughput and reliable seedling bioassay to screen
wheat germplasm for crown rot resistance in the Plant Pathology scientific
journal . Single wheat seedlings were inoculated with Fusarium and
assessed for crown rot severity after an incubation period of 35 days. The
seedling bioassay mimicked field resistance to crown rot in adult plants, and by
detecting small but consistent differences in crown rot severity among different
wheat cultivars, the bioassay proved an effective tool for large-scale screening
for partial resistance.
Read the abstract of "A high-throughput
glasshouse bioassay to detect crown rot resistance in wheat germplasm" at: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-3059.2006.01384.x
Source: CropBiotech Update 19 May 2006
Contributed by Margaret E.
Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.16 Paper tracks cocoa bean boring, relation to insect
resistance
The cocoa pod borer (CPB) is an important pest of cocoa.
It attacks the crop by boring into cocoa beans, causing them to clump and stop
developing. In severe infestations, cocoa pods ripen prematurely, leading to
unextractable beans, or beans of inferior quality, and leading, in turn, to
economic losses for cocoa farmers. CPB can be controlled by insecticides, but
there is growing concern that over time, CPB may be resistant to such control
measures. Insecticides also pose great risks to farmers, consumers, and the
environment.
Chong-Lay Teha and colleagues of Golden Hope Research,
Malaysia monitor the "Variation of the response of clonal cocoa to attack by
cocoa pod borer Conopomorpha cramerella (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) in
Sabah." Their article appears in the July 2006 issue of the Crop Protection
journal.
Researchers counted the holes made by CBP in eight cocoa bean
clones, and monitored the clones for variation in resistance to the pest. By
obtaining the ratio of the number of larva exit holes to the number of larva
entry holes (exit/entry) they found two clones, designated PBC123 (ratio of
5.42) and IMC23 (ratio of 6.39), to be particularly resistant to larval
infestation. They recommended that this ratio be used to screen cocoa bean
clones for resistance to CPB should a selection program be started for
cocoa.
These natural variations in the cocoa beans may also be used in
the future to search for the genetic basis of such insect resistance.
Subscribers to Crop Protection can read the complete article at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cropro.2005.10.009.
Source:
CropBiotech Update 12 May 2006
Contributed by Margaret E. Smith
Dept.
of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.17 African
agriculture experts tackle biofortification
Up for discussion this
week in a workshop in Mombasa, Kenya are the latest research developments to
develop biofortified crops in Africa which might lead to "a nutrition revolution
in Africa". Policy makers, scientists, and agricultural leaders in Africa hope
to integrate biofortification into national agricultural and health policy
agendas. Biofortificaton involves breeding crops with higher levels of vitamins
and minerals.
"Addressing micronutrient malnutrition requires a paradigm
shift," said Howarth Bouis, director of HarvestPlus. "Agricultural research
needs to move beyond increasing productivity to improving food quality as well.
In this way, biofortification can play a critical role in improving
health."
Co-hosting the workshop are the Forum for Agricultural Research
in Africa (FARA) and HarvestPlus, an international research program that seeks
to reduce micronutrient malnutrition by harnessing agricultural technology to
breed staple crops for better nutrition.
For more information, visit http://www.harvestplus.org
or http://www.ifpri.org/media/20060502Nairobi.asp
Source:
CropBiotech Update 5 May 2006
Contributed by Margaret E. Smith
Dept.
of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.18 Allergen-free soybeans from Chinese soybean
lines
Scientists from the US Department of Agricultural Research
Service's Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign have isolated two Chinese soybean lines without the primary
protein linked to soy allergies. Dr. Theodore Hymowitz of the University of
Illinois reports that the two soybean lines (PI 567476 and PI 603570A) contain
virtually identical genetic mutations that do not contain the leading
allergy-causing P34 protein. Over 16,000 soybean lines were screened.
The
lines, which are adapted to Illinois-like field conditions, will be given to
breeders to produce new varieties of allergy-free soybeans. Allergy to soy-based
products including infant formulas has been observed in 6-8 percent of children.
Adults with soy allergies have shown reactions that range from skin reactions
and gastrointestinal irritation to difficulty in swallowing and
fainting.
The research was funded by the Illinois-Missouri Biotechnology
Alliance.
Read more on allergen-free soybeans at http://www.danforthcenter.org/newsmedia/NewsDetail.asp?nid=118.
Source:
CropBiotech Update 12 May 2006
Contributed by Margaret E. Smith
Dept.
of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.19 Improved
quinoa to help Andean farmers
The Foundation for Agricultural
Innovation of the Ministry for Agriculture of Chile has announced the launch of
the first crop of improved varieties of quinoa in the Chilean plateau, as part
of an effort to boost the income of small scale growers that depend on this crop
for subsistence. Quinoa still constitutes the most important food and feed crop
for many Andean rural communities; however, it is still cultivated with little
economic handling. The project aims to innovate the technology of Quinoa
production, and expects to raise yields by 200-300%.
Quinoa, the sacred “mother of all grains” (chisaya mama) to the Inca civilization, is one of
the three staple crops, along with potatoes and maize, of the Andes. Quinoa not
only contains more protein than any other grain (between 11 and 20%), but also
has a balanced set of essential amino acids (similar to milk), which makes it an
ideal food to complement other grains which are low in lysine, such as wheat and
rice.
For more information (in Spanish) visit: http://www.fia.cl/contenido.asp?id_contenido=977&id_tipo=1
Source:
CropBiotech Update via SeedQuest.com
5
May 2006
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1.20 Improving
the availability of foundation (basic) seed of publicly developed varieties in
Africa
by Richard Jones, Program Leader, Sustainable
Commercialization of Seeds in Africa (SCOSA)
In its efforts to promote
seed trade in Africa, the African Seed Trade
Association (AFSTA) has teamed up with the program for the Sustainable
Commercialization of Seeds in Africa (SCOSA) to improve the availability of
foundation seed of publicly developed varieties. Significant public investments
have been made to develop improved varieties but many of these never reach
farmers because of poorly developed systems to maintain, produce and market
foundation seed.
The success of any seed company is dependent on its
ability to market something new and different than what farmers already have. In
Africa the development of small- and medium-sized seed companies has only just
started, and the success of such companies will depend to a large extent on
their ability to source improved varieties from the public sector.
In
several countries around the world - both developed and developing - the public
sector has established Foundation Seed Enterprises (FSEs) to ensure the
availability of basic seed. There is considerable variation in the strategies
employed for FSEs, but they are almost always entities that are separate from
the public plant breeding program, with their own staff and budgetary
independence.
AFSTA is launching a program to support interested
stakeholders in nine Francophone Countries to develop a strategy for improving
the availability of foundation seed in their respective countries. Country teams
composed of three people representing the national seed service, the national
agricultural research system, and the seed trade association will be briefed on
the principles underlying the development of commercial seed systems and the
role that FSEs can play in supporting the development of such systems. They will
then be given training in how to put together a business plan for a FSE.
Following the initial workshop, the teams will then return to their countries
and conduct a wider consultation with a broader range of seed stakeholders
supported by AFSTA and SCOSA. Through this consultation it is expected that they
will prepare a draft business plan, which will be refined and finalized at a
second workshop. These business plans will then be marketed to interested
development investors for financing.
The workshop will be conducted in
French for the Francophone countries and in English for Anglophone countries.
The first workshop for Francophone countries will be held in Bamako, Mali from
8th to 12th May 2006.
In West Africa the business plan training is being
done in support of the Seed Industry Alliance being supported by USAID, which is
aimed at promoting viable seed enterprises in West Africa.
Financial
projections suggest that the FSEs can become self-sustaining after an initial
period of support as the demand for foundation seed increases. Importantly these
enterprises are expected to foster enhanced public-private partnership and to
work in harmony with the public research organizations and commercial seed
companies. For more information on this initiative, please contact the AFSTA
Secretariat at the contact addresses given at the end of this Newsletter.
by Richard Jones
Program Leader of SCOSA
E-mail: r.jones@cgiar.org
Source: Source:
Electronic Newsletter of the African Seed Trade
Association via SeedQuest.com
3 May 2006
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1.21 Single gene is both friend and foe
to rice
Hepeng Jia [BEIJING]
One rice gene regulates both the
plant's fertility and its ability to resist a major bacterial disease, according
to research published by Genes and Development this week.
The
finding could help scientists develop rice varieties with higher yields and that
are better able to resist the disease, says lead researcher Wang Shiping of
Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, China.
Bacterial leaf blight
is one of the plant world's most devastating bacterial diseases.
The
newly discovered gene can have both positive and negative effects. The most
common form of the gene makes rice plants more susceptible to bacterial leaf
blight but also makes them produce more pollen.
According to Wang, one
way for researchers to maximise the gene's benefits would be to block its
activity in leaves while boosting it in flowers.
In a separate study
published this month, researchers led by Zhu Lihuang of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences genetically modified rice to resist the single most important rice
disease.
Rice blast disease is caused by a fungus called Magnaporthe
grisea.
Zhu's team modified rice plants using a local variety that
resists all 156 Chinese and Japanese strains of the fungus. The research was
published online by the The Plant Journal on 4 May.
Link to
abstract of paper in Genes & Development
Reference: Genes and Development, DOI:
10.1101/gad.1416306 (2006)
Link
to abstract of paper in Plant
Journal
Reference: Plant Journal
doi:10.1111/j.1365-313X.2006.02739.x (2006)
Source: SciDev.net
11 May
2006
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Contents)
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1.22
Complex genetic networks underlying the defensive system of rice (Oryza
sativa L.) to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae
Complete resistance (CR)
and partial resistance (PR) of rice (Oryza sativa L.) to its
bacterial pathogen, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae
(Xoo), was genetically dissected by using 2 mapping
populations and 10 Xoo races. Two CR genes, 50 quantitativeresistance loci, and 60 digenic interactions were identified,which showed various degrees of race specificity to the Xooraces. The complex epistasis between these loci led us to thediscovery of complex genetic networks underlying the rice defensivesystem to Xoo. The networks consisted of two major components:one representing interactions between alleles at the R loci of
rice and alleles at the corresponding avirulence loci of Xoo for CR and the other comprising interactions between quantitativeresistance loci in rice and their corresponding aggressivenessloci in Xoo for PR. The race specificity of PR and its stronggenetic overlap with CR indicate that PR is essentially "weaker"CR. The genetic networks discovered are expected to maintain a
high level of the allelic diversity at avirulent loci in the pathogen
by stabilizing selection, which may maintain a high allelic diversity
at R loci in the host by the frequency-dependent selection.
Source URL: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0507492103v1?etoc
Source:
Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of
Sciences via SeedQuest.com
15 May 2006
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Contents)
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1.23
Super-sized cassava plants may help fight hunger in
Africa
COLUMBUS, Ohio – In a recent study, genetically modified
cassava plants produced roots that were more than two-and-a-half times the size
of normal cassava roots.
The findings could help ease hunger in many
countries where people rely heavily on the cassava
plant (Manihot esculenta) as a primary food source, said Richard
Sayre, the study's lead author and a professor of plant cellular and molecular
biology at Ohio State University.
The researchers used a gene from
the bacterium E. coli to genetically modify cassava plants. The plants,
which were grown in a greenhouse, produced roots that were an average of 2.6
times larger than those produced by regular cassava plants.
“Not only did
these plants produce larger roots, but the whole plant was bigger and had more
leaves,” Sayre said. Both the roots and leaves of the cassava plant are
edible.
Cassava is the primary food source for more than 250 million
Africans – about 40 percent of the continent's population. And the plant's
starchy tuberous root is a substantial portion of the diet of nearly 600 million
people worldwide.
Sayre said he hopes to offer these plants to countries
where cassava is an important crop.
The current study appears in the
online early issue of the Plant
Biotechnology Journal. Sayre collaborated with Ohio State colleague
Uzoma Ihemere and scientists from BASF
Plant Science in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and BARC-West
in Beltsville, Md., who formerly worked on this project in his
laboratory.
Sayre said that cassava produces sugar more efficiently than
any other cultivated plant.
“We wanted to find a way to help the plant
redirect that excess sugar and use it to make starch,” Sayre said.
The
researchers used a variety of cassava native to Colombia (cassava was brought to
Africa from South America by the Portuguese in the 1500s.) They inserted into
three cassava plants an E. coli gene that controls starch production. A
non-modified fourth plant served as a control.
“Cassava actually has this
same gene,” Sayre said. “But the bacterial version of the gene is about a
hundred times more active.”
The modified plants converted more of their
sugar into starch, as shown by an increase in root size as well as the number of
roots and leaves produced by each modified plant.
The roots of the
modified plants were up to 2.6 fold larger than the roots of a non-modified
plant (an average of 198 grams for the biggest roots vs. 74 grams for the roots
of the non-modified plant.) The modified plants produced a maximum of 12 roots,
compared to the seven roots produced by the non-modified plant. These modified
plants also produced a third more leaves – a maximum of 123 leaves per modified
plant vs. 92 leaves per non-modified plant.
Sayre said that the bigger
roots produced by the plants were just that – bigger. They weren't necessarily
more nutritious. And they would still need to be processed quickly and properly
after harvesting, as the roots and leaves of poorly processed cassava plants
contain a substance that triggers the production of cyanide.
In previous
work, Sayre helped create cassava that produced little to no cyanide once it is
harvested.
He is also the principal investigator of an ongoing project
focused on improving the nutritional content of cassava. In this work Sayre
leads a team of national and international scientists focused on increasing the
vitamin, mineral and protein content of the plant.
The current study was
supported in part by the Rockefeller
Foundation, the Centro Internacional
Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) and Ohio State.
Contact: Richard Sayre,
(614) 292 2587; Sayre.2@osu.edu
Written by Holly Wagner,
(614) 292-8310; Wagner.235@osu.edu
(Editor’s note:
Field-grown, improved varieties of cassava, under well-managed, on-farm
conditions, will normally produce 2500 to 5000 grams per plant).
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1.24 Not just weapons: nuclear science
for development
As tensions mount over Iran's nuclear standoff, the
risks of radiation-based technologies are surging back into the headlines and
onto public agendas. At the centre of the fray, one UN agency carries the
unenviable responsibility of regulating one of modern science's most
controversial advances.
The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) is best known as the world's nuclear watchdog; an intergovernmental body
that argues against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and sets international
standards for the safety and security of radiation sources.
But its
mandate also includes ensuring fair access to nuclear technologies. These
already play significant roles throughout society, in areas as diverse as
health, nutrition, agriculture and environmental management.
The IAEA is
firmly 'pro' nuclear – with an emphasis on risk management. Over the past
decade, its Department for Technical Cooperation (TC) has helped more than 90
developing nations set up the necessary support mechanisms for managing the
risks of radiation-based technologies.
"Radiation-based technologies
allow us to gather information and develop solutions that simply can't be done
any other way," says IAEA's deputy director-general, and head of the TC, Ana
María Cetto. "We build capacity in the neediest countries, but safety and
security are always a prerequisite for technology transfer."
In the
mid-1990s, the TC identified five 'thematic safety areas' (see table
below) that every member state must satisfy to ensure that people and the
environment are protected from potential exposure to radiation. The list
demonstrates the extensive safety infrastructure behind every piece of
equipment. It also reflects a shift in TC's strategy.
"In the early
days, we functioned in response mode, assessing each country's capacity to
operate the requested equipment," says Cetto. "Now a member state must prove it
can manage all aspects of safety and security before it can submit a
request."
Without exception, building the safety infrastructure is a
major undertaking. On average, it takes six years to form a regulatory framework
and infrastructure; training staff and setting up a radiotherapy clinic can take
an extra five.
Increasingly, the TC aims to help member states achieve
development goals through the use of nuclear technologies. Improving human
health is fundamental to social and economic development, but other nuclear
technologies are also making vital contributions to development.
"Radiation-based technologies have already proven to be valuable tools
for sustainable development in developing countries," says Mohamed Hassan,
executive director of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS).
"They have been particularly useful in efforts to ensure water quality and
improve food safety."
Boosting food and agriculture
Intrinsically
linked to health are agricultural production, food availability and the
nutritional value of foods. Nuclear technologies can make a significant
contribution to a country's food quality and self-sufficiency, and to its
ability to compete in export markets.
Irradiating seeds with x-rays or
gamma rays accelerates the natural genetic mutation processes that can lead to
more desirable characteristics, such as higher yields, increased protein
content, or better drought-tolerance. Over the past 30 years, irradiation has
been used to develop more than 1,800 crop varieties worldwide, adding billions
of dollars to farmers' incomes each year.
By 'labelling' plants with
radioactive forms of nitrogen and phosphorous scientists can measure nutrient
uptake, measure nutrient turnover in soil, or assess fertiliser quality.
Other nuclear technologies can be used measure nutrient levels in foods
or the body's ability to absorb nutrients a boon for addressing 'hidden
hunger'. The problem, common across the developing world, is not a lack of food
but of the variety of foods needed to supply essential micronutrients such as
vitamins and minerals.
Iron deficiency, for example, is responsible for
anaemia and impaired mental development in 40 to 60 per cent of children in
developing nations.
In Chile, radioisotope techniques were used in 1999
to evaluate a government programme to provide 1.3 million pre-schoolers with
food and milk fortified with iron and zinc. Within a year, the incidence of
anaemia had dropped from 30 per cent to five per cent.
In nutritional
studies such as this, foods containing natural radioactive forms of chemical
elements can be tracked through the body using a technique called infrared
spectroscopy to see whether nutrients are being absorbed.
Such nuclear
techniques are, in fact, the only reliable tools available to determine the
absorption, retention or utilisation of nutrients by the human body. Assessing
the 'bio-availability' of a food's nutrients – that is, how easily absorbed they
are by the body – is a useful way to find out why an individual lacks nutrients,
and how to rectify the deficiency through food fortification programmes.
(Editor’s note: these are excerpts related to plant breeding, from a
more comprehensive article)
by Marilyn Smith
Source: SciDev.Net
12
April 2006
(Return to
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++++++++++++++++++++
1.25
Update 3-2006 of FAO-BiotechNews (57th edition)
Editor’s note: selected articles most relevant to applied plant
breeding
http://www.fao.org/biotech/news_list.asp?Cat=131
1)
Plant breeding and biotechnology capacity: Reports of national surveys and a
regional workshop As part of a global survey that FAO is carrying out to assess
plant breeding and related biotechnology capacity, draft reports on national
plant breeding and associated biotechnology surveys are now available for
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Macedonia and
Zambia. In addition, as part of the same initiative, FAO organised a regional
workshop on 11-12 April 2006 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, entitled "Assessing and
designing strategies to strengthen national plant breeding and related
biotechnology capacity in Central Asia", in collaboration with the International
Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Center for
Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). For the workshop report, as
well as the national survey reports, see the "What's new" section of http://apps3.fao.org/wiews/wiews.jsp
or contact elcio.guimaraes@fao.org for more information. The global survey is
being carried out to assist in designing strategies to strengthen national and
regional abilities to use plant genetic resources for food and
agriculture.
2) Proceedings of CABI 15th Review Conference On 21-23
April 2004, CAB International's 15th Review Conference was held in Beijing,
China. Proceedings of the conference are now available on the web, including a
Special Presentation (pages 22-32) by He Changchui, the FAO Assistant
Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, entitled
"Directing biotechnology towards the needs of the poor and sustainable
agriculture". See http://www.cabi.org/pdfs/ReviewConf2004.pdf
(747 KB) or contact FAO-RAP@fao.org for more information.
5) Advance
version of COP-MOP 3 decisions (Cartagena Protocol) An advance version of the
decisions adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on
Biological Diversity at its 3rd meeting serving as the meeting of the Parties to
the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP 3), that took place on 13-17 March
2006 in Curitiba, Brazil, is now available. The 65-page document is still
subject to final editing and clearance. See http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meetings/bs/mop-03/mop-03-decision-advance-en.pdf
(361 KB) or contact secretariat@biodiv.org for more information. 6) UN-Biotech
meeting The 3rd meeting of UN-Biotech took place on 16 May 2006 in Geneva,
Switzerland, in conjunction with the 9th regular session of the United Nations
Commission on Science and Technology for Development. UN-Biotech is an
inter-agency cooperation network on biotechnology which was set up by UN
agencies undertaking biotechnology-related activities, following a
recommendation of the UN Secretary-General for an integrated framework for
biotechnology development. The United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) has coordinated the network since its launch in 2004. See
background to the meeting at http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Meeting.asp?intItemID=2068&lang=1&m=11878&yea r=2006&month=5 or contact menelea.masin@unctad.org for more
information.
7) UNCTAD study on concentration in the agricultural input
industries The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has
recently published "Tracking the trend towards market concentration: The case of
the agricultural input industry", a study prepared by the UNCTAD secretariat.
The 60-page report aims to first define a methodology and construct a measure of
concentration of, and explore emerging patterns in, the agricultural input
industries. Section I assesses concentration in the agrochemical industry while
Sections II and III explore the patterns of consolidation in the seed industry
and in agricultural biotechnology respectively. See http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ditccom200516_en.pdf
(795 KB) or contact olivier.matringe@unctad.org for more information.
9)
World Bank papers - GM cotton As part of its Policy Research Working Paper
series, the World Bank has recently published 2 studies on genetically modified
cotton. The first, paper 3917, is entitled "Recent and prospective adoption of
genetically modified cotton: A global computable general equilibrium analysis of
economic impacts" by K. Anderson, E. Valenzuela and L.A. Jackson. The second,
paper 3918, is entitled "The World Trade Organization's Doha cotton initiative:
A tale of two issues" by K. Anderson and E. Valenzuela. The Policy Research
Working Paper Series disseminates findings of work in progress to encourage the
exchange of ideas about development issues. See http://econ.worldbank.org/resource.php?type=5
or contact research@worldbank.org for more information.
12) IPGRI
publication on DNA banks As part of its Topical Reviews in Agricultural
Biodiversity series, the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI)
has recently published "DNA banks - providing novel options for genebanks?",
edited by M.C. de Vicente. The 10 chapters of this 84-page publication cover a
wide range of topics related to DNA banks such as the current global status of
plant genetic resources DNA banking activities; the importance of DNA storage
for the conservation of species; best practices and experiences with
preservation of DNA samples; the role of bioinformatics; the usefulness of DNA
banks as a primary resource for conservation research; DNA banking of animal
genetic resources; and the opportunities, limitations and needs for DNA banking
from the perspective of developing countries. See http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/publications/pdf/1110.pdf
(881 KB) or contact ipgri-publications@cgiar.org for more
information.
(Return to
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=========================
2 PUBLICATIONS
2.01 Hort Sci papers from the
MSU plant breeding education symposium, Feb 2006
http://www.hrt.msu.edu/pbgp/index.html (follow link to
2005 Symposium)
Contributed by Ann Marie Thro
USDA
(CSREES)
athro@csrees.usda.gov
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2.02 Publication of Brazilian crops’ wild relatives goes
online
The Ministry of Environment of Brazil (MMA) will make
available online the document "Wild relatives of Cultivated Plant Species",
presented in Curitiba last month during the Conference of the Parties to the
Convention Of Biological Diversity. The document is the first of a series
planned by the MMA, and reviews the wild relatives of Brazil's seven most
important crops: cotton, peanut, rice, pumpkin, cassava, maize and peach palm.
These species represent an important source of genetic variation for crop
improvement initiatives, and therefore constitute an invaluable national
patrimony.
The document also highlights the importance of local varieties
developed by traditional communities, threatened by the introduction of invasive
species and by the destruction of their habitat. The publication argues that the
conservation of wild species important for agriculture is complex, as the
Brazilian economy relies on the cultivation of exotic species, such as sugar
cane, coffee, and rice.
For more information visit: http://www.procitropicos.org.br/index.cfm?saction=conteudo&mod=7657418709010615&id=23CD3999-9BF8-F0D1-BED8B62A71242780
.
To read the publication Wild relatives of Cultivated Plant Species" visit: http://www.mma.gov.br
Source:
CropBiotech Update 19 May 2006
Contributed by Margaret E. Smith
Dept.
of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
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=========================
3. WEB
RESOURCES
3.01 Plant, grow and harvest
virtual crops - Crop modeling program growing popular
worldwide
Athens, Georgia
The
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences
By Sharon Omahen
University
of Georgia
Among the world's agricultural scientists, increasing
numbers are requesting the latest version of DSSAT software.
DSSAT is
Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer, a crop-modeling computer
program. It was created by researchers from the universities of Georgia,
Florida, Hawaii, Guelph and Mississippi State and the International Center for
Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development.
International users
More
than 1,500 registered users from 90 countries now use the software. The program
lets them model an entire crop cycle, from planting to harvesting, in just
seconds. It simulates a crop's growth, yield, water and nutrient requirements
and the environment's impact on production.
About 50 international
researchers and graduate students met on the UGA campus in Griffin, Ga., May
15-24 for a DSSAT software training session. The program's developers say it's
popular, in part, because it lets scientists "grow" crops on their computer
screens without breaking a sweat.
"Computer models can provide an easy
and very fast comparison of many different crop management scenarios and the
interaction with local weather and soil conditions," said Gerrit Hoogenboom. A
DSSAT developer, he's an agricultural engineer with the UGA College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
A variety of crops
DSSAT
software simulates the growth of crops like peanuts, sunflowers, sugarcane,
wheat, soybeans, rice, tomatoes, sorghum, millet, barley, potatoes, corn,
black-eyed peas and dry beans.
The latest version of DSSAT is
particularly popular with researchers in the Southeastern United States, as it
allows users to simulate cotton growth. Several participants in the recent
training want to develop models for crops like sweet potato and
sugarcane.
"This software program is by no means meant to be a substitute
for actual experimentation," Hoogenboom said. "The software results are not
ultimate truths. And they're not meant to replace real experiments, real data or
critical thinking. They're more like hypotheses. Anytime you use a computer
model you should question the results."
The software was created by and
for agricultural scientists. But the developers say it can be easily used and
understood by farmers and those with no science background. Several Web-based
tools are being developed for many on-farm applications of DSSAT.
Easy to
understand
"The way the software presents the data is an essential part of
the success of DSSAT," said Ken Boote, a DSSAT developer and University of
Florida agronomist. "You can't give numbers that no one can understand. Our
program calculates crop growth and development in a mathematical sense and then
presents it through graphics so users can easily understand the
predictions."
Boote says the developers' goal is to educate all
audiences.
"One of our goals is to educate the people who talk to farmers
directly," Boote said. "Consultants, ag industry representatives and extension
agents have the potential to spread the word to farmers. Those farmers with
interest in this technology would also benefit from actually using the software
themselves."
Besides simulating a crop cycle, DSSAT has been used to
identify the source of production management problems after a crop has been
harvested.
"It's a way to see the whole picture and what is limiting the
crop," Boote said. "The software works nicely this way to determine whether
water or nitrogen are limiting factors.
Uses keep growing
"It's been
used in Arkansas to help with early-season soybean plantings, in Kentucky for
determining planting dates, in Georgia for predicting agricultural water usage,
in West Africa to diagnose yield loss of peanut crops from disease and in South
Africa for predicting corn yields. The list of applications is
never-ending."
To further extend the software's features, DSSAT users
share their uses and results via a computer discussion list and Web
site.
"In this way, the software contributes to the whole scientific
community," Hoogenboom said.
Source: Georgia Faces via
SeedQuest.com
25 May 2006
(Return to
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++++++++++++++++++++++++
3.02
Agricultural supercourse - a global repository of
lectures
http://www.pitt.edu/~super1
Supercourse is a global repository of lectures targeting educators
across the world.
Supercourse has a network of over 32000
scientists in 151 countries who are sharing for free a library of over 2500
lectures. The concept of the Supercourse and its lecture style has been
described as the Global Health Network University and the Hypertext Comic Books.
The Supercourse is planning to expand to establish an Agricultural
Supercourse where the best scientific lectures in Agriculture are collected and
distributed worldwide. We would very much like to identify a small group of
people to discuss how this might be developed.
An example of an
agricultural lecture on the Supercourse can be found at: Ushering the New Green
Revolution: How Can Biotechnology Contribute to Food Security? Part I
http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/agr0011/index.htm
Global
faculty is developing and sharing their best, most passionate lectures in the
area of Prevention and the Internet using an open source model. This benefits
all. The experienced faculty member can beef up their lectures that are not
cutting edge. New instructors reduce preparation time and have better lectures.
Faculty in developing countries have access to current prevention information
for the first time.
The Library of Lectures consists of exciting lectures
by academic prevention experts in the field. The classroom teacher 'takes' them
out for free like a library book. We 'coach' the teacher rather than directly
teaching students from a distance.
Multilingual - For global use,
the first lecture is in 8 languages. We are experimenting with machine
translation as well; Faculty - Six Noble Prize winners, the US Surgeon General,
60 IOM members and other top people contributed lectures.
We have
published over 116 papers in leading medical journals including Nature, Lancet,
British Medical Journal, Military Medicine, Nature Medicine, PNAS among others.
Our web pages have been identified as in the top 100 by PC Magazine, and one of
the top 11 content pages by the Lancet. We receive 75 million hits a year.
by Ronald E. LaPorte, Professor of Epidemiology, Graduate School of
Public Health, University of Pittsburgh; Ronlaporte@aol.com
Contributed
by C S. Prakash
Editor, AgBioView
prakash@tuskegee.edu
4. ERRATA: CORRECTIONS TO EDITION 166
4.01 Published in Edition 166 as: 1.24 Association among pollen grain
features to maximise reproductive fitness: A study in Dianthus
species
The correct e-mail address of Dr Tejaswini is
tejaswini@iihr.ernet.in.
Dr. Tejaswini, Sr. Scientist, Div. of Ornamental
Crops, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hessaraghatta Lake Post,
Bangalore 560089, India.
(Return to
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+++++++++++++++++++++
4.02 Published in Edition 166 as: 1.28 Selection of potato
lines resistant to multiple pathogens
I would like to give you minor correction on the news announced on Plant breeding news edition 166. I am
informed by the group leader here in MPIZ ( Max - Planck institute for plant
breeding research) that the lines are not selected and tested for resistance to
G.Pallida , but for PVY, PVX,G.rostochiensis and S.endobioticum.
Best
regards,
Wubishet A. Bekele
wubea2002@yahoo.com
(Return to
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===========================
6.
MEETINGS, COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
* 2006-2008. Plant Breeding
Academy, University of California, Davis.
The University of
California Seed Biotechnology Center would like to inform you of an exciting new
course we are offering to teach the principles of plant breeding to seed
industry personnel.
This two-year course addresses the reduced numbers
of plant breeders being trained in academic programs. It is an opportunity for
companies to invest in dedicated personnel who are currently involved in their
own breeding programs, but lack the genetics and plant breeding background to
direct a breeding program. Participants will meet at UC Davis for one week per
quarter over two years (eight sessions) to allow participants to maintain their
current positions while being involved in the course.
Instruction
begins Fall 2006 and runs through Summer 2008 (actual dates to be
determined)
For more information: (530) 754-7333, email scwebster@ucdavis.edu, http://sbc.ucdavis.edu/Events/Plant_Breeding_Academy.htm
+++++++++++++++
*
1-2 June 2006.:Patent protection of plant-related innovations: facts and
issues (ISF International Seminar), Copenhagen.
For programme see http://www.worldseed.org/PatentSeminar/Programme.htm
*
11-13 June 2006. Participatory Plant Breeding: Relevance for Organic
Agriculture? La Besse (near Carcassonne), South West France. www.eco-pb.org/00/program_workshop_ppb.pdf
* 19-23
June 2006. Training course on biotech crop commercialization, Manila, The
Philippines The all-inclusive course fee is US$2,500.00 per participant,
and will cover material and six nights of accommodation (including five days of
specially catered meals). Cost of travel to and from the course venue in Manila,
Philippines is not included. Full details and the pre-registration form to be
emailed to <info@asiabiobusiness.com> are available at (<
http://www.asiabiobusiness.com/images/manilaCourse_final.pdf>). Closing
date for pre-registration is March 31, 2006. Registrants paying the registration
fee by 31st April, 2006 will receive a discount of $150.
* 28 to 30 June
2006. EUCARPIA Meeting on Rye Genetics and Breeding, Rostock,
Germany.
Further information about the meeting can be found at http://www.eucarpia.org.
* 2-6 July
2006. IX International Conference on Grape Genetics and Breeding, Udine
(Italy), under the auspices of the ISHS Section Viticulture and the OIV. Info:
Prof. Enrico Peterlunger, University of Udine, Dip. di Scienze Agrarie e
Ambientale, Via delle Scienze 208, 33100 Udine, Italy. Phone: (39)0432558629,
Fax: (39)0432558603, email: peterlunger@uniud.it
* 31 July -1
August 2006, Grass Breeders’ Conference, Ames, IA.
Information
available at http://www.plantbreeding.iastate.edu/gbc.html,
or by contacting Charlie Brummer, brummer@iastate.edu or Shui-zhang Fei
(sfei@iastate.edu).
* 31 July – 4 August 2006. African Rice Congress,
WARDA , Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Contact: Lawrence Narteh. http://www.warda.org/africa-rice-congress/
*8-10
August 2006. 7th Plant Genomics Conference, Heilongjiang University ,
Harbin, China. Contact: Rongtian Li,
Zhenqiang Lu, Chunquan Ma. http://www.plantgenomics.cn
* 13-19 August 2006:
XXVII International Horticultural Congress, Seoul (Korea) web: www.ihc2006.org
*16 - 19 August 2006.Tropical Crop
Biotechnology Conference 2006, Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Organized by: CSIRO Plant Industry. For more information: Contact: CSIRO
Plant Industry s.mckell@uq.edu.au
.Website: www.tcbc2006.com.au
* 20-25 August 2006. The
International Plant Breeding Symposium, Sheraton “Centro Historico” Hotel,
Mexico City. Presentations by invited speakers will be published in a
proceedings by Crop Science. More information is available at www.intlplantbreeding.com. If you are unable to register
online please send an e-mail to: intlplantbreeding@cgiar.org.
* 30 August – 1 September 2006. XIII EUCARPIA Biometrics in Plant Breeding Section
Meeting, EUCARPIA , Zagreb, Croatia
Contact EUCARPIA SecretariatEvent
Website
Links:
Meeting Announcement (PDF)
Pre-registration
Form (Word Document)
* 10-14 September 2006. First Symposium
on Sunflower Industrial Uses. Udine University, Udine Province, Friuli
Venezia Giulia Region, Italy.
http://www.sunflowersymposium.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
http://www.isa.cetiom.fr/1st%20ann%20Symposium%20Udine.htm
Sponsored
by the International Sunflower Association (ISA)
* 11-15 September
2006. XXII International EUCARPIA Symposium - Section Ornamentals: Breeding
for Beauty, San Remo (Italy). Info: Dr. Tito Shiva or Dr. Antonio
Mercuri, CRA Istituto Sperimentale per la Floricoltura, Corso degli Inglesi 508,
18038 San Remo (IM), Italy. Phone: (39)0184694846, Fax: (39)0184694856, email: a.mercuri@istflori.it web: www.istflori.it
* 17-21 September 2006. Cucurbitaceae 2006, Grove Park Inn Resort
and Spa in Asheville, North Carolina, USA (in the scenic Blue Ridge
Mountains).
Contact: Dr. Gerald Holmes, Department of Plant Pathology,
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7616, 919-515-9779 (gerald_holmes@ncsu.edu)
Conference
website: http://www.ncsu.edu/cucurbit2006
* 18-20 September 2006.The International Cotton Genome Initiative
(ICGI) 2006 Research Conference, Blue Tree Park Hotel (
http://www.bluetree.com.br/index_ing.asp) Brasília, D.F., Brazil. Details of
the ICGI 2006 Research Conference will be posted on the ICGI website (http://icgi.tamu.edu ) as they
become available.
* 9-13 October 2006. Second International Rice
Congress 2006 (IRC2006). New Delhi, India. Organized jointly by the
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Indian Council of Agricultural
Research (ICAR), the theme of this congress is "Science, technology, and trade
for peace and prosperity". It comprises four major events: the 26th
International Rice Research Conference (including e.g. a session on 'genetics
and genomics' and workshops on hybrid rice and on genetically modified rice and
biosafety issues); the 2nd International Rice Commerce Conference; the 2nd
International Rice Technology and Cultural Exhibition; and the 2nd International
Ministers' Round Table Meeting. See http://www.icar.org.in/irc2006/ or
contact pramodag@vsnl.com for more information.
* 11-14 October 2006
Plant Genomics European Meetings, Venice, Italy. http://www.distagenomics.unibo.it/plantgems/
Contact
person: PGEM5@agrsci.unibo.it
* 14 - 18
October 2006. The 6th New Crops Symposium: Creating Markets for Economic
Development of New Crops and New Uses, University Center for New Crops and
Plant Products,The Hilton Gaslamp Quarter Hotel, San Diego, CA
Sponsored by:
Association for the Advancement of Industrial Crops and Purdue www.aaic.org or www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop
* 9-12 November
2006. 7th Australasian Plant Virology Workshop. Rottnest Island, Perth,
Western Australia.
For further information contact: Prof Mike Jones, Murdoch
University, Perth m.jones@murdoch.edu.au
* 1-5 December 2006: The
First International Meeting on Cassava Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, to
be held in Brasilia, Brazil. For more details, email Dr. Nagib Nassar of the
University of Brasilia at nagnassa@rudah.com.br
or visit the meeting website at http://www.geneconserve.pro.br/meeting/.
*
8-9 February 2007. A national workshop on “Sustaining plant
breeding as a vital national capacity for the future of U.S. agriculture,”
Raleigh, NC.
Co-hosted by the Departments of Crop Science and
Horticultural Science North Carolina State University
* 24-28 June 2007.
The 9th International Pollination Symposium on Plant-Pollinator
RelationshipsDiversity in Action. Scheman Center, Iowa State
University, Ames, Iowa. The Conference webpage can be viewed at: http://www.ucs.iastate.edu/mnet/plantbee/home.html
* 24-28 July 2007. The 9th International Pollination Symposium,
Iowa State University (Note new dates, and see additional details in
New Announcements, above). The official theme is: "Host-Pollinator
Biology Relationships - Diversity in Action." For more information please visit http://www.ucs.iastate.edu/mnet/plantbee/home.html
* 9-14 September 2007.
The World Cotton Research Conference-4, Lubbock, Texas, USA (http://www.icac.org). There is no cost of
pre-registration and if you pre-register you will receive all the up-coming
information on WCRC-4.171 researchers from over 20 countries have pre-registered
as of today.
(Return to
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=======================
7. EDITOR'S
NOTES
Plant Breeding News is an electronic forum for the exchange of
information and ideas about applied plant breeding and related fields. It is
published every four to six weeks throughout the year.
The newsletter is
managed by the editor and an advisory group consisting of Elcio Guimaraes
(elcio.guimaraes@fao.org), Margaret Smith (mes25@cornell.edu), and Anne Marie
Thro (athro@reeusda.gov). The editor will advise subscribers one to two weeks
ahead of each edition, in order to set deadlines for
contributions.
REVIEW PAST NEWSLETTERS ON THE WEB: Past issues of the
Plant Breeding Newsletter are now available on the web. The address is: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/AGP/AGPC/doc/services/pbn.html
Please note that you may have to copy and paste this address to your
web browser, since the link can be corrupted in some e-mail applications. We
will continue to improve the organization of archival issues of the newsletter.
Readers who have suggestions about features they wish to see should contact the
editor at chh23@cornell.edu.
Subscribers are encouraged to take an active
part in making the newsletter a useful communications tool. Contributions may be
in such areas as: technical communications on key plant breeding issues;
announcements of meetings, courses and electronic conferences; book
announcements and reviews; web sites of special relevance to plant breeding;
announcements of funding opportunities; requests to other readers for
information and collaboration; and feature articles or discussion issues brought
by subscribers. Suggestions on format and content are always welcome by the
editor, at pbn-l@mailserv.fao.org. We would especially like to see a broad
participation from developing country programs and from those working on species
outside the major food crops.
Messages with attached files are not
distributed on PBN-L for two important reasons. The first is that computer
viruses and worms can be distributed in this manner. The second reason is that
attached files cause problems for some e-mail systems.
PLEASE NOTE: Every
month many newsletters are returned because they are undeliverable, for any one
of a number of reasons. We try to keep the mailing list up to date, and also to
avoid deleting addresses that are only temporarily inaccessible. If you miss a
newsletter, write to me at chh23@cornell.edu and I will re-send it.
To
subscribe to PBN-L: Send an e-mail message to: mailserv@mailserv.fao.org. Leave
the subject line blank and write SUBSCRIBE PBN-L (Important: use ALL CAPS). To
unsubscribe: Send an e-mail message as above with the message UNSUBSCRIBE PBN-L.
Lists of potential new subscribers are welcome. The editor will contact these
persons; no one will be subscribed without their explicit permission.
(Return to Contents)
=======================
7. EDITOR'S NOTES
Plant Breeding News is an
electronic forum for the exchange of information and ideas about applied plant
breeding and related fields. It is published every four to six weeks throughout
the year.
The newsletter is managed by the editor and an advisory group
consisting of Elcio Guimaraes (elcio.guimaraes@fao.org), Margaret Smith
(mes25@cornell.edu), and Anne Marie Thro (athro@reeusda.gov). The editor will
advise subscribers one to two weeks ahead of each edition, in order to set
deadlines for contributions.
REVIEW PAST NEWSLETTERS ON THE WEB: Past
issues of the Plant Breeding Newsletter are now available on the web. The
address is: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/AGP/AGPC/doc/services/pbn.html
We will continue to improve the organization of archival issues of the newsletter.
Readers who have suggestions about features they wish to see should contact the
editor at chh23@cornell.edu.
Subscribers are encouraged to take an active
part in making the newsletter a useful communications tool. Contributions may be
in such areas as: technical communications on key plant breeding issues;
announcements of meetings, courses and electronic conferences; book
announcements and reviews; web sites of special relevance to plant breeding;
announcements of funding opportunities; requests to other readers for
information and collaboration; and feature articles or discussion issues brought
by subscribers. Suggestions on format and content are always welcome by the
editor, at pbn-l@mailserv.fao.org. We would especially like to see a broad
participation from developing country programs and from those working on species
outside the major food crops.
Messages with attached files are not
distributed on PBN-L for two important reasons. The first is that computer
viruses and worms can be distributed in this manner. The second reason is that
attached files cause problems for some e-mail systems.
PLEASE NOTE: Every
month many newsletters are returned because they are undeliverable, for any one
of a number of reasons. We try to keep the mailing list up to date, and also to
avoid deleting addresses that are only temporarily inaccessible. If you miss a
newsletter, write to me at chh23@cornell.edu and I will re-send it.
To
subscribe to PBN-L: Send an e-mail message to: mailserv@mailserv.fao.org. Leave
the subject line blank and write SUBSCRIBE PBN-L (Important: use ALL CAPS). To
unsubscribe: Send an e-mail message as above with the message UNSUBSCRIBE PBN-L.
Lists of potential new subscribers are welcome. The editor will contact these
persons; no one will be subscribed without their explicit permission.
(Return to Contents)