PLANT BREEDING NEWS
EDITION 183
8 October 2007
An Electronic Newsletter of Applied Plant Breeding
Sponsored by FAO and Cornell University
Clair H. Hershey, Editor
chh23@cornell.edu
Archived issues available at: FAO Plant Breeding
Newsletter (now with Google® search)
CONTENTS
1. NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESEARCH NOTES
1.01 FAO declares International
Year of the Potato
1.02 Economic returns to public agricultural
research
1.03 New breeding technologies: a good investment or not?
1.04 Cornell University
will support the University of Ghana to train African plant breeders to confront
indigenous problems
1.05 New rice variety from International Rice Research Institute
proves to be flood-resistant in Bangladesh trials
1.06 ICRISAT scientists work to breed
crop varieties and hybrids that are more drought, pest and disease tolerant
1.07 CSIRO Plant Industry
and Cotton Seed Distributors Ltd form the Cotton Breeding Australia joint venture
1.08 US scientists breed disease-resistant plant for Africa
1.09 IITA/Gatsby on cowpea
production benefits farmers in Nigeria
1.10 University of Delaware leads $5.3-million
research project on rice epigenetics
1.11 Australia examines the enforcement
of plant breeder's rights
1.12 Scientists are making Brazil's savannah bloom
1.13 UK body to coordinate
climate change teamwork
1.14 Court halts introduction of GM rice
in the Philippines
1.15 The economic impact and the distribution
of benefits and risk from the adoption of insect resistant (Bt)
cotton in West Africa
1.16 USDA's Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service concludes genetically engineered rice investigation
1.17 GM corn 'improves animal feed, cuts pollution'
1.18 Developing nations
'need genetic resources rules'
1.19 'Biopiracy' requires reasoned treatment
1.20 Urgent need to conserve
vanilla genetic resources
1.21 Two new varieties of southernpeas developed by USDA/ARS
and cooperators
1.22 New high-yielding edible bean resists
bacterial disease
1.23 Cornell University helps develop pest-resistant eggplant,
the first genetically modified food crop in South Asia
1.24 Estimating the adoption of Bt eggplant
in India: Who benefits from public–private partnership?
1.25 Tough sunflower
lines produce high oleic oil
1.26 Release of onion germplasm
1.27 New type of rice grows better and uses water more efficiently
than other rice crops
1.28 Towards the development of salt-tolerant wheat
1.29 Peanuts as new source of biodiesel
fuel?
1.30 Pioneer Hi-Bred launches breakthrough technology that significantly
increases soybean yields
1.31 Marker free GM soybean produced by
gene excision
1.32 Agent that triggers immune response in plants is uncovered
1.33 Exposing wheat's
genetic secrets
1.34 Monsanto and Evogene collaborate
on nitrogen use efficiency research
2. PUBLICATIONS
(None submitted)
3. WEB RESOURCES
3.01 Coconut Genetic Resources
Network has a new website
4 GRANTS AVAILABLE
4.01 Grants program: International Cooperative
Biodiversity Groups
5 POSITION ANNOUNCEMENTS
5.01 Post-Doctoral positions in vegetable
improvement
6 MEETINGS, COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
7 EDITOR'S NOTES
=========================
1. NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESEARCH NOTES
1.01 FAO declares International Year of the Potato
The potato (Solanum tuberosum) originated some 8 000 years ago in the
Andes of South America. It was appropriate, therefore, that the initial impetus
for declaring 2008 as the International Year of the Potato came from the Government
of Peru.
At the biennial Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO) in November 2005, the Permanent Representative of Peru proposed
- and the Conference adopted - a resolution that sought
to focus world attention on the importance of the potato in providing food security
and alleviating poverty. The resolution was transmitted to the Secretary-General
of the United Nations, with the aim of having the UN General Assembly declare
the year 2008 as the International Year of the Potato.
The Sixtieth Session of the General Assembly accepted the draft resolution
in December 2005, and invited FAO to facilitate the implementation of IYP 2008.
The resolution noted that the potato is a staple food in the diet of the world's
population and affirmed the role that the potato could play in achieving internationally
agreed development objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals.
The observance of IYP 2008 will provide an opportunity to raise awareness - among
policy-makers, donors and the general public, especially young people and school
children - of the importance of the potato in particular, and of agriculture in
general, in addressing issues of global concern, such as food insecurity, malnutrition,
poverty and threats to the environment.
www.potato2008.org
Contributed by NeBambi Lutaladio, AGP/FAO
NeBambi.Lutaladio@fao.org
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1.02 Economic returns to public agricultural
research
Over the last several decades, the U.S. agricultural sector has sustained
impressive productivity growth. The Nation’s agricultural research system, including
Federal-State public research as well as private-sector research, has been a key
driver of this growth. Economic analysis finds strong and consistent evidence
that investment in agricultural research has yielded high returns per dollar spent.
These returns include benefits not only to the farm sector but also to the food
industry and consumers in the form of more abundant commodities at lower prices.
While studies using different methods and coverage give a range of estimates of
returns to agricultural research, there is a consensus that the payoff from the
government’s investment in agricultural research has been high.
Keith O. Fuglie and Paul W. Heisey
USDA Economic Research Service (ERS)
Economic Brief No. (EB-10) 9 pp, September 2007
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eb10/eb10.pdf
Contributed by Ann Marie Thro
CSREES, USDA
athro@csrees.usda.gov
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1.03 New breeding technologies: a good
investment or not?
Many technologies are available to breeders to help them improve the efficiency
of their selection programs. Among the newer technologies are marker assisted
selection, genomics, and physiological selection. But does the investment on these
technologies pay off in the end? Researchers John Brennan and Peter Martin at
the Australian Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute say it does.
Brennan and Martin presented comparative economic analyses between conventional
breeding and that which uses new technologies in their paper published in Euphytica.
They presented cases where the use of new technologies can help increase the returns
on investment in breeding programs by reducing associated costs during varietal
development, such as labor cost or direct inputs.
The researchers cited the potential benefits that breeding programs can gain from
molecular markers as well as from adopting an indirect selection system using
physiological indices. An economic assessment of phenotypic evaluation versus
the use of molecular markers showed that the latter can offer lower costs especially
under high-throughput systems. Their estimates on the cost of line evaluation
range from $8 to $16 when using molecular markers and $2 to $163 when phenotypic
evaluation is employed.
For more information, the paper can be accessed by subscribers at http://www.springerlink.com/content/x618j83872px7217/.
From CropBiotech Update
20 July 2007:
Contributed by Margaret Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.04 Cornell University will support the University of
Ghana to train African plant breeders to confront indigenous problems
Ithaca, New York
In its latest venture in Africa, Cornell University will support a new doctoral
program at the University of Ghana to train African plant breeders to tackle issues
relating to maize, cassava, sorghum, millet, tomato, cowpea and other crops vital
to Africans' diet.
Funded by a $4.9 million grant from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
(AGRA), a partnership between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller
Foundation, the program aims to address the serious shortage of professional African
plant breeders skilled in breeding indigenous plants. Cornell will receive an
additional $1.7 million from AGRA to provide academic and technical support.
This is the second announcement in recent days of a Cornell-supported program
in Africa. Earlier this month Cornell signed a memorandum of understanding with
Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia to offer its Master of Professional Studies (MPS)
degree in international agriculture and rural development, to be taught as a pilot
by Cornell faculty who will travel to Ethiopia. It will be Cornell's first degree
program in Africa.
In Ghana, starting in January 2008, the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement
(WACCI) program, located at the University of Ghana in Legon and supported by
Cornell, will train 40 Ph.D. students from West African countries in plant breeding
and genetics, with eight students admitted each year for the next five years.
"When Africans come to study in the United States, they are drawn to the problems
that their supervising faculty have, which may be unrelated to the challenges
at home. So they graduate with an education that is out of context, and they may
have relatively little incentive to return home," said Ronnie Coffman, international
professor of plant breeding and genetics and director of International Programs
in Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "African donors are tired
of supporting this kind of training because they feel they are not getting sufficient
return on their investments. This is an effort to train plant breeders in the
African context."
Cornell plant breeding professor Vernon Gracen, who is also associate director
of WACCI, will spend six months in Ghana annually to help upgrade the curriculum,
supervise student thesis research and help in management of the center. Plant
breeding and genetics professor Margaret Smith, who serves as principal investigator
of the project for Cornell, will provide leadership in planning and evaluating
thesis research, through electronic communication with the University of Ghana.
Stefan Einarson, director of the Transnational Learning Program in the College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences, will travel frequently to Ghana to provide technical
assistance to WACCI. Resources from Cornell's Mann Library will be available to
students electronically.
Also, all of Cornell's plant breeding courses, which are available on video, will
be either streamed over the Internet or provided on DVD for use in Ghana. Ghanaian
faculty and students and Cornell faculty also will be in contact via video conferencing
to review student proposals and theses.
Students will devote the first two years of study to gaining a standardized foundation
in genetics related to plant breeding, biotechnology, plant microbial interactions
and disease control, plant stress physiology and more. As students move on to
years three to five, they will conduct thesis research projects based in the students'
home countries, aimed at solving problems faced by local farmers.
"This collaboration with WACCI provides engagement for our faculty and gives us
experience in the challenging problems of Africa, some of which could become global
problems," said Smith. For example, she said, "Many plant diseases and pests are
worldwide problems as exemplified currently by the new race of wheat stem rust
fungus that recently originated in East Africa and is spreading around the world."
By Krishna Ramanujan
Source: SeedQuest.com
19 September 2007
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1.05 New rice variety from International Rice Research
Institute proves to be flood-resistant in Bangladesh trials
Dhaka, Bangladesh
A new strain of rice may be able to resist floods that destroy vast tracts of
paddy fields in Bangladesh each year, offering hope to millions of poor farmers,
researchers say.
The farmers lose their rice crops when fields are submerged by annual floods triggered
when rivers, fed by heavy monsoon rains and melting Himalayan glaciers, burst
their banks.
The rice type, called Swarna Submergence 1, developed by the Manila-based
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), proved
to be flood-resistant in trials this year in northern Bangladesh, researchers
said.
Normal rice varieties cannot survive being submerged by flood water for more than
three days, resulting in huge losses for farmers.
But "last month when the floodwater receded from two farms in which Swarna Sub-1
was planted, we saw the rice paddy 'stand up' again. [This was] 10 days after
it was completely submerged," said senior researcher Abdul Mazid.
"It was simply amazing. It means the variety has [proven to be] flood-resistant.
It could be a huge step towards helping millions of rice farmers who are made
paupers by floods," said Mr. Mazid of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI).
Low-lying Bangladesh, crisscrossed by 230 rivers, experiences flooding every year.
Experts say the floods are one of the main reasons why 40% of the country's 140
million population live in dire poverty.
Rice production accounts for 14% of Bangladesh's gross domestic product. Two-thirds
of Bangladesh's 144 million population directly or indirectly derives
their living from rice farming.
"If the flood water stays two to three days, it is a blessing. It nourishes the
soils. But if it stays longer, it destroys the crops," said IRRI liaison scientist
Hamid Mia.
This year alone rice worth $290 million was damaged in one of the worst floods
in nearly a decade in July, according to preliminary estimates.
The government said the losses would climb following a second spell of flooding
in early September that has submerged more than a third of the country.
Swarna Sub-1 was invented in 2004 after IRRI researchers implanted a submergence-resistant
gene in a massively popular high-yielding Indian rice variety through conventional
breeding.
"The idea was to give the farmers a variety that can survive flood water for 10
to 17 days while at the same time ensuring them a more than average yield," Mr.
Mia said.
With support from Swiss charity Inter Corp., BRRI distributed seeds and seedlings
of the rice variety to 114 farmers across nine districts in the country.
"The field tests have so far yielded very good results. The farmers are excited
and want more seeds and seedlings," Mr. Mazid said.
"Next year, we will quadruple the number of testing farms. And hopefully, by 2009-2010,
we can start commercial production of the flood-resistant rice," he added.
Source: BusinessMirror SeedQuest.com
20 September 2007
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1.06 ICRISAT scientists work to breed
crop varieties and hybrids that are more drought, pest and disease tolerant
Climate change and desertification put one billion poor people at risk
There are one billion poor people in the world who are vulnerable to climate change,
desertification, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, water scarcity and shortage
of fossil fuels. India alone accounts for 25.93% of this population and China
16.66%. The remaining part of Asia and Pacific accounts for 18.30%. In short,
Asia is a hub where the poor, undernourished and the vulnerable live. This is
followed by sub-Saharan Africa , which accounts for 23.94% of the one billion.
The other parts of the world are not far behind, with Latin America and the Caribbean
accounting for 6.22% and the North East and North Africa 4.57%.
According to Dr William Dar, Director General of the International
Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Chair
of the Committee for Science and Technology of the United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the poor can be made less vulnerable with greater
science and knowledge-based interventions, and more importantly significant donor
support from the developed and developing countries to support this research.
“Business as usual will not help us meet the Millennium Development Goals and
much more the goal of reducing poverty by half by 2015,” Dr Dar said.
Many parts of the world are already showing signs of physical water scarcity –
India , eastern Australia, Pakistan, China, Central Asia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt,
North Africa, parts of southern Africa, southern USA and northern Mexico. With
greater demands from other sectors, the water availability for agriculture is
getting limited.
“The nexus of climate change and desertification, combined with land degradation,
biodiversity loss, water shortage and fossil fuel shortage, will make it even
more riskier for the farmers to farm in the drylands of the world. They will find
it more difficult to invest in farming, and there could be more diseases and death”
said Dr Dar.
ICRISAT believes that unless the livelihoods and resource base of such vulnerable
rural communities can be made more resilient, coping with climate change and desertification
may be next to impossible for poor dryland farming communities. Working over decades
with poor farmers in the drylands of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa , ICRISAT's research
shows that a combined effort to deal with current climate uncertainty, land degradation
and water scarcity is the only way by which the resilience of these communities
can be brought about.
ICRISAT's research is achieving this through improved climate variability analysis,
projects to overcome land degradation and water scarcity, use of improved crop
management options, improved crop breeding, and a pro-poor BioPower strategy.
With improved tools becoming available in studying climate uncertainty, it has
now become possible for decision-makers and investors to formulate a development
agenda integrating short-, medium- and long-term timeframes. ICRISAT's integrated
climate risk assessment and management framework enables investors (governments,
donors, researchers or farmers) to understand better the risks and opportunities
and get greater returns from more diversified and targeted investments.
Land degradation, which is a persistent problem in the drylands of Asia and sub-Saharan
Africa , can be further worsened by climate change and desertification. ICRISAT
has been working with partners for years on combating land degradation in Asia
and sub-Saharan Africa .
ICRISAT has been working on programs such as the Desert Margins Program, fertilizer
microdosing and Drylands Eco-Farm to help fight land degradation in the sub-Saharan
Africa . These projects diversify the basket of crops and livestock systems, and
provide appropriate dosage of fertilizers to crops, to strengthen the resilience
of the agro-ecosystems.
In Asia , ICRISAT's watershed development program overcomes both land degradation
and water scarcity through judicious soil and management practices. This when
supported by improved agronomic practices and integration with livestock systems,
it enables the farmers to overcome the immediate problems of climate uncertainty
and desertification.
Based on our work in the drylands we have proved that farmers can increase their
productivity four-fold and profits three-fold, using improved management options
including use of water efficient crops. There is also high carbon sequestration
as a result of improving dryland systems with technologies.
All these activities are strengthened with ICRISAT's crop improvement research
through which scientists continuously work to breed crop varieties and hybrids
that are more drought, pest and disease tolerant. These new varieties strengthen
the hands of farmers to deal with climate change and desertification.
ICRISAT released the world's first pigeonpea hybrids based on the cytoplasmic
male sterility system. The hybrids developed at ICRISAT have shown 30 to 150%
yield advantage. The hybrids also produce 30-40% more root mass that makes them
more drought resistant. The adoption of hybrid technology has been rapid. The
yield advantages of hybrids and the ease in their seed production have convinced
the seed producers and at present 22 private and 3 public seed companies have
adopted the technology. In 2007, a total of 250,000 kg of hybrid seed is being
produced. This will bring about 50,000 ha land under hybrid cultivation.
Using the molecular-marker assisted selection and breeding method ICRISAT developed
the HHB 67-2 pearl millet hybrid, which can withstand downy mildew disease,
which devastates pearl millet crops in the Northern Indian states of Haryana and
Rajasthan.
When there is no natural resistance in crops to pests or diseases, ICRISAT has
been developing transgenic crops with genes for resistance from outside the crops
gene pool. Under contained field trials are ICRISAT-bred transgenic groundnut
for resistance to the Indian Peanut Clump Virus, transgenic pigeonpea and
transgenic chickpea with resistance to Helicoverpa armigera.
With the skyrocketing of fossil fuel prices, ICRISAT has initiated a pro-poor
BioPower strategy. Through this BioPower strategy ICRISAT works on generating
biodiesel from jatropha and pongamia in the wastelands of the villages. ICRISAT
and GTZ have has also initiated a public-private partnership with Southern Online
Biotech and farmers.
ICRISAT scientists bred sweet sorghum varieties and hybrids that have higher
sugar content in the juice in their stalks. Through the Agri-Business Incubator
ICRISAT partnered with Rusni Distilleries who established a distillery to convert
sweet sorghum juice to ethanol. In June 2007 the plant produced world's first
ethanol from sweet sorghum. The beauty of ICRISAT-bred sweet sorghum is that while
farmers get additional income from the juice in the stalk, they still continue
to get the sorghum grains.
ICRISAT's package empowers the farmers to meet the present day uncertainties,
so that they can meet the future climate change and also reverse desertification
as it happens.
Source: SeedQuest.com
19 September 2007
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1.07 CSIRO Plant Industry and Cotton Seed Distributors
Ltd form the Cotton Breeding Australia joint venture
Australia
CSIRO Plant Industry and Cotton Seed Distributors Ltd (CSD) today announced
the Cotton Breeding Australia joint venture, to fund cotton breeding and targeted
research for a 10-year initial term
Both parties will contribute A$2 million per annum for research, with CSD also
co-funding the cotton breeding work previously co-funded by the Cotton Research
and Development Corporation (CRDC).
The first stage of Cotton Breeding Australia has already commenced with CSD funding
the addition of a new breeder to CSIRO’s Narrabri breeding team.
“Cotton Breeding Australia will see an increase in investment in cotton breeding
and research, of approximately A$40 million over the 10-year period,” says CSIRO
Plant Industry Chief, Dr Jeremy Burdon.
“It’s a great example of the RDC model developing research to a point where it
can be more directly funded by industry without an additional grower levy or government
funding.”
CSD is a grower-based company and has worked with CSIRO Plant Industry since the
1980s to develop and deliver high quality cotton varieties for the industry.
“Cotton Breeding Australia will see an increase in investment in cotton breeding
and research, of approximately A$40 million over the 10-year period,” says CSIRO
Plant Industry Chief, Dr Jeremy Burdon.“The company has reached a point where
it’s able to reinvest into cotton specific projects and research,” says CSD Managing
Director, Peter Graham.
CSIRO-bred cotton varieties are world-leading, and the increased research spend
this initiative will introduce, will keep them there,” Mr Graham says.
CSIRO and CSD recognise the very important contribution that CRDC and the Australian
Cotton Growers Research Association (ACGRA) have made to the Australian cotton
breeding program to date, and look forward to the continuation of this contribution.
CSIRO-bred cotton varieties currently represent over 90 per cent of the Australian
market and are well represented around the world.
Key areas for the breeding and research program include yield/quality improvements,
drought and climate change tolerance, water use efficiency and disease tolerance.
CSD will also be funding additional capital expenditure to ensure that the increased
breeding and research work has adequate resources to effectively bring the outcomes
to the market.
Other news from
Cotton Seed Distributors Ltd.
Source: SeedQuest.com
26 September 2007
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1.08 US scientists breed disease-resistant plant for Africa
Michael Timko, a Professor of Biology in the University of Virginia, is helping
African breeders to develop the resistance of cowpea to the weed Striga in West
Africa. He and other scientists have sequenced the cowpea genome and are using
this information to speed up and improve the breeding process by modern molecular-based
technologies.
Cowpea is a primary protein source for millions of people. About 80 percent of
the world's cowpea crop is grown in Africa, mostly by subsistence farmers. The
entire plant is used for food, and for hay and fodder for cattle. However, the
Striga gesnerioides, or “witchweed,” is so virulent that farmers must relocate
their cowpea crop to new soil every few years. Timko’s approach is to improve
the performance of plants by identifying genes that control key characteristics,
and then use this knowledge in selective breeding programs that emphasize those
traits using associated genetic markers. The resulting product is the delivery
of improved parasite-resistant hybrids to the farmer in shorter amounts of time.
Read the full press release at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070722111035.htm
From CropBiotech Update
27 July 2007:
Contributed by Margaret Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.09 IITA/Gatsby on cowpea production
benefits farmers in Nigeria
In the International Improvement of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)/Gatsby crop-livestock
project, farmers are taking advantage of extra early varieties of cowpea to double
their production and increase their income. The rainy season in the Guinea savanna
in northern Nigeria normally starts in June and ends in September. With such a
short rainy season, cowpeas can be planted only once.Under the project, extra
early cowpea varieties are harvested by August, and a second batch is planted
in September. The grain yields from extra early cowpea varieties were estimated
at about 700 to 1100 kg/ha, a record high.
The full article is available at http://www.iita.org/cms/details/news_details.aspx?articleid=1136&zoneid=81
.
From CropBiotech Update
3 August 2007
Contributed by Margaret Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.10 University of Delaware leads $5.3-million research
project on rice epigenetics
Newark, Delaware
Using a novel “deep sequencing” technology that can in one fell swoop decode 50
million sequences representing well over a billion bases of DNA, a research team
led by University of Delaware scientists is working to
unmask where, why and how certain genes are switched on or off in rice--a crop
vital to the world's food supply.
The goal of the four-year project, which is supported by a $5.3-million grant
from the National Science Foundation (NSF), is to advance scientific understanding
of the rice epigenome--the series of biochemical modifications of the rice DNA
that can toggle a gene on or, conversely, silence it. Ultimately, the research
may lead to the development of hardier strains of rice, as well as shed light
on similar mechanisms at work in corn and other important cereal grains that are
closely related to rice.
Blake Meyers, associate professor of plant and soil sciences at UD, is the principal
investigator on the project, which also involves Guo-Liang Wang, a rice biologist
from Ohio State University; Steven Jacobsen, an expert in epigenetics, and computer
scientist Matteo Pellegrini, both from the University of California at Los Angeles;
and Yulin Jia, a plant pathologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Dale
Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Stuttgart, Ark.
The effort builds on Meyers' previous awards from the NSF Plant Genome Research
Program, as well as ongoing investigations of small RNAs--short lengths of ribonucleic
acids that act as gene regulators--performed in collaboration with Pamela Green,
the Crawford H. Greenewalt Endowed Chair in Plant Molecular Biology at UD, whose
lab is next door to Meyers' in the Delaware Biotechnology Institute. These projects
have now propelled the research in a new direction, to new frontiers in the field
of epigenetics.
“Epigenetics refers to a heritable change that is not a result of a change in
DNA sequence, but rather a chemical modification of nucleotides in the DNA or
its associated proteins,” Meyers said. “That means that these changes can be reversible,
and it's easier to switch them on or off. Small RNAs are one of the key 'control
switches,' directing these modifications,” Meyers noted.
State-of-the-art sequencing by synthesis (SBS) technology developed by Solexa
Inc., in Hayward, Calif., will provide the data essential to the project. This
novel “deep sequencing” tool, which can decode tens of millions of sequences during
a single run, has become available over the last year. The application of SBS
to epigenetics research was demonstrated in the human genome only within the past
few months. The UD-led effort will be one of the first large-scale projects to
use this approach in crop plants.
“If you think of a gene as part of a set of chromosomes, a gene is just a small
fraction of a percent of a complete genome,” Meyers said. “If we learn about that
gene by random sampling, by using 50 million total sequences, which is what SBS
provides, we can characterize that gene at depth,” he noted. “Using this method,
we can obtain statistically robust data for nearly all genomic regions in a single
experiment.”
The scientists will use the technology to look for chemical modifications in chromatin,
the building-block material of chromosomes, consisting of DNA and the proteins
that interact with it. The scientists want to know how the chromatin is configured
and what role changes in the material play in plant development.
“Formerly, we had a very narrow picture of a plant's genome; with these new sequencing
technologies, we now have the opportunity to acquire a comprehensive picture at
fine detail,” Meyers said. “It's like looking through a high-powered telescope--but
now we have a wide-angle lens on that telescope to take in a view with both breadth
and depth.”
Besides studying the state of the genome using a variety of different strains
of rice plants, the research team will develop new bioinformatics methods to process
the vast amounts of data and mine new discoveries.
“The project is part biology and part technology,” Meyers said. “Developing the
bioinformatics to handle the data is critical. You have to know what to do with
it. As our bioinformatics capabilities have grown, so have the resources available
to the public through our web sites,” he noted. “And these online resources have
led to important new collaborations.”
The data from the current project will be accessible through web sites at UD and
UCLA--[http://mpss.udel.edu/rice] and [ http://epigenomics.mcdb.ucla.edu].
The research project also includes an innovative education and outreach component
targeting graduate students in plant science. Students will write, submit and
exchange research proposals with students from different universities. They will
then serve on a panel to critique and rank the proposals, modeled after the National
Science Foundation's own proposal review process.
“Since planning experiments and justifying these through writing proposals is
such an integral part of what a scientist does, I thought this would be a good
experience for our students,” Meyers said. “This way, they can also see what their
advisers go through,” he added, grinning.
Meyers developed the educational project several years ago in the advanced plant
genetics course (PL636) he teaches in the UD College of Agriculture and Natural
Resources. Since then, several colleagues and their classes at Iowa State and
Penn State have participated in the program, exchanging proposals with UD, and
UCLA and Ohio State are planning to join the program during the current four-year
grant.
“My hope is that this program and its proposal exchange system can be used broadly
by plant genetics and genomics courses at universities to build writing, communication
and critical thinking skills among graduate students,” Meyers said.
Article by Tracey Bryant
Source: SeedQuest.com
10 September 2007
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1.11 Australia examines the enforcement
of plant breeder's rights
The Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP) is undertaking a review
on the enforcement of Plant Breeder's Rights in Australia. ACIP is an independent
body appointed by the Australian Government to advise government on matters relating
to intellectual property including patents, trade mark, design and, more recently,
Plant Breeder's Rights.
ACIP has developed an Issues Paper which can be viewed on www.acip.gov.au.The Issues Paper was distributed
to over 100 entities that advised ACIP of their interest in enforcement of PBR.
ACIP received submissions from about 40 of these groups and has recently completed
comprehensive consultations with many of the authors of these submissions.
ACIP is now developing an Options Paper which will canvas a range of strategies
for addressing the issues previously identified. This will also be made available
for comment to interested entities and through the web site, www.acip.gov.au.
Any questions/comments on this study should be directed to Cameron Stack by email:
cameron.stack@ipaustralia.gov.au."
Contributed by Paul Brennan
CropGen International
paul.brennan@bigpond.com
www.CropGenInternational.com
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1.12 Scientists are making Brazil's savannah bloom
PLANALTINA, Brazil
Anyone curious to know how Brazil has become what the former secretary of
state, Colin
L. Powell, calls an “agricultural superpower”
poised to overtake the United States as the world’s leading exporter of
foodstuffs would do well to start here in this busy network of government
laboratories.
The sprawling labs and experimental fields are operated by Embrapa, Brazil’s agricultural
and livestock research agency, and have become an obligatory stop for any third
world leader visiting Brazil.
Although little known in North America, Embrapa has in three decades become a
world research leader in tropical agriculture and is moving aggressively into
areas like biotechnology and bio-energy.
“Embrapa is a model, not just for the so-called developing world, but for all
countries,” said Mark Cackler, manager and acting director of the Agricultural
and Rural Development Department of the World
Bank. “A key reason that Brazil has done so well with its agricultural economy
is that it has invested heavily and intelligently in front-end agricultural research,
and Embrapa has been at the forefront of that effort.”
Embrapa owes much of its reputation to its pioneering work here in the cerrado,
the vast savannah that stretches for more than 1,000 miles across central Brazil.
Written off as useless for centuries, the region has been transformed in less
than a generation into Brazil’s grain belt, thanks to the discovery that soils
could be made fertile by dousing them with phosphorus and lime, whose optimum
mixture was established by Embrapa scientists.
When the annual World Food Prize was awarded last year to two Brazilians affiliated
with Embrapa, the citation called the emergence of the cerrado “one of the greatest
achievements of agricultural science in the 20th century.”
Embrapa also championed the main crop for the region by developing more than 40
tropical varieties of soybeans, which had been thought of as only a temperate
zone crop.
“When I was working in India and Pakistan and the Near East countries in the 1960s
and 1970s, nobody thought these soils were ever going to be productive,” Norman
Borlaug, an American agronomist who won the Nobel Peace Prize for work that earned
him the title “father of the Green Revolution,” said in a telephone interview
from Iowa. “But Embrapa was able to put all the pieces together.”
As a result, Brazil is today the world’s top exporter of soybeans and beef and
a fast-rising exporter of cotton, three-quarters of which it produces here in
the cerrado. Encouraged by that success, Embrapa scientists have turned their
attention to wheat. Brazil now imports most of its wheat from nearby countries
with temperate climates.
“We think the potential is enormous,” said Roberto Teixeira Alves, general director
of the cerrado research center at Embrapa. “We launched two new varieties of wheat
with good yields just last year, and believe there is also a strong possibility
of adapting barley to the region.”
Embrapa’s laboratory in Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon, has also been studying
ways to make carbon sequestration more efficient. Scientists have been examining
what are known as “Amazonian dark earth soils,” small, fertile islands that were
built up by pre-Columbian Indian tribes and that have especially high concentrations
of phosphorous.
“We don’t know why that should be, but we are trying to understand and reproduce
that phenomenon so that we can benefit from it now,” said Wenceslau Teixeira,
a soil scientist who is in charge of the effort. “These islands have especially
stable levels of carbon, which helps retain nutrients and is thus both quite useful
and hard to find in tropical soils.”
And although Brazil’s sugar-based ethanol program is largely focused elsewhere,
Embrapa has an agro-energy division that is concentrating on ways to grow diesel
fuel. Embrapa scientists have identified some 30 plants that could be used in
such programs and are focusing on palm oil.
“Palm oil’s composition is one of the best for production of bio-fuels,” said
Maria do Rosario Lobato Rodrigues, the director of the Manaus laboratory, where
the research is based. “It has a high capacity to fix carbon, doesn’t require
the use of chemical products to produce, and no part of the plant is ever wasted.”
Under Embrapa’s newly broadened definition of agriculture, nothing seems off limits,
from a tropical hog that is lower in fat and cholesterol
than its American counterpart and has a higher yield of loin and ham, to the extraction
of bio-polymers from spiders. At the Embrapa executive dining room in Brasilia,
there are even place mats made with varieties of natural cotton fibers, which,
because they grow in shades of green and tan, could cut costs of dye stocks for
textile manufacturers.
Source: The New York Times online: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/science/02tropic.html?ex=1191988800&en=3faeb9d00d72a571&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Contributed by Luigi Guarino
Global Crop Diversity Trust
luigi.guarino@gmail.com
via Elcio Guimaraes
FAO/AGPC
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1.13 UK body to coordinate climate change teamwork
Agencies will share information about climate-tolerant crops
Maryke Steffens
The recently formed UK Collaborative on Development Sciences (UK-CDS) announced
last week (28 September) that climate change will be its major focus over the
next year.
Formed in December 2006, the UK-CDS coordinates the science and technology projects
of its eight UK-based members including the Wellcome Trust, the Department
of Health and the Department for International Development that are in or
affect the developing world.
Projects range from medical and social research to agricultural and environmental
projects.
The UK-CDS will look at projects examining "the impact of climate change on developing
countries, what adaptation might be necessary and what the science and technology
needs might be," UK-CDS director Andree Carter told SciDev.Net.
For example, an adaptation project might investigate which new crops or agricultural
practices are required in areas of increased flooding, she said.
"What we're finding is that our members support activities in a range of countries,
particularly Sub-Saharan African countries, but they have very little knowledge
of what each other are doing," says Carter. "If we could bring some of those activities
together, simply from an information and 'lessons learned' point of view, it would
add value."
UK-CDS hopes to have an initial report ready by the end of 2007.
The collaborative will map out current funding initiatives and activities and
identify opportunities for collaboration.
It will assist projects in the developing world in building capacity in science
and technology by helping identify research priorities, manage research budgets
and day-to-day running of research organisations, and build technical skills and
infrastructure.
Part of UK-CDS's remit is to also guide capacity building in UK-based organisations
and match up the skills and capabilities of organisations to the needs of developing
countries.
It also plans to work with the UK Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills
to try and predict future science and technology needs of developing countries.
"Think about how the mobile phone has had a massive impact on developing countries,
how they've cut out a whole raft of infrastructure just by using mobile phones.
What other electronic or other technology might make a big difference in terms
of life?" Carter adds.
Source: SciDev.Net
5 October 2007
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1.14 Court halts introduction of GM rice in the Philippines
A Philippine court has temporarily halted an application to bring genetically
modified (GM) rice to the country, pending a study of possible health and environmental
effects.
A temporary restraining order was issued yesterday (18 September) after Greenpeace,
together with other nongovernmental organisations, challenged the Philippine government's
right to approve Bayer Crop Science's LL62, a herbicide-tolerant type of hybrid
rice.
The order prohibits the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Plant Industry
(BPI) from approving Bayer's application to introduce LL62 for food, animal feed
and the manufacture of other products.
A statement from the court said the order would "preserve the status quo until
the merits of the case can be heard". No date has yet been set for the a new hearing.
Bayer submitted its application to BPI in August 2006. If eventually approved,
it will be the first GM rice in the Philippines.
Environmental group Greenpeace filed its injunction on 23 August this year, citing
several concerns over LL62, particularly the absence of public consultations,
as required by the Philippine law. The injunction also pushes for a review of
the approval process for GM plants in the country.
"It will be a big mistake to allow GM rice to enter our food supply. It
has never been proven safe for human consumption and poses grave risks to the
environment and to our health," said Daniel Ocampo, Greenpeace Southeast Asia
Genetic Engineering Campaigner.
Agnes Lintao, policy officer for Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community
Empowerment (Searice), another of the petitioners, said approval of LL62 would
open the floodgates to further GM rice contamination in the Philippines and that
the government should abandon all applications for GM organisms.
Bayer say the LL62 rice variety is safe for human consumption, and produces a
protein conferring herbicide tolerance that is commercially available in Canada,
the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Russia and the United States.
"Bayer Crop Science believes that this rice poses no harm on human health, food
or feed. It has also been confirmed in many trials that it did not exhibit weedy
characteristics, or negatively affect other organisms," said the company's communications
manager, Reynaldo Cutanda.
Imelda Abano
Source: SciDev.Net
20 September 2007
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1.15 The economic impact and the distribution of benefits
and risk from the adoption of insect resistant (Bt) cotton in
West Africa
Washington, DC
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
discussion paper 00718
The Economic Impact and the Distribution of Benefits and Risk from the Adoption
of Insect Full paper: http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/dp/IFPRIDP00718.pdfResistant
(Bt) Cotton in West Africa
Source: SeedQuest.com
September, 2007
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1.16 USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service concludes genetically
engineered rice investigation
Washington, DC
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory
Programs Bruce Knight today announced the conclusion of the genetically engineered
rice (GE) investigation. The investigation, which was conducted by USDA's Animal
and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Investigative and Enforcement
Services in coordination with USDA's Office of the Inspector General, focused
on the unintentional release of trace amounts of regulated genetically engineered
rice detected in two commercial varieties of long-grain rice.
"USDA conducted an extensive investigation that involved more than 8,500 staff
hours and site visits to more than 45 locations in 11 states and Puerto Rico,"
said Knight. "Based on our findings, we are considering a number of actions to
strengthen our enforcement and investigation capabilities and to foster better
quality management practices."
Bayer CropScience developed and field tested the regulated GE rice lines known
as LLRICE601 and LLRICE604, which were designed for herbicide tolerance. Both
GE rice lines have the same added protein, commonly referred to as the PAT protein,
which has been safely used in other deregulated products for more than ten years.
The investigation was initiated on Aug. 1, 2006, after Bayer CropScience reported
that regulated LLRICE601 had been detected in the long-grain rice variety Cheniere.
LLRICE601, which is similar to two previously deregulated lines, was subsequently
deregulated in November 2006. The investigation was expanded on Feb. 16, 2007
to include the discovery of regulated GE rice, later identified as LLRICE604,
in the long-grain rice variety Clearfield 131 (CL131).
To assist investigators, USDA officials tested 396 samples from 57 rice varieties
that had been harvested between 2002 and 2006. Other USDA agencies instrumental
in this effort were the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration,
the Agricultural Marketing Service and the Economic Research Service.
As a result of this extensive sampling, investigators were able to determine that
the presence of LLRICE601 was limited to Cheniere and that the presence of LLRICE604
was limited to CL131. In both cases, only trace amounts of GE material were present.
No short- or medium-grain rice varieties tested positive for either LLRICE601
or LLRICE604.
Investigators had hoped to identify how each GE rice line entered the commercial
rice supply, but the exact mechanism for introduction could not be determined
in either instance. Investigators found that from 1999 to 2001, LLRICE601 and
Cheniere were both grown at the same time at the Rice Research Station in Crowley,
La which was operated by Louisiana State University. The Crowley research station
was working under a Bayer CropScience contract. LLRICE604 and CL131 also were
grown at the Crowley research station, but the planting of LLRICE604 and CL131
did not occur at the same time. This means that the most likely entry point for
LLRICE604 into CL131 was through a means other than direct cross-pollination.
Based upon the findings of the investigation, APHIS will not be pursuing enforcement
against Bayer CropScience. Given the lack of available information and evidence,
USDA was unable to make any definitive determinations that could have resulted
in enforcement action.
APHIS is releasing a report of the findings as well as lessons learned from this
and other investigations and from its experience as regulators. For example, APHIS
is considering establishing retention requirements for records. APHIS also is
considering greater isolation distances between seed breeding fields and GE varieties
in order to reduce the likelihood of pollen flow.
The new Biotechnology Quality Management System, announced in September, will
help industry to establish best management practices. APHIS will encourage universities,
small businesses and large companies to participate. The goal of the voluntary
program is to help developers establish policies and quality control practices
that proactively address potential issues before they materialize.
Report: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/content/2007/10/content/printable/RiceReport10-2007.pdf
Lessons learned:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/content/2007/10/content/printable/LessonsLearned10-2007.pdf
Source: SeedQuest.com
5 October 2007
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1.17 GM corn 'improves animal feed, cuts
pollution'
[BEIJING] Chinese scientists have developed a genetically modified (GM) corn
that could help improve the nutritional value of livestock feed and reduce pollution.
The research was announced by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS)
this week (10 September). The corn has now entered pre-production field trials.
The GM corn produces seeds containing high levels of an enzyme called phytase.
The enzyme helps livestock to digest phosphorus, an important nutritional element
found in corn and soy feeds.
Cereal grains and oilseeds, the main ingredients of feeds, contain large quantities
of phytic acid, which has adequate phosphorus content, but livestock such as pigs
lack sufficient phytase in their digestive tract to absorb enough phosphorus.
This means large amounts of phosphorus are released into the environment through
animal waste.
As a result, farmers add phytase to animal feed to help livestock digest phosphorus.
The enzyme is a product of fermentation by microorganisms, a process which has
high production costs.
The CAAS scientists funded by the state isolated the gene that produces
phytase from a species of the fungus Aspergillus, and inserted it into
corn.
Chen Rumei, of the Institute of Biotechnology under CAAS and a member of the research
team, said that when compared to other corn varieties, the rate of seed germination,
growth speed and yield of the GM corn were no different.
She told SciDev.Net that, under current industry criteria for feed additives,
adding just a few grams of the GM corn seed per kilogram of animal feed would
be enough to satisfy livestock's nutritional demand for phosphorus.
"If this technology is commercialised, we can save up to 450 million yuan (US$60
million) per year in energy costs used to produce industrial phytase enzyme additives,"
Chen adds.
"This could be translated into saved costs for farmers in purchasing additives,"
she says. And farmers who plant the GM corn rather than common corn varieties
could increase their income by about 1500 yuan (US$200) per hectare.
Li Zhensheng, former vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the
chair of the Ministry of Agriculture team who evaluated the project, says phosphorus
pollution caused by animal waste has been a serious problem, resulting in widespread
algal blooms in the Chinese lakes (see Pollution
control key to beating China's algal blooms).
"If the phytase enzyme-rich feed produced from the GM corn is widely applied,
phosphorus pollution caused by animal waste will be significantly reduced, and
the ecology could be largely improved," Li says.
China has not yet approved any GM corn for commercial sale.
Jia Hepeng
Source: SciDev.Net
13 September 2007
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1.18 Developing nations 'need genetic resources rules'
[BEIJING] To benefit from genetic resources, developing countries need to
improve their governance, a meeting in Beijing was told this week (4 September).
Developing countries are losing out because their laws do not specify which resources
should be paid for and how, said Gurdial Singh Nijar, a law professor at the University
of Malaya in Malaysia.
He made his remarks at an international workshop on genetic resources and indigenous
knowledge, supported by the UN Convention of Biological Diversity.
The Access and Benefit Sharing of Genetic Resources (ABS) mechanism calls for
developed countries to pay for the collection and use of plant or animal species
that they obtain for commercial use from the developing world.
But, said Nijar, the resource users mostly developed country companies and
institutions can easily overcome international legal duties on benefit-sharing
by paying minimal money to local communities.
This is due to the lack of a legal definition of what constitutes payable genetic
resources, and clarity on who owns these resources: national governments or local
communities of origin.
Chee Yoke Ling, legal advisor to the Third World Network, an international network
of development organisations, agreed, saying developing countries need to adjust
their patent systems.
Many systems favour the knowledge and expertise of developed countries, rather
than supporting the indigenous knowledge of genetic resources in the developing
world, she said.
Nijar said that implementing genetic resource legislation would strengthen developing
world countries' status in international negotiations.
But Wang Canfa, from China Politics and Law University and the major drafter
of China's biosafety and biodiversity regulations says attempts to legislate
on biodiversity use in China have been suspended since 2006 because government
departments are arguing over who should govern the area.
Seizo Sumida, from Japan's Bioindustry Association, says in the absence of genetic
resource legislation, the best option is to set up international partnerships.
Japan has formed a collaborative consortium with 11 Asian countries, including
China, Mongolia, Myanmar and Vietnam, to research their natural genetic resources
and share the benefits, Sumida says (see Scientists
search for new microbes in Mongolia).
Hepeng Jia
Source: SciDev.Net
6 September 2007
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1.19 'Biopiracy' requires reasoned treatment
The fight against biopiracy must embrace both legitimate science and social
justice if biodiversity itself is not to suffer.
Scientists have long been implicated, whether actively or tacitly, in developed
countries' campaigns to seek out and secure natural resources to fuel industrialisation
and maintain their own living standards.
This was the motive behind many 'scientific' expeditions to explore and map out
the centre of Africa in the nineteenth century. More recently, studying indigenous
medicine has become a cost-effective way of identifying active chemical ingredients
from plants that might be valuable in modern medicine.
Inevitably, as the commercial and economic motivations behind such 'scientific'
enterprises emerge, resentment grows at the perceived one-way flow of benefits.
In response, strongly-worded commitments to enforcing greater social justice are
developed. The most influential of these is the Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD), which came into force in 1993, giving states ownership, and thus control,
over the plants and animals within their borders.
Equally inevitably, efforts to implement such commitments have frequently generated
protest from scientists. They miss their previous freedom to collect, transport
and disseminate research samples virtually at will, and view the requirements
for permits and prior approval as a mire of red tape that frequently delays projects.
Wave of protest
The recent imprisonment of a Dutch-born researcher, Marc van Roosmalen, who
has been working in the Brazilian rainforest for more than 20 years and whose
work has helped name several newly identified species of primates, has been a
focus for scientists' anger (see Scientists
threaten strike over jailing of primatologist).
Van Roosmalen previously worked for the National Institute for Research in the
Amazon in Manaus, in the heart of Amazonia, but now runs his own private research
institution. In June he was sentenced to almost 16 years in prison for infringing
laws introduced to protect Brazil's treasure trove of natural resources.
His treatment triggered a wave of protest from scientists, both in Brazil and,
eventually, internationally. For many scientists the case symbolises what they
see as the unfair victimisation of the scientific community by those seeking to
preserve natural environments at any cost.
The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation Scientists, for example,
officially described van Roosmalen's treatment as a government-backed "attack
on the practice and profession of biological scientists", and called for his immediate
release. The Supreme Court did provisionally release van Roosmalen from prison
last month.
The rights and wrongs
However, van Roosmalen's case is more complex than it might initially appear.
Firstly, he has faced charges of "improper appropriation" relating to the decision
to offer sponsors the opportunity to have their name attached to newly discovered
species – a practice which, although widely adopted in the past, now raises eyebrows
in the research community itself.
And it is clear that under Brazilian law, van Roosmalen should have sought permission
to capture and keep some of the animals he used for research. His frustration
at the lengthy procedure this involves is understandable, but without permission,
his experiments were illegal.
But it is widely believed that many other, equally frustrated, scientists collect
samples without authorisation and without facing legal action. Indeed, some of
van Roosmalen's supporters blamed his conviction on his high profile clashes with
politically-influential landowners over campaigns to save the Amazonian rainforest,
rather than regulators' zeal to protect local biodiversity.
Whether or not there has been undue political influence, it is clear than regulators
in Brazil and elsewhere do not get the financial and human resources needed to
carry out their tasks efficiently. The most obvious result has been the long delays
in granting permissions for experiments, which has left all sides frustrated.
Arguing it out
Scientists can legitimately argue that delays are costly for their research,
and that they themselves could usefully contribute to formulating national policies,
laws and regulations that implement CBD commitments.
But when they defend their own interests in the name of freedom for scientific
inquiry, their case is weakened by the misdeeds of their predecessors, and occasionally
their peers, whose abuse of such freedoms contributed to the current situation
(see Developing
nations 'need genetic resources rules').
Conservationists also have a case when they defend the CBD, and the regulations
flowing from it, as essential weapons in the fight to conserve native fauna and
flora. But claims on who rightfully 'owns' this material are often more complex
than activists acknowledge. Activists also need to acknowledge that a healthy
science base is essential to their own cause (see Ownership
squabbles 'hindering' conservation).
Avoiding lose-lose situations
Fortunately, the situation has improved significantly since the mid-1990s
when, after the CBD was signed, there was a virtual freeze on collaboration between
biologists in developed countries and those in countries such as Brazil. Careful
negotiation has led to effective guidelines – for example on sharing samples –
that show accommodation is possible.
But tensions and distrust remain high, as the intense feelings aroused by the
van Roosmalen affair demonstrate. So scientists and conservationists alike, particularly
the more 'activist' of the latter, must remember that they share a common long-term
interest in sensibly designed and effectively implemented mechanisms that protect
biodiversity.
Nobody wins when regulations are either ignored or overzealously applied, whatever
the supposed justification.
David Dickson
Director, SciDev.Net
Source: SciDev.net (excerpts by the editor, PBN-L)
14 September 2007
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1.20 Urgent need to conserve vanilla genetic
resources
A comprehensive review on the worldwide efforts for the ex-situ preservation
(for example in botanical gardens and seed banks) of vanilla genetic resources
was recently presented by researchers in France. Vanilla is a member of the orchid
plant family. According to authors Severine Bory and colleagues, results of studies
dealing with the taxonomy, reproductive biology and diversity of vanilla, specifically
Vanilla planifolia, suggest the urgent need for conserving the genetic resources
of the species.
Commercial vanilla flavoring is extracted from the vanilla species V. planifolia.
Various factors, which include over-collection in the wild and deforestation,
led to the extinction of wild populations of the species. Bory’s group recommends
that maintenance of germplasm in field or in vitro collections in genebanks
is essential in perpetuating the existing genotypes to make them available for
vanilla breeding and production. They added that collaborative international efforts
should help protect vanilla in its area of origin, where it is highly endangered.
For more information, subscribers may access the review article published in Genetic
Resources and Crop Evolution at http://www.springerlink.com/content/p1k3k0288m4v0513/.
From CropBiotech Update
27 July 2007
Contributed by Margaret Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.21 Two new varieties of southernpeas developed by USDA/ARS
and cooperators
Two new varieties of southernpeas, WhipperSnapper and GreenPack-DG, boast
attractive colors, pleasing textures and flavors, plus nutrients like protein
and folate, a B vitamin. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) research
leader Richard L. Fery co-developed these superior southernpeas with Blair Buckley
from Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge and
Dyremple Marsh, from Lincoln University,
Jefferson City, Mo.
Fery described the research that led to the rich green color of GreenPack-DG in
the June issue of HortScience. WhipperSnapper is featured in the August issue
of HortScience, according to Fery. He's based at ARS' U.S. Vegetable Laboratory
in Charleston, S.C., where he also develops new and improved bell and habańero
peppers.
Both southernpeas were offered to seed producers and researchers for the first
time in 2006, after years of laboratory, greenhouse and field tests, Fery noted.
Southernpeas technically are beans, not peas. They are sometimes called cowpeas,
black-eyed peas, field peas or crowders. Southernpeas appear in traditional southern
cuisine in soups, salads, casseroles and fritters, a fried quick-bread.
GreenPack-DG forms long, slightly curved pods that hold 12 plump, olive-green
peas, each with a pink eye. It is the only pink-eyed southernpea that has two
genes for greenness, not just one. Its "DG" initials stand for "double green."
The double-green feature is the work of genes called green cotyledon and green
testa. The genes ensure that the peas won't lose some of their green color while
growers are waiting for the pods to become dry enough to machine-harvest and to
shell the peas from the pods.
Double-greenness gives GreenPack-DG a significant advantage over Charleston Greenpack,
an earlier southernpea from Fery's laboratory that has only one greenness gene.
In fact, Fery expects GreenPack-DG to replace the earlier southernpea as a favorite
for processing into frozen pea products.
GreenPack-DG resulted from cooperative research conducted by ARS and Western Seed
Multiplication, Inc., Wadmalaw Island, S.C.
WhipperSnapper yields pods packed with 14 creamy-white, kidney-shaped peas. It
can be picked when the pods are still immature, tender and edible, then sold as
fresh snaps. The pods also can be left on the vine until ready to sell with full-sized
peas either within the pods, or shelled.
This southernpea flourishes in weather that's too hot for some other beans. Also,
it is extremely easy to shell, a feature that should make it especially popular
with home gardeners, who typically shell by hand. Larger-scale growers will find
the southernpea suitable for mechanical harvesting.
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.
Source: American Society for Horticultural Science
via SeedQuest.com
27 September 2007
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1.22 New high-yielding edible bean
resists bacterial disease
There is a new northern bean made available to farmers and breeders that can
resist common bacterial blight - and it is high-yielding too. Named "ABC-Weihing",
the bean cultivar was developed by University of Nebraska bean breeder Carlos
Urrea, and Phil Miklas, a geneticist at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
using marker-assisted selection. The new bean variety resisted eight strains of
bean rust and all non-necrotic strains of bean common mosaic in greenhouse tests,
and also had an average seed yield of 1,869 pounds per acre.
Read the news article at http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=1261.
Source: CropBiotech Update
6 July 2007:
Contributed by Margaret Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
mes25@cornell.edu
(Return to Contents)
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1.23 Cornell University helps develop pest-resistant eggplant,
the first genetically modified food crop in South Asia
Ithaca, New York
Cornell University researchers and Sathguru
Management Consultants of India have successfully led an international consortium
through the first phase of developing a pest-resistant eggplant. By about 2009
this eggplant is expected to be the first genetically engineered food crop in
South Asia. Farmers have grown genetically altered cotton in India since 2002.
The engineered eggplant expresses a natural insecticide derived from the bacteria
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), making it resistant to the fruit and shoot borer
(FSB), a highly destructive pest. The tiny larvae account for up to 40 percent
of eggplant crop losses each year in India, Bangladesh and the Philippines, and
other areas of South and Southeast Asia.
The work on the resistant eggplant is part of the Agricultural Biotechnology Support
Project (ABSP) II, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development
and administered by Cornell in partnership with Sathguru, a firm associated with
Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS).
Cornell researchers from plant breeding, entomology, molecular biology, applied
economics, communication, international programs and the Cornell Center for Technology
Enterprise and Commercialization began collaborating on the development of the
Bt eggplant in 2002. Another partner, Maharashtra
Hybrid Seeds, is on schedule to commercialize the genetically modified fruit
by 2009.
"Cornell has worked effectively to facilitate a productive partnership between
the public and private sectors that will make this technology available to eggplant
producers at every economic level," said Ronnie Coffman, international professor
of plant breeding and genetics and director of International Programs in CALS.
"In five years, with support from Sathguru and Cornell, our partners were able
to bring this flagship program to field trials and get food, feed and environmental
safety approvals," said K.V. Raman, Cornell professor of plant breeding.
All the safety tests for the Bt eggplant have been conducted in India, starting
in greenhouses and now moving to large-scale field trials. The eggplant has been
found to be nontoxic to fish, chickens, rabbits, goats, rats and cattle as well
as nonallergenic. Ongoing tests will examine such questions as whether the plant
will continue to resist FSB in the field and for how long; whether the Bt eggplant
cross pollinates with other eggplants in the field and how far the Bt plants should
be from other eggplant fields; whether nontarget insect populations are affected
in the long term; and how yields compare with those of other eggplant varieties.
It is estimated that the Bt eggplant will reduce insecticide use by 30 percent
while doubling the yield of marketable fruit (although eggplant is eaten as a
vegetable).
Eggplant is a popular crop in the subtropics and tropics, especially in India
and Bangladesh, where it is grown on about 1.5 million acres.
India and Bangladesh together expect to plant 110,000 acres of the FSB-resistant
eggplant commercially by the end of 2010 and 650,000 acres by 2015. Economists
from Cornell and other institutions report that the Bt eggplant would result in
lower prices for consumers, higher yields for farmers and, by 2015, boost the
Indian economy by $411 million and the Bangladeshi economy by $37 million.
"In spite of the green revolution in India, agricultural growth has stagnated
there to less than 2 percent per year," said Raman. "It is important for a land-grant
university like Cornell to be engaged in the improvement of technologies and help
create a road map that leads to agricultural and economic growth in places like
South and Southeast Asia and Africa."
By Krishna Ramanujan
19 September 2007
Source: SeedQuest.com
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1.24 Estimating the adoption of Bt eggplant in India:
Who benefits from public–private partnership?
ABSTRACT
The study analyzes ex ante the adoption of insect-resistant Bt eggplant technology
in India. Farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) is estimated using the contingent
valuation method. Given the economic importance of insect pests in eggplant cultivation,
the average WTP for Bt hybrids is more than four times the current price of conventional
hybrid seeds. Since the private innovating firm has also shared its technology
with the public sector, proprietary hybrids will likely get competition through
public open-pollinated Bt varieties after a small time lag. This will reduce farmers’
WTP for Bt hybrids by about 35%, thus decreasing the scope for corporate pricing
policies. Nonetheless, ample private profit potential remains. Analysis of factors
influencing farmers’ adoption decisions demonstrates that public Bt varieties
will particularly improve technology access for resource-poor eggplant producers.
The results suggest that public–private partnership can be beneficial for all
parties involved.
Food Policy
Volume 32, Issues 5-6, October-December 2007, Pages 523-543
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2006.11.002
Vijesh V. Krishna and Matin Qaima
Source: SeedQuest.com
7 September 2007
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1.25 Tough sunflower lines produce high oleic oil
Here is a bit of good news for sunflower breeders and growers. The United
States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and North
Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station (NDAES) have released three new sunflower
lines that have built-in resistance to downy mildew and which produce oil rich
in oleic acid.
In repeated field and greenhouse tests at NDAES in Fargo, all three lines resisted
the most virulent races of downy mildew fungus found in North America. Two of
the lines also withstood a French race not yet found in America. On the average,
oil extracted from the three sunflower lines was found to be more than 85% in
oleic acid.
These sunflower lines will prove to be invaluable because the fungus which causes
downy mildew has become resistant to common fungicides such as metalaxyl. In addition,
high levels of oleic fatty acid imparts desirable flavor, frying characteristics
and other traits to sunflower oil, which makes it more attractive to consumers.
To read the complete article, visit http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2007/070803.htm.
From CropBiotech Update
10 August 2007
Contributed by Margaret Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.26 Release of onion germplasm
Inbred line B8667 A&B
The United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service,
announces the release of onion inbred B8667 A&B, for the production of red,
long-day, well-storing hybrids. This inbred line was developed by Dr. M.J.
Havey and is round in shape, dark red with color extending through the internal
rings of the bulb, firm, with good scale retention and excellent storage quality
when produced on muck soils. B8667B is a F1MSMS2M3
from USDA Plant Introduction 262985 (‘Noord Holland Bloodred’) crossed with B5361B
(a red inbred developed by the late Dr. C.E. Peterson, but never released).
This inbred has a soluble-solids content of 13.4% and is relatively pungent at
10.7 mM pyruvate per ml. The cytoplasmic male-sterile A line is a BC7.
Testcrosses of B8667B to a series of male-sterile F1 lines (MSU611-1A×MSU611B,
MSU5718A×MSU8155B, B3350A×B2352B, B1731A×MSU5785B, and B1750A×B1794B) produced
only red bulbs and yielded in the top one-third of commercial and experimental
hybrids evaluated over years at the Kincaid Farm, Palmyra, WI.
Synthetic population‘Onion Haploid (OH)-1’
The Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture
and the University of Ljubljana announce the release of the long-day onion synthetic
population ‘Onion Haploid (OH) -1’. The purpose of this population is to
serve as a responsive control for extraction of gynogenic haploids of onion.
Random plants from the relatively responsive inbreds B2923B and B0223B were evaluated
for gynogenic haploid production as described by Bohanec and Jakse (1999).
Plants that produced relatively high numbers of gynogenic haploids were self-pollinated
(Bohanec et al. 2003). Five S1 bulbs from each of 10 families
(nine from B2923B and one from B0223B) were caged, allowed to flower, and intercrossed
using flies. Plants in this synthetic produced on average 12 gynogenic haploids
for every 100 flowers plated. Bulbs of this synthetic population are yellow
with good storage quality. All plants in OH-1 should be homozygous recessive
at the Ms locus, although this has not been evaluated.
Bohanec, B., and M. Jakše. 1999. Variations in gynogenic response
among long-day onion (Allium cepa L.) accessions. Plant Cell Rep.
18:737-742.
Bohanec, B., M. Jakše, and M.J. Havey. 2003. Genetic analyses of gynogenetic
haploid production in onion. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 128:571-574
Onion Synthetic Population Sapporo-KI (SKI) -1 A&B
The Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture
announces the release of the long-day onion synthetic population ‘Sapporo-Ki (SKI)
-1’ A&B. Sapporo-Ki is an open-pollinated population grown on the Japanese
island of Hoikkaido and has relatively high frequencies of both S cytoplasm and
the dominant allele at the male-fertility restoration locus (Ms) (Havey 1995).
This synthetic combines the earliness of Sapporo-Ki with maintenance of cytoplasmic-male
sterility. Random plants from Sapporo-Ki were self-pollinated and testcrossed
to male-sterile plants of MSU611-1A×MSU611B or MSU5718A×MSU8155B. The S1
families were evaluated for their cytoplasm using the molecular markers as described
by Havey (1993). Testcross families from these N-cytoplasmic plants were
scored for male-fertility restoration (Gokce and Havey 2002). S1
families that were N-cytoplasmic and homozygous recessive at Ms were selected.
Five S1 bulbs from each of eight families were caged, allowed to flower,
and intercrossed using flies, followed by three generations of seed increases.
The cytoplasmic male-sterile A line is a BC5. Bulbs of this synthetic
population are yellow, very early maturing in Wisconsin, and have good storage
ability.
Havey, M.J. 1993. A putative donor of S-cytoplasm and its distribution
among open-pollinated populations of onion. Theor. Appl. Genet. 86:128-134.
Havey, M.J. 1995. Cytoplasmic determinations using the polymerase
chain reaction to aid in the extraction of maintainer lines from open-pollinated
populations of onion. Theor. Appl. Genet. 90:263-268.
Gokce, A.F., and M.J. Havey. 2002. Linkage equilibrium among tightly
linked RFLPs and the Ms locus in open-pollinated onion populations.
J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 127:944-946.
Contributed by Michael J. Havey
USDA-ARS
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI USA 53706
http://haveylab.hort.wisc.edu
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1.27 New type of rice grows better and uses water more
efficiently than other rice crops
Blacksburg, Virginia
An international team of scientists has produced a new type of rice that grows
better and uses water more efficiently than other rice crops. Professor Andy Pereira
at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) has
been working with colleagues in India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Mexico and The
Netherlands to identify, characterize and make use of a gene known as HARDY that
improves key features of this important grain crop.
The research, which was recently published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, shows that HARDY contributes to more efficient water use
in rice, a primary source of food for more than half of the world’s population.
*
Rice (Oryza sativa) is a water guzzler when compared to other crops. It typically
uses up to three times more water than other food crops such as maize or wheat
and consumes around 30% of the fresh water used for crops worldwide. In conditions
where water is scarce, it is important to have crops that can efficiently generate
biomass (plant tissue) using limited amounts of water. HARDY rice shows a significant
increase in biomass under both drought and non-drought conditions. The researchers
found that the biomass of HARDY rice increased by around 50% under conditions
of water deprivation (drought) compared to the unmodified version of the same
type of rice.
Dr. Andy Pereira, Professor at VBI, stated: “This transdisciplinary research project
involved the study of two plants. First we used a powerful gain-of-function screening
technique to look at a large number of Arabidopsis plants that might have features
favorable to water and drought resistance. We were able to identify the HARDY
mutant due to its considerable reluctance to be pulled from the soil and its smaller,
darker green leaves. Molecular and physiological characterization showed that
the improved water usage efficiency was linked to the HARDY gene.”
Dr. Aarati Karaba, who worked on the project as a graduate student jointly at
the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore, India, and at Plant Research
International, Wageningen, The Netherlands, commented: “The next step was to introduce
the HARDY gene into rice and examine the features arising from this transformation.
In rice, HARDY seems to work in a slightly different way than Arabidopsis but
it still leads to improved water-use efficiency and higher biomass. Further studies
showed that HARDY significantly enhances the capacity of rice to photosynthesize
while at the same time reducing water loss from the crop.”
Dr. Andy Pereira, added: “DNA microarray analysis allowed us to look at gene expression
patterns regulated by HARDY. We specifically focused on genes that have gene ontology
(GO) terms, namely genes that have been assigned by the scientific community to
specific biological processes or functions. Using this approach we were able to
identify clusters of known genes regulated by HARDY whose levels changed under
conditions of plant water deprivation. We also saw distinct changes of gene clusters
linked to the metabolism of key proteins and carbohydrates, which probably explains
some of the feature differences we have detected in Arabidopsis and rice.”
The scientists have been able to track down these improvements in water-use efficiency
to a specific type of molecule known as AP2/ERF-like transcription factor. Transcription
factors are proteins that bind to DNA and control gene expression and the HARDY
gene encodes a protein that belongs to a specific class of AP2/ERF-like transcription
factors. Shital Dixit, Graduate student at Plant Research International, Wageningen,
The Netherlands, commented: “At this point in time, we do not know the exact function
of this transcription factor although we suspect that it impacts maturation processes
linked to tissue desiccation. More work remains to be done to elucidate the precise
function of this protein as well as the processes on which it has a major impact.
What is clear is that HARDY rice offers the exciting prospect of improved water-use
efficiency and drought resistance in rice and perhaps other grain or seed crops.
This should contribute in a sustainable way to maintaining high crop yields under
conditions of limited water availability.”
* Improvement of water use efficiency in rice by expression of HARDY an Arabidopsis
drought and salt tolerance gene
Karaba A, Dixit S, Greco R, Aharoni A, Trijatmiko KR, Marsch-Martinez N, Krishnan
A, Nataraja KN, Udayakumar M, Pereira A (2007)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in press.
Source: SeedQuest.com
11 September 2007
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1.28 Towards the development of salt-tolerant wheat
Scientists at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization
(CSIRO) are challenged to develop salt-tolerant wheat varieties that can withstand
the saline conditions of Australia’s vast dryland cropping belt. The scientists
have discovered two genes, known as Nax1 and Nax2, that exclude
salt from different parts of the plant – one from the roots, the other from the
leaves. The two genes originated from Einkorn (Triticum monococcum), a
Persian ancestor of wheat, and are not normally present in modern wheat varieties.
However, they were unintentionally bred into a durum wheat line about 35 years
ago during a stem rust research project. Initial paddock trials showed that the
varieties containing the “ancient wheat genes” had improved tolerance to salt,
but were not as productive as other durum varieties. CSIRO researchers have overcome
this problem and the latest varieties now perform well both in yield and salt-tolerance.
Read the complete article at http://www.csiro.au/files/files/pf9k.pdf.
From CropBiotech Update
20 July 2007:
Contributed by Margaret Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.29 Peanuts as new source of biodiesel
fuel?
Peanut is slowly grabbing the spotlight as a biodiesel crop. Researchers at
the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the
University of Georgia, are testing a peanut called Georganic. It is not suited
to current commercial edible standards for peanuts, but is high in oil and has
low production input costs. Georganic can be planted and grown with just one herbicide
application for weed control, and without the need for fungicides.
Many old and new peanut varieties are being tested for field performance, and
their oils are being analyzed for diesel performance characteristics. It has been
found that high-oleic-acid peanuts-a quality desired for extended shelf life of
food products, also make the best biodiesel fuel.
Read the news article at http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2007/070730.htm.
From CropBiotech Update
3 August 2007
Contributed by Margaret Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding and Genetics
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.30 Pioneer Hi-Bred launches breakthrough
technology that significantly increases soybean yields
Proprietary innovation increases yields up to 12 percent
Des Moines, Iowa
Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, announces
it is commercializing soybean varieties developed using a technology that increases
yields by as much as 12 percent per acre. Pioneer is introducing five varieties
with the technology for 2008 planting, pending wide-area product advancement trial
results.
This announcement officially launches one of the company's three soybean yield
traits from its pipeline to commercial status. It will be commercially known as
Accelerated Yield TechnologyTM (AYTTM). AYTTM uses proprietary molecular breeding
techniques to rapidly scan and identify genes that increase yield then incorporate
them into elite soybean genetics.
"AYTTM allows us to take a giant step forward on our promise to deliver industry-leading
improvements in soybeans. Our customers are seeing dramatic increases in Pioneer®
soybean variety yields that have never been seen in such a short period of time,"
says William S. Niebur, vice president DuPont Crop Genetics Research and Development.
"This technology embodies our business philosophy to increase the productivity
and profitability of our customers to help them meet the rising demand for food,
feed, fuel and materials."
Until now, molecular breeding techniques used by the seed industry have only produced
single-gene defensive traits in commercial varieties. There are multiple genes
in complex networks that determine the final yield level achieved. AYTTM builds
on Pioneer industry-leading molecular breeding techniques by allowing researchers
to simultaneously select multiple genes to significantly boost yields. AYTTM is
not transgenic, so soybeans developed from this process are not subject to additional
regulatory approvals.
The first AYTTM varieties are higher yielding versions of the newest Pioneer elite
soybean genetics. Pending final trial results this fall, Pioneer hopes to introduce
an AYTTM version of Pioneer® brand 94M80, which set the world record soybean yield
of 139 bushels per acre in 2006. New unique genetics also are being developed
using AYTTM and other molecular breeding techniques.
"Full implementation of AYTTM combined with molecular breeding technologies will
enable Pioneer to make a new class of soybeans that has unprecedented yield potential
relative to anything we have ever seen," Niebur says. "These technologies allow
us to incorporate a complete package of offensive and defensive characteristics
that could make 100-plus bushel soybean yields a common occurrence in the very
near future."
Source: SeedQuest.com
26 September 2007
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1.31 Marker free GM soybean produced by
gene excision
Marker genes, usually for antibiotic resistance, have always been the focus
of criticisms in genetic improvement of crops. Various selectable marker genes
are used in plant transformation systems to select transgenic events, but often
the marker gene is no longer needed after the transgenic plants are regenerated.
A group of researchers from DuPont recently produced marker-gene-free glyphosate-tolerant
transgenic soybean lines through a self –activating gene excision system.
Unlike other approaches to produce marker-free plants, the gene excision system
employed by the researchers delivers precise outcomes and does not require additional
manipulations of the transformation and regeneration process. The glyphosate tolerance
and marker genes were introduced together with a gene coding for the enzyme, Cre
recombinase, which will instantly remove itself and the marker gene upon induction.
This self-activating gene excision strategy is currently being applied to numerous
plants like maize, cotton, peanut, and many coniferous trees.
Click HERE
to read the abstract.
Source : CropBiotech Update via SeedQuest.com
14 September 2007
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1.32 Agent that triggers immune response
in plants is uncovered
Although plants lack humans' T cells and other immune-function cells to signal
and fight infection, scientists have known for more than 100 years that plants
still somehow signal that they have been attacked in order to trigger a plantwide
resistance. Now, researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research
(BTI) on the Cornell campus have identified the elusive signal in the process:
methyl salicylate, an aspirin-like compound that alerts a plant's immune system
to shift into high gear.
This phenomenon is called systemic acquired resistance and is known to require
movement of a signal from the site of infection to uninfected parts of the plant.
The findings are published in the Oct. 5 issue of Science.
"By finally identifying a signal that moves from an infection site to activate
defenses throughout the plant, as well as the enzymes that regulate the level
of this signal, we may be in a position to alter the signal in a way that enhances
a plant's ability to defend itself," said BTI senior scientist Daniel F. Klessig,
an adjunct professor in plant pathology at Cornell, who conducted the work with
Sang-Wook Park and other BTI colleagues.
Their approach, using gene technology to enhance plant immunity, could have wide
consequences, boosting crop production and reducing pesticide use.
Methyl salicylate is a modified form of salicylic acid (SA), which has been used
for centuries to relieve fever, pain and inflammation, first through the use of
willow bark and, since 1889, with aspirin, still the most widely used drug worldwide.
In the 1990s, Klessig's research group reported that SA and nitric oxide are two
critical defense-signaling molecules in plants, as well as playing important roles
in human health. Then, in 2003 and 2005, the group reported in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences that an enzyme, salicylic acid-binding protein
2 (SABP2), is required for systemic acquired resistance and converts methyl salicylate
(which is biologically inactive as it fails to induce immune responses) into SA,
which is biologically active.
After plants are attacked by a pathogen, the researchers had previously found,
they produce SA at the infection site to activate their defenses. Some of the
SA is converted into methyl salicylate, which can be converted back into SA by
SABP2.
Using plants in which SABP2 function was either normal, turned off or mutated
in the infected leaves or the upper, uninfected leaves, Klessig's group showed
that SABP2 must be active in the upper, uninfected leaves for systemic acquired
resistance to develop properly. By contrast, SABP2 must be inactivated in the
infected leaves by binding to SA.
"This inactivation allows methyl salicylate to build up," explained Klessig. "It
then flows through the phloem (or food-conducting "tubes") to the uninfected tissue,
where SABP2 converts it back into active SA, which can now turn on the plant's
defenses."
Klessig said that it is unclear why plants send this hormone to uninfected tissue
in an inactive form, which then must be activated by removal of the methyl group.
"This research also provides insight into how a hormone like SA can actively regulate
its own structure -- and thereby determine its own activity -- by controlling
the responsible enzyme," noted Park, the lead author of the paper.
Source: EurekAlert.org
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1.33 Exposing wheat's genetic secrets
Washington, DC
Every day, bakers from coast to coast make fresh, fragrant loaves of bread for
us to enjoy. Wheat flour, of course, is a star ingredient in many of the most
popular breads.
The work of tomorrow's millers and bakers might be made much easier by studies
under way at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Western Regional Research
Center in Albany, Calif. There, scientists like plant geneticists Olin D. Anderson
and Yong Q. Gu are tackling some of the mysteries surrounding wheat's genetic
makeup.
Their discoveries may one day help millers provide bakers with flour that is both
consistent and predictable--two highly prized traits. These superior flours would
consistently make doughs that have the optimal balance of strength and elasticity.
That could, according to Gu, take away the need to blend various different flours--a
costly, sometimes frustrating task for today's millers.
Gu, Anderson and others in the Genomics and Gene Discovery Research Unit at Albany
are exploring wheat's remarkably complicated, mostly undeciphered genetic makeup,
or genome. Wheat is a complex union of three ancestral grass genomes that together
make the wheat genome huge--about 10 times the size of the human genome, according
to Anderson.
The Albany researchers are hunting for naturally occurring differences in the
order of appearance, or sequence, of the infinitesimally small units--called "nucleotides--that
make up genes. The differences that they're interested in are known as "single
nucleotide polymorphisms," or "SNPs" (pronounced "snips") for short.
Though tiny, SNPs are not trivial. In wheat plants, a SNP might mean the difference
between having high amounts of a protein important in breadmaking--or very low
amounts of it. Single-nucleotide variations could affect genes for many other
key wheat-plant traits, such as resistance to insects or diseases.
Read more about the research in the September 2007 issue of Agricultural Research
magazine, available online at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/sep07/wheat0907.htm
ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Marcia Wood, (301) 504-1662, marcia.wood@ars.usda.gov
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.
Source: SeedQuest.com
21 September 2007
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1.34 Monsanto and Evogene collaborate on nitrogen use efficiency
research
St. Louis, Missouri and Rehovot, Israel
Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) and Evogene Ltd. (TASE: EVGN) today announced a
collaboration to improve nitrogen use efficiency in corn, soybeans, canola and
cotton. Under the agreement, Monsanto gains exclusive rights to a number of genes
discovered by Evogene that help plants maintain yield with lower applications
of nitrogen. Monsanto will work to evaluate the use of those genes in its research
and development pipeline. The potential candidates from Evogene are complementary
to the nitrogen utilization genes already in testing in Monsanto's pipeline and
could provide the opportunity to further a series of upgrades for this key target
area. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Nitrogen fertilizer represents one of the largest input costs in agriculture;
it accounts for approximately one-fifth of the operating costs for a corn producer.
In the US alone, farmers spend more than $3 billion annually on nitrogen fertilizer
application of corn fields, with plants typically absorbing less than half of
the nitrogen fertilizer applied.
"Improving nitrogen use efficiency in crops has immense value not only for farmers
but also for our environment," said Fred Below, professor of crop physiology at
the University of Illinois. "These improvements provide the greatest opportunity
for increased profitability, while also offering a new way to reduce the environmental
impact of corn production."
"Monsanto is continually innovating new technologies to help farmers get more
out of every seed and to do more with less, including maximizing the nitrogen
efficiency of crops," said Steve Padgette, Monsanto's vice president of biotechnology.
"We look forward to working with Evogene to continue delivering valuable products
to farmers' fields that reduce agriculture's impact on the environment."
"Monsanto is acknowledged worldwide for its excellent capabilities in delivering
innovative technology to farmers," said Mr. Ofer Haviv, Evogene's President and
CEO. "Therefore we are obviously delighted Monsanto has chosen our computational
gene discovery technology for the development of its next generation of improved
crop traits."
Source: SeedQuest.com
25 September 2007
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3. WEB RESOURCES
3.01 Coconut Genetic Resources Network has a new
website
http://www.cogentnetwork.org
We designed this website not only to show COGENT to the world but also
to enable COGENT members and our partners to share files and
collaborate, and engage in discussions in the special access pages. We
hope that this website will be useful to COGENT members and the coconut
community, to people who are interested in our work and those who have
yet to discover this very special genetic resource.
This website was built with the assistance of Yeow Giap Seng, Zinneerah
Binti Ahmad Zamil and Jayashree Kanniah (COGENT) who assembled the
content, and student volunteer Michael C. George (International School
of Kuala Lumpur) who designed the layout and did the scripting. We
sincerely thank Joanna Kane-Potaka (Bioversity-Information Marketing and
Management), Jeremy Cherfas (Bioversity-Public Relations), Hugh Harries
and many colleagues in the Google Coconut Group for giving feedback to
improve the website.
This website is a work in progress; we hope that you will let us know
what you think of it, and suggest ways to make it better.
Contributed by Maria Luz C. George
Coordinator, International Coconut Genetic Resources Network (COGENT)
Bioversity-Malaysia
M.GEO...@CGIAR.ORG
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4. GRANTS AVAILABLE
4.01 Grants program: International Cooperative Biodiversity
Groups
The International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) Program is a unique
effort that addresses the interdependent issues of drug discovery, biodiversity
conservation, and sustainable economic growth. Funding for this program has been
provided by nine components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Biological
Sciences Directorate of the National Science Foundation and the Foreign Agriculture
Service and Forest Service of the USDA. The cooperating NIH components are the
Fogarty International Center (FIC), National Cancer Institute, National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Mental Health, National
Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National
Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Office of Dietary Supplements,
and National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Efforts to examine the medicinal potential of the earth's plants, animals and
microorganisms are urgently needed, since enduring habitat destruction and the
resulting diminishment of biodiversity will make it increasingly difficult to
do so in the future. 40-50% of currently used drugs have an origin in natural
products. The FIC-managed Biodiversity Program is designed to guide natural products
drug discovery in such a way that local communities and other source country organizations
can derive direct benefits from their diverse biological resources. Benefit-sharing
may provide clear incentives for preservation and sustainable use of that biodiversity.
There are currently seven awards of approximately $600,000 per year. Total inter-agency
funding for the program in FY 05 was $6 million, of which $2 million derives from
FIC appropriations. The ICBGs are currently working in nine countries in Latin
America, Africa, Southeast and Central Asia, and the Pacific Islands, building
research capacity in more than 20 different institutions and training hundreds
of individuals. To date, more than 5,000 species of plants, animals, and fungi
have been collected to examine biological activity in 19 different therapeutic
areas. Numerous publications in chemistry, biodiversity policy, conservation and
ethnobiology have emerged from the funded investigators. Broad public attention
to the program and its timing relative to international developments associated
with the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity have allowed the ICBG program
to offer useful working models for national and international policy discussions
related to biodiversity conservation incentive measures, technology transfer,
intellectual property and benefit-sharing.
http://www.fic.nih.gov/programs/research_grants/icbg/index.htm
Contributed by Ann Marie Thro
CSREES, USDA
athro@csrees.usda.gov
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5. POSITION ANNOUNCEMENTS
5.01 Post-Doctoral positions in vegetable improvement:
Are you interested in becoming a member of a diverse team of researchers utilizing
natural genetic variation to improve valuable traits in vegetable crops?
Seminis is the world’s largest developer, grower and marketer of fruit and vegetable
seeds. Our hybrids improve nutrition, boost crop yields, limit spoilage
and reduce the need for chemicals. We currently have four post-doctoral
opportunities available within our Research and Development team .
As a post-doctoral scientist, you will work with multidisciplinary teams to deliver
basic information and applied methods to support commercial product development
pipelines. Preferred candidates will have experience with field, greenhouse, and
laboratory work; skill in collecting and analyzing experimental data; and ability
to track and manage complex projects. Excellent interpersonal and communication
skills for operating in a diverse team-oriented environment are essential. Experience
with vegetable crops is desirable, but not required.
Candidates should have a Ph.D. (or be near completion) in a field that matches
one of the four positions described below.
Vegetable Fruit Quality:
This position is part of a multidisciplinary team that focuses on the genetic
regulation of vegetable fruit quality traits. Requires a Ph.D. in plant physiology,
biochemistry or genetics; in depth understanding of fruit physiology and biochemical
pathways affecting fruit quality; experience with experimental protocols in biochemistry
and molecular biology; and basic knowledge of plant genetics, QTL mapping, statistics,
and experimental design.
Statistical Genetics:
This position provides data analysis support for trait development, including
in-house high density genetic linkage maps, QTL analyses, and marker applications
in breeding. The position also provides advice on experimental design for QTL
detection, validation, and fine mapping. Requires a Ph.D. in statistics, genetics,
or related field; strong knowledge of genetic statistical theory and experimental
design, quantitative genetics applied to plant breeding, genetic linkage, QTL
and association mapping analyses and genetic diversity analyses; experience with
statistical software (R and SAS); and familiarity with computer languages (Perl/CGI,
Python, Java, HTML and SQL).
Physiological Stress in Vegetable Crops
This position is part of a multidisciplinary team investigating responses
of vegetable crops to physiological stress during fruit set. Requires a Ph.D.
in Plant Physiology/Crop Science or related field; in-depth knowledge of plant
physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology; skill in experimental design and
statistical analysis; and theoretical knowledge in plant genetics, QTL mapping,
and/or functional genomics.
Plant-Virus Interactions
This position is part of a multidisciplinary team investigating key challenges
to identifying and mapping virus resistance in vegetable crops. Requires a Ph.D.
in plant pathology/virology, genetics, plant biology or related field, and strong
understanding of virus symptomology and plant genetic resistance. Desired skills
include bioinformatics and virology and use of molecular techniques and inoculation
methods to diagnose and investigate plant disease. Experience with geminiviruses,
tospoviruses, or potyviruses in Solanaceae or Cucurbitaceae crops is preferred.
We maintain a drug-free environment. EOE/AAP.
Applications:
Please apply online at www.seminis.com or www.monsanto.com.
Contributed by Joe King
New Trait Development – Cucurbits
Seminis Vegetable Seeds
Woodland, CA 95695 USA
joe.king@seminis.com
(Return to Contents)
===========================
6. MEETINGS, COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
Note: New announcements (listed first) may include some program details, while
repeat announcements will include only basic information. Visit web sites for
additional details.
NEW OR REVISED ANNOUNCEMENTS
*15-19 October 2007. Controlling Epidemics of Emerging and Established
Plant Virus Diseases - The Way Forward (10th International Plant Virus Epidemiology
Symposium. ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India.
www.ipve2007.net; www.iita.org
Leading plant virologists from around the world will converge from 15 - 19
October 2007 at ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India, to discuss about the (i) causes for
the emergence of several unknown viruses in new niches and resurgence of several
established viruses, (ii) advances made in plant virus epidemiology and effective
management of numerous plant virus diseases during the past two decades. This
10th IPVE symposium, first time to be held in Asia, will bring together over 200
scientists, who study fundamental aspects of plant viruses and use that knowledge
to develop effective control strategies including development of new disease resistant
varieties. Broad range of symposium participants will touch upon several pertinent
issues related to plant virus disease control, and will identify the high-priority
challenges and opportunities for collaboration for future research.
Complete symposium program is available online at: http://www.ipve2007.net
Contributed by: P Lava Kumar
Convener, 10th IPVE Symposium
l.kumar@cgiar.org
++++++++++++
*13-16 November, 2007. Conference on Native Breeds and Varieties as part of
natural and cultural heritage with international participation. Hotel Ivan
- Solaris Holiday Resort (www.solaris.hr),
Šibenik, Croatia.
About Conference
![[]](cid:7.1.0.9.0.20071008075504.01eaa5e8@cornell.edu.0)
Conference Topics
Preliminarny
Programme and Abstract Preparation Participation Fee
and Accomodation Registration
Contacts
The basic purpose of the Conference is to analyse the current state of native
breeds of domestic animals and plant varieties, as well as the state of habitats
they used to inhabit and in which they used to grow. The Conference also aims
to analyse the role of native breeds and varieties in protection of biodiversity,
with a view to preserve biological diversity of Croatia in accordance with the
National Programme for EU accession and NATURA 2000 programme.
The Conference will focus on presenting the state of indigenous forms of domestic
animals and plants in Croatia and its neighbouring environment, including the
state of habitats, in a multidisciplinary, systematic and integral manner. The
goal is to determine the form and degree of threat posed to indigenous domestic
animals and plants as well as the state of their neglect and to identify the existing
and future modalities of their protection and utilisation. Special attention will
be paid to international experiences. The Conference will provide information
on how the habitats of native breeds and varieties used to be maintained in the
past while, at the same time, it will offer contemporary solutions which will
take into account the impact native animal breeds and plant varieties have on
biodiversity.
The multidisciplinary format of the Conference is expected to encourage the Conference
participants to address the issues of habitats, native breeds and varieties in
a creative way, through an innovative approach that differs from approaches typically
used in valorisation of unutilised natural and cultural heritage.
A three-day work of the Conference will be composed of plenary presentations and
thematic discussions focused on three thematic areas:
Native breeds of domestic animals and their permanent or temporary habitats,
-Native plant varieties,
-Cultural and social capital of native domestic animals and plant varieties.
The official language of the Conference is Croatian, but English translation will
be provided.
Conference Topics:
-Native varieties and breeds as part of genetic and cultural heritage
-Determining and preserving biological (genetic) originality of native varieties
and breeds)
-Legislation and native varieties and breeds
-Inventorying of native varieties and breeds as part of overall biodiversity
-Native varieties and breeds within the market economy environment
-Native varieties and breeds and rural development
-Landscapes as units of social and natural components (the result of traditional
breeding of native breeds and varieties)
-Traditional breeding of domestic breeds and varieties and its impact on new habitats'
status and maintenance of existing ones (biotops)
-General biodiversity related to native breeds and varieties (fungi, insects,
birds, water flora and fauna, pasture flora, parasites)
-Integration of native varieties and breeds into protected areas and habitats
-National strategy for the conservation of native varieties and breeds
-Conservation models and management plans for native breeds and varieties
-Native breeds and varieties as part of cultural heritage (beliefs and customs,
art, symbolics)
-Gastronomy and native varieties and breeds
-Native breeds and varieties as tourist attraction
Source: September 2007 - Update from the GFU
( www.underutilized-species.org)
+++++++++++++
15-16 December 2007. Plant Molecular Farming: From Biodiversity to Bioindustry.
1st Sudan- Egypt Workshop, National Centre for Research,
Khartoum, Sudan