PLANT BREEDING NEWS
EDITION
172
31 October 2006
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.
CONTENTS
1. NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESEARCH NOTES
1.01 International Plant Genetic Resources Institute
(IPGRI) changes its name to Bioversity International to reflect
new strategy
1.02
2006 World Food Prize winners opened Brazil’s “closed lands”
1.03 Iowa State University to study impacts of more
energy from agriculture
1.04 Research is needed to make biofuels sustainable
1.05 Namibia turns to Jatropha for fuel
1.06 Rice institute takes aim at poverty in Asia and
Africa
1.07 Senadhira Rice Research Award for 2006
1.08 Egypt shows record rice yields in
2005
1.09 IRD works on RYMV resistance in rice
1.10 Improved maize, wheat varieties lower farmers’ risks
1.11 Nepal Hill Maize
Research Project reaches out to Nepal’s poorest farmers with new varieties
1.12 CIMMYT researchers
say participatory research supports their achievements
1.13 DuPont and CIMMYT announce $1.3
million maize collaboration for Africa
1.14 Asia farmers developing better mungbean
1.15 Adding value to
cassava for starch markets
1.16 Genome Mapping Facility opens at the University of
Missouri-Columbia
1.17 U.S. National Science Foundation supports 24 new projects
to get at the root of how genes control plant growth
1.18 Challenges still lay ahead for lupin breeding
1.19 Indonesia works on agarwood
1.20 Uganda 'needs biotech law' to save banana sector
1.21 Genome archaeology
illuminates the genetic engineering debate
1.22 Efficacy of a special screened greenhouse in
reducing maize outcrossing
1.23 Pollinators help one-third of world's crop production
1.24 Philippines
gene bank damaged by typhoon
1.25 Reflections on the first meeting of the International
Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
1.26 Impacts of genetic bottlenecks on
soybean genome diversity
1.27 BT corn – a solution to mycotoxin
contamination
1.28 CSIRO research indicates that insect-resistant cotton may also be water
efficient
1.29 Research tracks,
controls fruit vitamin C levels
1.30 Plant acid contributes to blight
resistance
1.31
"Where Will This Crop Grow?" - A computer program can now tell us
1.32 Gene switch makes
crops drought-resistant when needed
1.33 Purdue University's new biochip may
help create more productive crop varieties
1.34 NSF awards UGA $4.1 million grant
to study so-called 'jumping genes' in maize
1.35 Sunflower speciation highlights
roles for transposable elements in evolution
1.36 Rice protein change makes crop
virus resistant
1.37 Rye protein shown to bind to ice
1.38 Update 6-2006 of FAO-BiotechNews
(Selected articles).
2. PUBLICATIONS
2.01 New report available from Pew
Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and NASDA workshop on
peaceful coexistence among growers of GE, conventional and organic crops
2.02 National Academies
advisory: Native African vegetables
2.03 Intellectual Property Management in
Health and Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook of Best Practices
3. WEB RESOURCES
3.01 Global Facilitation Unit for
Underutilized Species: What's going on in the area of underutilized
species?
3.02 The
soybean breeder’s toolbox
4 GRANTS
AVAILABLE
(None submitted)
5 POSITION
ANNOUNCEMENTS
(None submitted)
6 MEETINGS, COURSES AND
WORKSHOPS
7 EDITOR'S
NOTES
=========================
1. NEWS,
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESEARCH NOTES
1.01
International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) changes its name to
Bioversity International to reflect new
strategy
Rome, Italy
October 13, 2006
Special Message from
the Director General, Dr Emile Frison
I am pleased to inform you
that the Board of Trustees of the International
Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) has recently selected and approved
a new name for the organization - "Bioversity International" or "Bioversity" for
short.
Bioversity International echoes our new strategy, which focuses on
improving people’s lives through biodiversity research. The new name will take
effect from 1st December 2006.
IPGRI’s agenda has evolved over the past
10 years. At the end of 2004, IPGRI developed a new strategy entitled 'Diversity
for Well-being: Making the Most of Agricultural Biodiversity'. IPGRI then
decided to review ways to better reflect its focus and work through its
branding, which includes a name change.
In particular, IPGRI’s new
strategy recognizes the following changes:
-IPGRI no longer focuses just on
plants but on biodiversity that can benefit people. IPGRI will continue to have
its core strengths in plants but will apply its skills and knowledge to a
broader range of biodiversity for improving people’s well-being.
-Our new
strategy focuses on people and their livelihoods rather than on genetic
resources per se. The paradigm has shifted from one in which our success is
measured by the achievement of conservation targets to one where impact on
people’s well-being is the yard-stick.
-IPGRI has moved from a focus on ex
situ conservation of plant genetic resources to a wider agenda including the use
of biodiversity to improve livelihoods.
-IPGRI has taken a stronger
international role in supporting decisions and policies that impact on better
conservation and use of biodiversity.
I would like to thank many
of our donors, partners and colleagues who contributed towards the surveys we
conducted over the last year. The surveys were an important input into how IPGRI
can better portray its strategic focus.
I look forward to our new focus
having a positive impact and leading to new opportunities to improve the lives
of people around the world.
Yours sincerely
Emile
Frison
New strategy: http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/Publications/1066/new%20strategy.pdf
Source:
SeedQuest.com
(Return to
Contents)
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1.02
2006 World Food Prize winners opened Brazil’s “closed
lands”
Recipients recognized for fostering “one of the great
achievements of agricultural science in the 20th century”
Washington,
DC
The recipients of the 2006 World Food Prize were announced June 15 at a
ceremony at the U.S. State Department featuring Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr.
Norman E. Borlaug and hosted by the Hon. Josette Sheeran Shiner, Under Secretary
of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs.
World Food
Prize Foundation President Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn announced that the three
men who will share the 2006 World Food Prize are:
-former Brazil Minister of
Agriculture H.E.
Alysson Paolinelli
-former Technical Director of EMBRAPA Cerrado
Research Center Mr. Edson
Lobato, both of Brazil
-Washington Representative of the IRI Research
Institute, Dr. A.
Colin McClung of the United States.
The $250,000 World Food Prize
was established in 1986 by Dr. Borlaug. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this
year, it was created to be the foremost international award for achievements
that significantly increase the quality, quantity or availability of food in the
world.
Ambassador Quinn noted that this year marks the first time in its
twenty-year history that the World Food Prize will be awarded to three
recipients. Lobato and Paolinelli are the first World Food Prize Laureates from
Brazil, while McClung is the eleventh Laureate from the United States. Quinn
added that the 2006 recipients each played a vital role in transforming the
Cerrado – a region of vast, once infertile tropical high plains stretching
across Brazil – into highly productive cropland. Though they worked
independently of one another, in different decades and in different fields,
their collective efforts over the past 50 years have unlocked Brazil’s
tremendous potential for food production. Their advancements in soil science and
policy leadership made agricultural development possible in the Cerrado, a
region named from Portuguese words meaning “closed, inaccessible
land.”
“This increased agricultural production has helped improve
economic and social conditions in Brazil, while their research continues to
promote agricultural development and poverty alleviation in other tropical and
sub-tropical countries throughout the world,” said Quinn. Quinn noted that from
1970 to 2000 Brazil’s agricultural production more than tripled while its area
of cultivated land grew less than 1.5 times.
Dr. Borlaug, who is
credited with saving more than one billion lives as the Father of the Green
Revolution, called the development of the Cerrado “one of the great achievements
of agricultural science in the 20th century, which has transformed a wasteland
into one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world.”
The
World Food Prize will be formally presented at a ceremony on October 19, 2006 at
the Iowa State Capitol Building in Des Moines. The ceremony will be held as part
of the World Food Prize International Symposium, entitled “The Green Revolution
Redux: Can We Replicate the Single Greatest Period of Food Production in All
Human History?” Follow the links for more information about the Symposium and
Laureate Award Ceremony.
Laureates’ Achievement
Dr. A.
Colin McClung’s pioneering soil fertility research in the 1950s analyzed the
complexity of Cerrado soils and showed that a transformation of the region was
possible. His work uncovered an innovative soil improvement process to correct
the drastic nutrient depletion of the Cerrado and counteract aluminum toxicity
in the region’s highly acidic soils. Dr. McClung concluded that, with a
combination of lime, micronutrients and traditional fertilizer, the Cerrado
could be made suitable for production of crops as diverse as coffee, soybeans,
citrus and corn.
His findings paved the way for agricultural development
in the Cerrado in the 1970s under the direction of H.E.
Alysson Paolinelli. Beginning his career as Secretary of Agriculture in the
state of Minas Gerais in the early 1970s, Paolinelli created a new model for
rural credit and other development programs. He envisioned and oversaw the
creation of the institutional and financial infrastructure that enabled crop and
livestock production to flourish in the Cerrado. His focus on the Cerrado
continued as Minister of Agriculture from 1974 to 1979, when he was instrumental
in establishing the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) to
provide a national system of research, technical, and administrative support to
farmers and agribusinesses. Paolinelli also provided leadership in establishing
the Cerrado Research Center as part of EMBRAPA in 1975. This center’s work, in
concert with that of other organizations and businesses, set the stage for the
Cerrado’s continued development into an agricultural powerhouse of the 21st
century.
Mr. Edson
Lobato was a leader in evaluating and carrying out studies of Cerrado soil
fertility and agricultural production, further expanding upon the work of
McClung and Paolinelli. During the course of his 30-year career as an agronomy
engineer and administrator at EMBRAPA (1974 to 2004), Lobato led Cerrado soil
fertility and agronomy research as it expanded to include soil microbiology,
soil management, and crop management. The success of Lobato’s diligence and
leadership, coupled with the efforts of his colleagues, allowed for an expansion
of agricultural development on the Cerrado.
BACKGROUND ON Brazil’s
Cerrado Region
From only 200,000 hectares of arable land in 1955, the
Cerrado had well over 40 million hectares in cultivation by the year 2005. The
phenomenal achievement of transforming the infertile Cerrado region into highly
productive land over a span of fifty years, the world’s single largest increase
in farmland since the settlement of the U.S. Midwest, has been hailed as a
far-reaching milestone in agricultural science.
The Cerrado is an arid brush
savanna stretching over 120 million hectares across central Brazil from the
western plains to the northeastern coast. With soils characterized by high
acidity and aluminum levels that are toxic to most crops, Brazilian farmers had
long referred to the area as campos cerrados – “closed land,” with little
promise for sustaining production.
The Cerrado’s potential was first
unlocked by applications of lime and phosphate-rich fertilizers, which together
reduced acidity and improved fertility in the soil. Initial tests by Colin
McClung in the 1950s dramatically increased yields of a variety of crops within
one growing season. Later agronomy research and extension work with farmers was
led by Edson Lobato. His efforts and those of his colleagues further refined
fertilizer and soil nutrient applications in the Cerrado.
The promise of
improved soils spurred nationwide reforms of agricultural research and extension
programs on the federal and state levels. Organized under Minister of
Agriculture Alysson Paolinelli, Brazil’s federal agricultural research
organization EMBRAPA has emerged as a global leader for improving degraded
tropical soils and breeding enhanced crops. EMBRAPA is the source of 30 percent
of all public research in Latin America, and it maintains strong partnerships
with research institutions and universities internationally.
With
improved soil chemistry and the support of flexible research institutions, plant
scientists in Brazil have developed high-yielding crop varieties for the Cerrado
that are more tolerant of aluminum toxicity and acquire soil micronutrients more
effectively. In recent years, agronomists have also refined no-till or direct
planting technologies, reducing environmental degradation and maintaining higher
levels of soil organic matter.
The Cerrado region now provides 54
percent of all soybeans harvested in Brazil, 28 percent of the country’s corn,
and 59 percent of its coffee. Cerrado agriculture has also diversified to
include rice, cotton, cassava, and sugar. For all crops, average yields in the
Cerrado are higher than in other areas, with harvests reaching 4.8 tons per
hectare of soybeans and 11 tons per hectare of corn. In addition, the Cerrado
supports 55 percent of Brazil’s beef industry.
The increased production
of a variety of crops and livestock has made food more available and more
affordable in Brazil. In the past 25 years, food prices have steadily dropped by
an average of 5 percent annually. At the same time, the standard of living for
many rural communities has been enhanced, with life-quality indicators rising 47
percent from 1970 through the 1990s.
“Eventually, the Cerrado technology,
or one similar to it, will move into the llanos in Colombia and Venezuela and
hopefully, into central and southern Africa where similar soil problems are
found,” said Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and World Food Prize Founder Dr. Norman
E. Borlaug. “This will bring tens of millions of additional acres, previously
marginal for agriculture, into high-yield agriculture. Hundreds of millions of
people will benefit from this work.”
Source: SeedQuest.com
19 October
2006
(Return to
Contents)
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1.03
Iowa State University to study impacts of more energy from
agriculture
Ames, Iowa
The U.S.
Department of Agriculture has provided $275,000 in research funding to the
Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University to provide estimates of
the impact on farmers, consumers and international trade from increased energy
production from agriculture.
“This research is critical for
national leaders who are making decisions about investments in renewable fuels,”
said Bruce Babcock, director of CARD and professor of economics. “Right now
people are asking how high the price of corn is going to go and what higher corn
prices mean for the competitiveness of U.S. livestock producers and our ability
to meet export demand. This research will help to provide answers to these
questions.”
Currently, estimates of how much energy can be obtained from
agricultural sources are based simply on projections of trends and estimates of
current and planned biofuel facilities. The approach taken by CARD analysts and
collaborators will be to calculate the break-even prices of energy feedstocks
and then use these prices to determine the amount of feedstock that will be
produced in the long run.
For example, for any given price of crude oil,
the expected market value for unleaded gasoline can be calculated. The analysts
can find the market price that would make E85 ethanol an equal substitute to
gasoline for flex-fuel vehicle owners. Using this ethanol price, they can
calculate the corn price that ethanol facilities can pay while still covering
their costs of production. Then they can estimate how much corn U.S. agriculture
would produce at the given corn price.
With this method, the analysts
intend to estimate supply curves for cellulosic feedstock and biodiesel derived
from oilseeds, as well as for corn-based ethanol. The resulting information
should be useful in determining which agricultural energy sources would be
profitable to develop under a given set of incentives and energy prices and
which resources would not be profitable for energy development under those
conditions.
The project also includes an assessment of how shifts of
agricultural commodities to energy sources might affect trade and what the
implications may be of financial investment in ethanol and biodiesel facilities
for income and employment in rural America.
Source: SeedQuest.com
26
October 2006
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1.04 Research is
needed to make biofuels sustainable
Policies in
favour of biofuels made from maize, sugar cane or other plant matter need to take into account their full environmental impact, writes Jeffrey
McNeely in this article.
He calls for better science and a bigger role
for genetic modification of plants to make biofuel production more efficient and
environmentally sound.
The European Union recently called for biofuels
to meet 5.75 per cent of transportation needs by 2010. McNeely calls this a "classic good news – bad news story".
He points out that using ethanol
in place of oil reduces total carbon dioxide emissions by only 13 per cent. In
addition, he says, the grain needed to fill the tank of a large 4-wheel drive
vehicle with ethanol fuel could feed one person for a year.
Much of
Europe's demand for biofuel will come from Brazil and South-East Asia, where
sugarcane, soybean and oil palm plantations are replacing rainforests.
More research is needed to understand how nature produces energy, says
McNeely, and the public should be open to the advantages that biotechnology
could bring.
A Swiss company, for example, is working on a genetically
engineered maize that can help convert itself into ethanol.
In addition,
fuel-efficiency standards should be raised as an immediate step towards reducing
dependency on oil.
Source: BBC Online via SciDev.net
29 September
2006
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1.05 Namibia
turns to Jatropha for fuel
Jatropha curcas has been
grown in Namibia for decades. Soon, its oils can be added to diesel and used by
farmers to run their tractors and generators. It may also replace paraffin,
which is used for cooking and lighting. Jatropha plants do not require
irrigation, and nuts, from which the oil is extracted, can be harvested in the
third year after planting. All these make the plant an attractive source of
fuel, and, according to an article in The Namibian, have prompted the government
to establish a Bio-Oil Energy committee to see to it that about 63,000 hectares
of the bush can be planted by 2013 to earn this new agro-industry N$189 million
a year.
Blending Jatropha oil with diesel is now common practice in
southern Africa. In line with developing the industry, member states of the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) are embarking on a regional
strategy to use bio-fuels like Jatropha, maize, and sugar on a larger
scale.
Read the complete story at http://allafrica.com/stories/200609050449.html.
From
CropBiotech Update 8 September 2006:
Contributed by Margaret E.
Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
(Return to Contents)
++++++++++++++++++++++++
1.06 Rice institute takes aim at poverty in Asia and
Africa
[NEW DELHI] The main research institute devoted to the world's
most important crop will fundamentally change its approach in order to reduce
poverty in Africa and Asia.
Robert Ziegler, director-general of the
Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), announced the
plans at the International Rice Congress in Delhi yesterday (9
October).
Instead of investing in the most intensive farming systems to
boost overall production, he said the institute would focus on lifting people
out of poverty by investing in "difficult rain-fed environments".
Rice
farmers who depend on rain rather than irrigation are most likely to be poor,
and are also more vulnerable to droughts and floods.
Ziegler unveiled a
five-point strategy that will aim to alleviate poverty, improve human health and
nutrition, protect the environment, improve access to information and conserve
genetic resources.
"If we want to do something about poverty, it is clear
that we must invest in rice," he said, pointing out that about 90 per cent of
the world's rice is produced and consumed in Asia, where more than two-thirds of
the world's poor live.
He said IRRI would also invest in sub-Saharan
Africa, the "other major concentration of poverty".
Indian crop scientist
M. S. Swaminathan says rice will be increasingly important in the coming decades
because it is so versatile and can grow at many latitudes and
altitudes.
"[It] can become the anchor of food security in a world
confronted with the challenge of climate change," he says.
Swaminathan
led India's Green Revolution, a boost in wheat production that was driven by the
introduction of high-yielding varieties from Mexico in the 1960s. He said global
rice production would need to rise from 600 million tonnes today to 800 million
tonnes by 2025 to meet the needs of a rising human population.
This
would require new high-yield and stress-resistant rice varieties, he said,
adding that farmers could improve incomes and nutrition by combining rice and
livestock farming with aquaculture.
But efforts to boost rice production
face several challenges, such as competition for water from growing urban
populations, impending climate change, diminishing funding from Asian donors and
a declining number of rice researchers.
Researchers at IRRI are currently
working on four major research projects to develop better varieties of rice.
These include varieties that tolerate drought; that trap nitrogen from
the air and convert it into protein; and that grow bigger and faster (see Plan
to boost rice photosynthesis with inserted genes).
T. V.
Padma
Source: SciDev.net
10 October 2006
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1.07 Senadhira Rice Research Award for
2006
New Delhi, India - In 1977, a promising rice breeder named M.A.
Salam began his career at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI). Almost
30 years on, he is one of the country's most influential agricultural
scientists, with rice varieties he has helped develop grown on over 4 million
hectares--more than one-third of Bangladesh's entire rice-growing
area.
Dr. Salam, now chief scientific officer and head of BRRI's Plant
Breeding Division, today received the Senadhira Rice Research Award for 2006 at
a ceremony at the International Rice Congress in New Delhi, India. He won the
award for his outstanding contributions to the development of varieties for the
rainfed lowlands of Bangladesh.
Ren Wang, deputy director general for
research at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), noted that Dr.
Salam--who studied for his Ph.D. at IRRI in 1985-88--has devoted his career to
the service of Bangladeshi rice farmers, in particular those in marginal and
difficult production areas.
"Dr. Salam offers an excellent example of
how international support for agricultural research directly benefits the
national agricultural research systems, such as that of Bangladesh," said Dr.
Wang.
As well as co-developing popular rice variety BR11--currently grown
on more than 2 million hectares in Bangladesh--Dr. Salam had a strong hand in
breeding 16 other varieties. These included several varieties for deepwater rice
areas, one of which allowed farmers in low-lying areas to grow dry-season rice
and thus dramatically increase their production. Dr. Salam is also involved in
breeding submergence-tolerant, arsenic-tolerant, and iron-rich rice, as well as
salt-tolerant rice varieties for coastal areas.
Just as important, Dr.
Salam pioneered the use of farmer participatory breeding in evaluating breeding
lines for unfavorable environments. This approach, in which scientists work
hand-in-hand with farmers to choose promising lines, has advanced the
development of varieties for saline and stagnant water conditions.
The
award is named after Dharmawansa Senadhira, one of IRRI's most successful rice
breeders, who tragically died in a traffic accident in Bangladesh in
1998.
IRRI has also announced the 2006 winners of the International Rice
Research Notes (IRRN) Best Article Awards. IRRN celebrates its 30th birthday
this year and, according to Dr. Wang, is one of IRRI's most important
publications. "IRRN offers an important opportunity for rice researchers in
developing countries to connect with each other and publish their own findings,"
he said. "As a forum for sharing information, IRRN helps advance rice-related
knowledge and technology."
This year's winners, in five categories, are
listed below. For more information about IRRN, visit www.irri.org/irrn.
Crop management
and physiology. Contribution of on-farm assessment of improved varieties and
crop management to yield of deepwater rice
A. Ghosh and B.N. Singh, Central
Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, India (December 2005)
-Soil,
nutrient, and water management. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with
upland rice in a rotational shifting cultivation system
S. Youpensuk and N.
Yimyam, Graduate School, Saisamorn Lumyong, Biology Department, Faculty of
Science, Chiang Mai University; B. Rerkasem, Agronomy Department, Chiang Mai
University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand; and B. Dell, School of Biological
Sciences and Biotechnology, Murdoch University, Perth 6150, Australia (December
2005)
-Pest science and management. Endo- and ectoparasites of
the Philippine rice field rat, Rattus tanezumi Temminck, on PhilRice farms
M.M. Antolin, R.C. Joshi, L.S. Sebastian, L.V. Marquez, and U.G. Duque,
Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), Maligaya, Muñoz, Nueva Ecija
3119; and C.J. Domingo, College of Veterinary Science and Medicine, Central
Luzon State University, Muñoz, Nueva Ecija 3120, Philippines (June 2006)
-Genetic resources. Dhanrasi, a new lowland rice variety with
Oryza rufipogon genes for improving yield potential and resistance to biotic
stresses
T. Ram, Directorate of Rice Research (DRR), Rajendranagar,
Hyderabad; N.D. Majumder, Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur; and B.
Mishra, DRR, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad 500030, India (June 2006)
-Agricultural engineering. Effect of hermetic storage in the
super bag on seed quality and milled rice quality of different varieties in Bac
Lieu, Vietnam
Diep Chan Ben, Department of Agriculture and Rural
Development, Bac Lieu Province; Phan Van Liem and Nguyen Tam Dao, Bac Lieu Seed
Center, Bac Lieu Province, Vietnam; M. Gummert and J.F. Rickman, IRRI (December
2006)
Contact: Duncan Macintosh
d.macintosh@cgiar.org
Source:
EurekAlert.org
9 October 2006
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1.08 Egypt shows record rice yields in 2005
Egypt has
achieved record rice yields with newly-developed hybrid rice varieties developed
locally under a project led by the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO). These varieties, which include SK 2034 and SK 2046,
outperformed the best local varieties by 20-30 percent. These hybrids are
intended to help Egypt produce more rice with less water and less
land.
The project is implemented by the Cairo Agricultural Research
Center and the Rice Research and Training Center (RRTC). Rice yields have risen
indeed, thanks to training, as well as improved crop management (ICM). The
latter includes practices such as setting planting dates to expose crops to
higher solar radiation, optimizing seeding density, balanced plant nutrition,
and careful water management.
Read the complete press release at http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000387/index.html.
From
CropBiotech Update 8 September 2006:
Contributed by Margaret E.
Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
(Return to Contents)
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1.09 IRD works
on RYMV resistance in rice
France's Institut de
Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD) is currently working on rice varieties
engineered to be resistant to Rice Yellow Mottle Virus (RYMV). RYMV causes
considerable yield losses. Prevention measures have been implemented to limit
the spread of the disease, but IRD has found that the use of resistant varieties
results in the greatest reduction in RYMV damage.
In a recently published
paper in The Plant Journal, researchers have found that the Rymv1 gene is
the best candidate for resistance to the virus. IRD has already transferred the
gene by crossing it into agronomically important varieties, which they have
given to various national institutions in the Ivory Coast, Senegal, and
Madagascar; and international research institutions such as the African Rice
Center (WARDA) for them to use in variety selection programs.
IRD
scientists are also studying RYMV strains and the molecular mechanisms of plant
resistance or susceptibility on the basis of direct interactions between the
rice protein and that of the virus. Another strategy developed by the IRD
involves introducing part of the viral genes into the plant genome, with the aim
of inducing resistance to RYMV.
Read the complete press release at http://www.ird.fr/fr/actualites/fiches/2006/fas247.pdf.
Source:
CropBiotech Update 22 September 2006:
Contributed by Margaret E.
Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
(Return to Contents)
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1.10 Improved
maize, wheat varieties lower farmers’ risks
Modern maize and wheat
varieties not only increase maximum yields in developing countries but add to
farmers' incomes by assuring more reliable yields than traditional varieties. "By reducing the fluctuations in maize and wheat grain yields, scientists have
played a vital role in making modern crop technology attractive, accessible, and
beneficial to farmers and consumers around the globe," says Douglas Gollin, an
associate professor of economics in Williams College, Massachusetts,
USA.
Gollin analyzed changes in national-level yield stability for wheat
and maize across developing countries and related them directly to the diffusion
of modern varieties. His study shows that "over the past 40 years, there has
actually been a decline in the relative variability of grain yields." This
finding, says Gollin, disproves critics' views that farmers are exposed to
greater risks due to the variability in yield of modern varieties.
The
study on "Impacts of international research on inter-temporal yield stability in
what and maize: an economic assessment" can be downloaded from http://www.cimmyt.org/english/docs/impacts/ImpIntlResIntertemp.pdf.
A news feature by John Dixon is available at http://www.cimmyt.org/english/wps/news/2006/jul/steadyasShegoes.htm
.
From CropBiotech Update 4 August 2006:
Contributed by Margaret
E. Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
(Return to Contents)
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1.11 Nepal Hill
Maize Research Project reaches out to Nepal’s poorest farmers with new
varieties
The Nepal Hill Maize Research Project, supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
(SDC), reaches out to Nepal’s poorest farmers with new varieties and farming
practices selected by the farmers themselves.
Coca Cola, arguably the
world’s most ubiquitous commercial beverage, has not yet reached the villagers
and farmers who live on top of the cloud-shrouded hills of eastern Nepal. That’s
how remote they are. There is a road, but it is 600 meters below in the valley
and the only way in and out of the village is via a precarious, rubble-strewn
and sometimes terrifyingly steep foot-path. Everything must be carried up and
down this track on people’s backs. Here the staple food for centuries has been
maize but many farmers in the region cannot grow enough maize to last the year.
Their needs have provided a focus for work in which CIMMYT, the Nepal Agricultural Research Council
(NARC), SDC, and other partners, reach these “unreached” people.
One
of them is Bissnu Maya. She is a single mother of three who farms 0.6 hectares
of terraced land on the steep slopes. She is a very good farmer but it takes
every penny she earns to make sure her children can go to school. “With
education they can get jobs and have a better life,” she says. Bissnu Maya is a
‘dalit’; the poorest of the poor in Nepal, an untouchable often shunned by
better-born villagers. Nevertheless, her tiny farm is a marvel. She grows maize,
millet, tomatoes, and cucumbers on her land. She has a water buffalo, two cows,
some chickens, and goats. A year ago electricity came to the village and now she
has a small radio and a light bulb. What she has not had until now is enough
maize to last the year. The traditional varieties have small ears, one per
plant, and the maize plants themselves grow very tall and often fall down in the
wind, not only reducing the maize yield but also damaging the intercropped
plants below them.
Maya agreed to help in participatory evaluations of
maize varieties developed with material from CIMMYT and NARC that could overcome
the main barriers to production on her land. She uses some of her land for a
demonstration plot of the variety she has selected as the best replacement for
her traditional maize. It is shorter with a sturdier stalk, has two large ears
per plant and matures earlier than the maize she has been used to growing. On
top of that the new variety stays green after the maize is mature, so it makes a
better feed for her livestock.
The project has intentionally focused on
women farmers and those who cannot produce enough food to feed their families,
testing and promoting technologies that can be implemented by the farmers
themselves. While the initial trials are conduced at the NARC research station
at Pakhribas, an hour’s drive away once you reach the road in the valley, vital
research work is conducted with farmers like Maya on their farms. In the past
recommendations about varieties and agricultural practices were based on trials
conducted exclusively at research stations, rarely taking into account the real
world in which the hill farmers like Maya live and work. “Even on-farm research
tended to try to create conditions on farms that matched the research stations,
rather than finding solutions to existing farm problems,” says CIMMYT’s Memo Ortiz-Ferrara, who leads the
project.
The new approach has helped farmers choose more appropriate
varieties based on their own criteria from a “basket of choices” (5-10 varieties
are offered in one season). It has also helped to expand areas growing new
varieties on one hand, and improve crop management practices on the other.
Depending on the location, farmers have observed 20-50% higher grain yield with
the new varieties.
“Now I have enough and can sell some surplus to pay
for my children’s education,” Bissnu says.
The second phase of the
project is just coming to an end and an evaluation team has begun a series of in
depth interviews with participating researchers and farmers to determine the
overall impact.
Participatory research is a vital part of many CIMMYT
projects around the world (see the companion story: CIMMYT
researchers say participatory research supports their
achievements).
Source: CIMMYT
E-News, vol 3 no. 9, September 2006 via SeedQuest.com
September,
2006
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1.12 CIMMYT
researchers say participatory research supports their achievements
El
Batán, Mexico
Source: CIMMYT
E-News, vol 3 no. 9, September 2006
Farmers participate in a significant
portion of CIMMYT research and technology testing, according to center
researchers, and the scientists believe this makes their efforts more
effective.
The combined budgets of 19 CIMMYT projects cited by their
principal investigators in a 2004 survey as including participatory research
components exceeded US$9 millionroughly a quarter of the center’s total
budget at the time. “Not all that money was spent on participatory activities,
but the figure bespeaks a significant investment,” says Nina Lilja, Agricultural
Economist in the on Participatory Research
and CGIAR Systemwide Program Gender Analysis for Technology Development and
Institutional Innovation (PRGA Program).
This conclusion was one outcome
of a study*
on participatory research at CIMMYT by Lilja and Mauricio Bellon, Director,
Diversity for Livelihoods Program, International Plant Genetic
Resources Institute (IPGRI), and former Human Ecologist at CIMMYT. “Nearly
all respondents felt that the use of participatory approaches had been
worthwhile and most believed participatory methods had added value to the
research,” says Lilja. “In support of this, many respondents provided evidence
of project achievements through use of participatory
approaches.”
Participatory researchparticularly where farmers help
evaluate and promote new crop varieties or farming practiceshave been used
increasingly in CIMMYT research in recent years. This study represents the
first-ever analysis of participatory approaches, from the perspective of center
researchers. Through the 2004 survey, the scientists reported on projects they
considered as having a participatory component. The range of the study was
broad: there was great variation in the types and characteristics of
participatory research for which researchers provided information. The survey
allowed characterization of the projects, but not further critical analysis of
the quality or the appropriateness of the methods applied nor an objective
assessment of impacts. Information was received for 19 projects from 18
scientists15 male, 3 female; 5 social scientists, 13 biophysical
scientists. Sixteen of the projects involved farmer-participatory research;
three targeted national-program scientists and seed agronomists. Most of the
projects covered work in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia; only two had activities in
Latin America. About a third of the projects involved participatory testing of
crop varieties or production practices; the remainder involved focus group
activities or stakeholder meetings.
The issues most frequently addressed
via participatory methods related to increasing productivity and understanding
farmers’ needs and constraints. “Participatory research at CIMMYT was largely of
the functional typethat is, aimed at improving the efficiency and relevance
of the research, rather than specifically to empower farmers,” says Bellon.
“Also, there was an overall lack of awareness of multiple beneficiaries or of
differential effects owing to gender. None of the respondents had been trained
previously in participatory methods.”
Two major recommendations of this
report for adding value to CIMMYT’s participatory research efforts are to
(1)
create a more conducive environment within the center for scientists to share
experiences and learn from each other, and
(2) better document outcomes and
impacts of the center’s participatory research.
Study in PDF format:
http://www.cimmyt.org/english/docs/impacts/analysisParticipaResProj.pdf
For further information, contact John
Dixon
Source: SeedQuest.com
September, 2006
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1.13 DuPont
and CIMMYT announce $1.3 million maize collaboration for
Africa
Public-private partnership to speed product
development
Des Moines, Iowa
DuPont and the global wheat and maize
improvement center, CIMMYT, today announced
a $1.3 million research, product development and technical support collaboration
for Africa.
Over the next three years researchers at DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., and
CIMMYT will work together to develop novel traits to improve production
agriculture and address food challenges in developing countries
globally.
Africa, where an estimated 200 million people are
undernourished and 33 million children suffer from famine, is a primary target
for this work. The initial research projects will focus on maize nitrogen
utilization to increase and stabilize maize yields with subsequent research
projects on drought tolerance, Striga tolerance and protein
enhancement.
“Production agriculture improvements are the first steps to
solving economic and health problems in Africa,” said Masa Iwanaga, CIMMYT
director general. “With the right products for the diverse African growing
environments, there is enormous potential to turn the existing situation
around.”
The collaboration will help bring crop solutions to Africa
sooner.
“Together we can do much more for Africa and other developing
countries than either of us could have done on our own,” said William S. Niebur,
vice president, DuPont Crop Genetics Research & Development. “CIMMYT has a
fantastic track record of putting science to work for the people who need it
most. Combined with our cutting-edge technology and know how, we’re going to
make significant progress in a relatively short time.”
Global
Importance of Strong Plant Breeding Activity
Numerous studies have
shown agriculture to be the most effective driver of growth in the world’s
poorest countries. Raising agricultural productivity is essential for reducing
rural poverty and enhancing food security. Few countries have developed
diversified economies without first achieving growth in agriculture.
Maize
breeding and agriculture in developing nations is, at best, in a similar
condition to that of the U.S. during the 1920s-1940s when growers were averaging
approximately two to three tons per hectare, said Iwanaga.
“Most of the
world’s poor rely on agriculture for income and sustenance,” said Iwanaga.
“Globally, there is enough food for everyone. However, locally, hundreds of
millions of people lack the resources to grow or buy enough food. Many cannot
grow crops in environmentally safe ways.”
This reality couldn’t be more
evident than in Africa. Agricultural production for the continent is increasing
at slightly more than 2 percent per year, while the annual population increase
is more than 3 percent annually. Farming is becoming simultaneously less
productive and more damaging to natural resource biodiversity as most production
increases have come from taking more land into cultivation. The whole continent
of Africa currently produces less maize than the state of Iowa*.
African
soils have declined in fertility over the past 30 years because the ground has
been repeatedly farmed without the adequate replacement of plant nutrients.
Farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa apply 10 to 15 times less nitrogen
fertilizer to crops than their counterparts in developed countries. Fertilizer
costs can be as much as three to five times higher than those seen in the United
States or Europe, which is a barrier to cash strapped farmers. African average
maize yields continue at around the same low levels they have been for at least
30 years. At the 2006 African Fertilizer Summit in Abuja, African Heads of State
reiterated that solving fertility challenges is the catalyst needed for an
African Green Revolution.
Agricultural Solutions
The
collaboration between CIMMYT and Pioneer brings together the latest tools,
technologies and insights to develop better maize hybrids and critical traits
that will help growers combat environmental challenges, improve the protein
quality in maize as well as open new avenues for income generation.
“We
have made and continue to make incredible gains through genetics and plant
breeding, combined with new molecular approaches. With the new tools,
technologies and information available today, this important public – private
partnership will achieve increased productivity and better products for global
maize farmers,” said Niebur.
The collaboration’s goal is to develop maize
hybrids that offer significantly increased yields in nitrogen stressed
situations in Africa. While these hybrids will not eliminate the need for
fertilizer entirely, they have the potential to significantly improve
productivity in fertility stressed areas, such as those typically found in
marginalized subsistence farming areas. Nitrogen use efficiency screening trials
were planted in Africa by CIMMYT in 2005 and will continue over the next three
years.
Source: SeedQuest.com
19 October 2006
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1.14 Asia farmers developing better
mungbean
With prices of meat higher in developing countries,
especially in Asia, consumers will be turning more and more to alternative
sources of protein. Legumes are a good source of such nutrients, and mungbean,
in particular, has 24% easily digestible protein, high iron content, and
significant amounts of calcium, phosphorus, and some essential
vitamins.
Mungbean is also abundant in many Asian countries. Scientists in
South Asia, in a project supported by the World Vegetable Center, looked at how
mungbean production could be improved in the region, not only to provide cheap
protein but also to raise the income of farmers. After three years of field
trials and laboratory work, Bangladesh and India were able to develop and
release improved cultivars with high yields of 1.5 tonnes per hectare, maturing
evenly in only 60-65 days. Other varietal features developed were large shiny
seeds and resistance to thrips and mungbean yellow mosaic
virus.
Scientists now aim to work with farmers to produce mungbean
varieties with better drought tolerance for use in marginal and semi-arid
situations. Also in the offing are research projects on management of insects
such as pod borer, white fly, and weevils; and the control of diseases such as
leaf spot and powdery mildew.
Read the complete feature at http://www.avrdc.org/news/06Mungbean_fastfood.html.
Source:
CropBiotech Update 22 September 2006:
Contributed by Margaret E.
Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.15 Adding value to cassava for starch markets
According
to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), many developing countries could
strengthen their rural economies by converting more cassava, a relatively cheap
raw material, into high-value starches. "Compared to starches derived from most
other plants, it has greater clarity and viscosity, and it's very stable in
acidic food products. It also has excellent properties for use in non-food
products, such as pharmaceuticals and thermobioplastics," said Danilo Mejia, an
agricultural engineer with FAO's Agricultural Support Systems
Division.
The key to cassava's future in global and domestic starch
markets, FAO says, will be improvements in efficiency and quality, and a
reduction in production costs. For a model of successful cassava starch industry
development, African and Latin American countries should turn to Thailand, the
world's top producer. The country now uses about 50 percent of its annual
cassava root production to extract some two million tons of starch. Half of it
goes to domestic food and non-food industries, while the rest are exported,
increasingly in the form of higher-value modified starch for specialized
applications. The country is also exploring the use of starch as raw material
for production of bioethanol.
For the complete article, the readers can
access: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/
magazine/0610sp1.htm.
Source: CropBiotech Update October 2006
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1.16 Genome Mapping Facility opens at
the University of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, Missouri
U.S.
Senators Kit Bond and Jim Talent celebrated the opening of the
Genome Mapping Facility at the University of
Missouri-Columbia at today’s ribbon cutting.
“Investing time and
money in the life sciences is not just about investing in institutions, it is
about investing in our students, our faculty, our health, jobs, our economy, our
future, and our power to solve real problems of real people,” said Senator Bond.
“Biotechnology is bringing hope to those in the developing world by providing
crops that are more tolerant of drought and more resistant to insects and weeds.
Your work here on the soybean genome will further our knowledge in this area and
help our farmers to be more productive and the crops that they grow to be
healthier.”
“The University of Missouri is a leader in agriculture
science and technology,” said Sen. Talent, a member of the Senate Agriculture
Committee. “The research conducted here on soybeans is vital for the continued
improvement of the crop. Additionally, the federal funds invested in this
project will bring benefits to our state's economy and to producer's bottom
line. The research we do today is a vital step in creating the new products that
will sustain the agriculture and food industry of tomorrow.”
Bond and
Talent joined Congressman Kenny Hulshof, University and agriculture officials at
today’s ribbon cutting. The Senators praised the opening of the Genome Mapping
Facility, which is an expansion of the National Center for Soybean Biotechnology
(NCSB). The new facility will allow NCSB scientists to play a national
leadership role in mapping of the soybean genome and to develop improved soybean
varieties to keep Missouri farmers on the cutting edge.
As strong
supporters of NCSB’s vision Bond and Talent have secured federal funds for the
NCSB building and research programs. The Genome Mapping Facility also benefited
from a more than $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
Bond and Talent praised the University of Missouri for its commitment
and leadership in the life sciences. The Senators have worked with scientists,
producers, academic and business leaders across the state in efforts to make
Missouri a biotechnology corridor.
Source: SeedQuest.com
3 October
2006
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1.17 U.S. National Science Foundation supports 24 new projects to
get at the root of how genes control plant growth
Washington,
DC
Genome-enabled plant biology extends knowledge from model systems to
economically important crops and development of novel genomic research tools
The National Science Foundation (NSF)
made 24 new awards totaling $72.5 million in the ninth year of its Plant Genome
Research Program (PGRP). The 2- to 5- year awards--ranging from $600,000 to $6.6
million--support research and tools to further knowledge about the genomes of
economically important crop plants such as potato, poplar and corn, and will
also reveal how networks of genes control basic plant processes.
"It is
exciting to see the impact of genomics in new areas of plant biology, research
and education" said James Collins, head of the NSF's Biological Sciences
Directorate. "These innovative new projects will provide the basic discoveries
leading to a greater understanding of how variations in plant genomes manifest
as changes in growth and development in a range of environments. New discoveries
improve the quality and yield of crops plants, and in the long term, lead to
innovations that will support the bio-based economy of the 21st
Century".
The wealth of genomic knowledge and tools generated over the
past 8 years of the PGRP will now enable researchers to uncover networks of
genes that regulate plant development in response to environmental signals such
as light, for example:
To potentially broaden the geographic growing
range of crops, which is in part controlled by available sunlight, researchers
at Dartmouth College are investigating how gene networks in Brassica, a genus of
plants that includes broccoli, cauliflower and mustard, function to detect light
cues and trigger floral development.
Scientists at Oregon State University
will study the relationship between a plant's gene networks, its molecular
machinery and light absorption using the recently reported rice and poplar tree
genome sequences as guides.
So-called "model plants" typically have "no
frills" genomes and a short lifecycle that make basic genetic studies feasible.
Information from model plants can then be exploited to better understand more
complex crop plants. Two such examples are rice, a model for the cereals, and
barrel medic, a model for legumes, a plant family that includes soybeans,
peanuts, peas and alfalfa. Several new PGRP-supported projects will extend the
knowledge gained from the sequenced genomes of rice and barrel medic, for
example:
The genomes of the cultivated rice species and its wild
ancestral relative vary considerably. Investigators at Cornell University have
found that introducing certain "wild genes" into the cultivated species confers
superior performance for a variety of traits, including flowering time, seed
size and seed number. They will further examine how different combinations of
variant genes leads to enhanced qualities, or so-called "hybrid vigor."
Comparative genome tools developed by researchers at the University of
California, Davis, will enable researchers to rapidly pinpoint genes for disease
resistance in legumes using the barrel medic genome sequence as a reference.
Among others, these tools will be used to study chickpea, cowpea and
pigeonpea--important staple crops in India and Africa--through a developing
country collaboration with the International Crops Research Institute for the
Semi-Arid Tropics in India.
Established in 1998 as part of the
coordinated National Plant Genome Initiative by the Interagency Working Group on
Plant Genomes of the National Science and Technology Council, the PGRP has a
long-term goal of uncovering basic biological principles that will advance our
understanding of the structure and function of genomes of plants of economic
importance.
The new awards, made to 43 institutions in 30 states, include
10 international collaborations. First-time PGRP award recipients include Duke
University, South Dakota State University, Tuskegee University and the
University of Arkansas
Source: SeedQuest.com
3 October 2006
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1.18
Challenges still lay ahead for lupin breeding
Western
Australia
Significant genetic improvements have been made in Western
Australia narrow leafed lupins since the 1970s, but challenges still lay ahead,
according to Department of Agriculture and
Food lupin breeder Dr Bevan Buirchell.
He told the recent GRDC supported Australian Agronomy Conference
in Perth that herbicide resistant weeds and competition from increased global
soybean production were major challenges confronting Western Australia's lupin
industry.
Dr Buirchell said research on more herbicide tolerant varieties
would continue, as would a focus on thinning lupin hulls, which made up 25 per
cent of the lupin and had to be removed for aquaculture.
The unique
dietary fibre and antioxidant components of lupins could also be
exploited.
"Improvements in grain quality are achievable within limits,
but how much this can benefit the industry depends on how well we interpret
market signals from sectors likely to pay premiums," he said.
Source:
SeedQuest.com
26 October 2006
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1.19 Indonesia
works on agarwood
After work on clones of agarwood-producing trees,
Yupi Isnaini of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Tropical Biology (SEAMEO
BIOTROP), Indonesia has isolated three clones of Aquilaria trees that
produce more resin than conventional clones. Isnaini is also working on
obtaining fungal isolates and formulating media concentrations that can speed up
production of agarwood resin.
Agarwood refers to the resin-impregnated
wood that grows predominantly in the rain forests of Southeast Asia. Agarwood is
formed in response to fungal infection and this resin can stop or slow down
fungal growth. The resin has been used for centuries in traditional Chinese
medicine, and is important to the perfume industry in the Middle East, India,
Europe, and Malaysia.
For more information, send an email to yupi@biotrop.org.
For more details, contact dewisuryani@biotrop.org,
or visit http://www.indobic.or.id.
From
CropBiotech Update 4 August 2006:
Contributed by Margaret E.
Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.20 Uganda
'needs biotech law' to save banana sector
[KAMPALA]
An official in Uganda's agriculture ministry has expressed concern that
policymakers are not keeping pace with scientific efforts to control a disease
threatening the country's main cash crop.
Opolot Okasai, commissioner for
crop production and marketing, told SciDev.Net yesterday (10 October) that
banana bacterial wilt could cost Uganda US$6-8 billion in the next 5-10
years.
Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organisation and the
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture are working together to develop
a transgenic banana that can resist the disease.
Okasai says the
scientists are likely to achieve this in the next few years. But the transgenic
bananas will not reach Ugandan farmers until regulations are put in
place.
"There is no sign that our parliament will enact a law to allow,
oversee and protect biotechnology," he says.
The bacterial wilt is highly
destructive, wiping out up to 90 per cent of bananas on many of the farms
affected by recent outbreaks.
It arrived in Uganda in 2001 and spread
rapidly to nearly all banana-growing regions. Since then it has also reached the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania.
The disease is
currently under control in ten districts in southwestern Uganda, thanks to
communities sterilising farm equipment and a ban on the transport of banana
planting material between districts, says Okasai.
But according to
Okasai: "The most effective way to combat the disease is via genetic
engineering. This calls for an expedited legal and policy environment to put
into effect the scientific solutions visibly coming up."
Ugandan and
Belgian scientists have already genetically modified bananas to resist another
serious disease called black sigatoka. They plan to test them in confined trials
at facilities being constructed at the Kawanda Agricultural Research
Institute.
"We expect results from this research to contribute immensely
to the scientific fight against banana bacterial wilt," says Arthur Makara a
biosafety desk officer at Uganda National Council for Science and
Technology.
Peter Wamboga-Mugirya
Source: SciDev.net
11 October
2006
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Contents)
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1.21
Genome archaeology illuminates the genetic engineering
debate
New Brunswick/Piscataway, N.J. -- Genome Research's cover
story for Oct. 2 tells a tale of "genome archaeology" by genetic researchers who
dug deeply into the long history of maize and rice. Their resulting insights
into plant genomic evolution may well fuel the fires of the genetically modified
organism (GMO) controversy.
"Our findings elucidate an active
evolutionary process in which nature inserts genes much like modern
biotechnologists do. Now we must reassess the allegations that biotechnologists
perform 'unnatural acts,' thereby creating 'Frankenfoods,'" said Professor
Joachim Messing, project leader and director of the Waksman Institute of
Microbiology at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
By comparing
corresponding segments of two maize (corn) chromosomes with each other, and then
to a corresponding segment of rice, project scientists reconstructed a genetic
history replete with "reconfiguration and reshuffling, reminiscent of working
with Lego blocks," Messing said.
Public awareness groups have argued that
genetic engineering of crops deviates from "natural processes" when
biotechnologists insert genes at seemingly random places, altering the normal
order of genes in the genome. The view of genes being fixed in their position in
the genome is largely based on studies in animal genomes. In contrast to those
studies, however, the authors show that plant genomes evolved from a far more
dynamic structure than previously believed.
Maize dominates domestic
agriculture, where approximately 9 billion bushels are produced annually at a
value of $30 billion. Corn is an important dietary staple in much of the third
world and a bio-fuel source; rice is the primary dietary staple for more than
half the world's population.
Scientists have long known that the number
of chromosomes among some plant species has changed over time, with some
evolutionary phases showing four, six, eight or more sets. "Maize, for example,
began with four sets of chromosomes about five million years ago and eventually
trimmed down to the set of two that we see today," Messing said.
With
these duplications and reductions, genes in chromosome segments can be lost,
replicated or shifted over to other chromosomes, Messing explained. As a
consequence, plant genomes today contain rearranged segments and many duplicated
regions with corresponding sets of genes. In the maize genome, genes were
apparently lost in some parts and new "stuffer" pieces (intervals between genes)
inserted so that the corresponding segments became different in size.
The researchers found that about 10 percent of the genes in the maize
segments were missing completely in rice, and about 20 percent were in new
positions. Within the maize segments, genes appear to be very mobile: 20 to 25
percent have "jumped" to other locations in the genome during the course of
evolution. Two-thirds of the original genes from the ancestral four sets of
chromosomes have disappeared completely. Corresponding genes wound up in
completely different locations within the genome and have likely undergone
changes in how they affect biological operations.
"The research,
conducted by an international collaboration of scientists, will help scientists
and farmers improve these significant crops and gain new and important insights
in the evolution of the grass species in general," Messing said.
"The
vast pool of genetic material in plants can be an important resource from which
biotechnology can draw genes for insertion into an array of plants, generating
unique genomes not achievable by conventional breeding," Messing said. "We could
engineer plants to provide a more sustainable, healthy and productive source of
food, while reducing the environmental impacts of their cultivation."
This undertaking included teams from the University of Arizona,
University of Georgia, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, The
Institute for Genomic Research, the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard,
Institute of Bioinformatics at the GSF-Center for Environment and Health in
Germany, and the Plant Genome Initiative at Rutgers.
Contact: Joseph
Blumberg
blumberg@ur.rutgers.edu
732-932-7084
x652
Rutgers, the State University of New
Jersey
Source: EurekAlert.org
3 October 2006
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1.22 Efficacy of a special screened greenhouse in
reducing maize outcrossing
ABSTRACT
Gene flow via pollen
dispersal leading to the escape of transgenes is a potential concern associated
with the introduction of transgenic plants. Therefore, it is necessary to
clarify the relationship between pollen dispersal and outcrossing rate for
strict biosafety management during risk assessment. Maize (Zea mays) is one of
the crops most at risk for gene leakage via pollen flow into the environment.
Here, we report the results of a cross-pollination field investigation using
maize varieties showing a xenia effect with tricolor kernels, which allowed us
to designate a pollen donor with natural outcrossing and one with reduced
outcrossing (via a screened greenhouse) in the same experimental field at the
same time. Although a previous study showed that a special screened greenhouse
covered by 1-mm single fine mesh may be effective in reducing outcrossing in
maize, we used 1-mm duplex fine mesh to reduce further the possibility of
outcrossing. We report how a special screened greenhouse covered by 1-mm duplex
fine mesh reduced pollen dispersal, and affected the outcrossing rate of
non-genetically modified (GM) yellow maize in the greenhouse and white maize
outside the greenhouse, compared to natural outcrossing.
Original paper:
http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/plantbiotechnology/23/4/387/_pdf
Shin Watanabea, Tsunenori Sanoa, Hiroshi Kamada, Hiroshi Ezura*
Gene
Research Center, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8572, Japan
*ezura@gene.tsukuba.ac.jp
Source: Plant
Biotechnology Journal via SeedQuest.com
October, 2006
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1.23 Pollinators help one-third of
world's crop production
Berkeley, CA, USA
Pollinators such as
bees, birds and bats affect 35 percent of the world's crop production,
increasing the output of 87 of the leading food crops worldwide, finds a new
study published today (Wednesday, Oct. 25), in the Proceedings of the Royal
Society B: Biological Sciences and co-authored by a conservation biologist
at the University of California, Berkeley.
The study is the first global
estimate of crop production that is reliant upon animal pollination. It comes
one week after a National Research Council (NRC) report detailed the troubling
decline in populations of key North American pollinators, which help spread the
pollen needed for fertilization of such crops as fruits, vegetables, nuts,
spices and oilseed.
Of particular concern in the NRC report was the
decline of the honey bee, a species introduced from Europe and a critical
pollinator for California's almond industry. The report pointed out that it
takes about 1.4 million colonies of honey bees to pollinate 550,000 acres of
this state's almond trees.
In an effort to better understand how
dependent crop production is upon pollinators worldwide, an international
research team led by Alexandra-Maria Klein, an agroecologist from the University
of Goettingen in Germany, conducted an extensive review of scientific studies
from 200 countries and for 115 of the leading global crops.
Claire
Kremen, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental
Science, Policy, and Management, is co-author of this new study.
"There's a widely stated phrase in agriculture that you can thank a
pollinator for one out of three bites of food you eat," said Kremen, who is also
a member of the Committee on Status of Pollinators that produced the NRC report
and leader of a group at the National Center for Ecological and Analysis and
Synthesis that co-sponsored the work. "However, it wasn't clear where that
calculation came from, so we set out to do a more thorough and reproducible
estimate, and we wanted to look at the impact on a global scale."
What
the researchers found fell in line with the dictum to which Kremen referred. Out
of the 115 crops studied, 87 depend to some degree upon animal pollination,
accounting for one-third of crop production globally. Of those crops, 13 are
entirely reliant upon animal pollinators, 30 are greatly dependent and 27 are
moderately dependent.
The crops that did not rely upon animal
pollination were mainly staple crops such as wheat, corn and rice.
The
NRC report notes that honey bees in North America have been decimated by
infestations of parasitic mites that were inadvertently introduced to the United
States. In addition, honey bees are battling antibiotic-resistant pathogens and
competition from Africanized honey bees.
Kremen added that honey bees,
particularly ones in the wild versus those in managed hives, are negatively
impacted by habitat loss and a variety of non-sustainable farming practices.
These impacts also affect native species of wild bees. There are 4,000 species
of native bees in North America alone.
"We've replaced pollination
services formerly provided by diverse groups of wild bees with domesticated
honey bees," said Kremen, who recently co-authored another study showing that
wild bees interacting with honey bees can lead to a five-fold increase in
pollination efficiency. "The problem is, if we don't protect the wild
pollinators, we don't have a backup plan."
Kremen suggested an approach
to a more sustainable form of agriculture, one that de-emphasizes the use of
synthetic fertilizers and builds in more of a reliance on natural ecosystems.
Some changes may involve mere tweaks to current practices, such as
allowing weeds and native plants to grow and prosper along the border of the
primary crop, she said. Such non-crop plants, which are currently killed off by
herbicides, can sustain a variety of wild bee species when the primary crops are
not in bloom.
Another change could be to switch from flood irrigation,
which drowns bee species that nest in the ground, to spray irrigation when
feasible, said Kremen.
The study in the Proceedings of the Royal
Society B highlights what is at stake if steps to improve pollinator
biodiversity are not taken.
"Passion fruits in Brazil are
hand-pollinated through expensive day-laborers as the natural pollinators,
carpenter bees, are hardly available because of high insecticide use in the
agricultural fields and the destruction of the natural habitats," said lead
author Klein.
Klein said that in the cities of Brazil, the high prices
for fruits and vegetables are pushing people to turn to less healthy
alternatives, including fatty meats and sugar products. As a result, she said,
obesity rates seem to be rising.
"The stability of crop yields not only
depends on pollination, but also on further ecosystem services," Klein added.
"Therefore, we need landscapes carefully managed for a diversity of functionally
important groups of organisms that sustain many important ecosystem services
such as pollination, pest, pathogen and weed control, and decomposition."
This study was also supported by the Sixth European Union Framework
program.
By Sarah Yang, Media Relations
Source: EurekAlert.org
25
October 2006
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1.24 Philippines gene bank damaged by typhoon
Manila, The
Philippines
The International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI) has extended the facilities of its International Rice
Genebank to the National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory (NPGRL) in the
Institute of Plant Breeding, University of the
Philippines Los Baños (IPB-UPLB) to temporarily store its medium-term
germplasm collections of major Philippine agricultural crops after typhoon
Milenyo damaged its genebank facilities.
These crops consist of cereals,
food legumes, forage/pasture, plantation/industrial, root crops, medicinal
plants and spices, fruit trees, nut trees, ornamentals, small fruits, botanical
collection, vegetables, and unclassified recent introductions.
As of
October 2002, a total of 45,978 germplasms were stored in the NPGRL genebank
until Milenyo struck.
Prof. Tess Borromeo and researcher Nestor Altoveros
of IPB revealed that 70 percent of the genetic materials (350 accessions) stored
in the NPGRL were damaged by floodwaters and mud, while 100 percent of the
laboratory's root crop collections were buried in mud.
On the other hand,
an "optimistic estimate" indicated that 5 percent of the laboratory's total seed
collections were also damaged.
More importantly, floodwater and mud flows
rendered inoperational four convirons (controlled environment facilities where
germplasm collections are stored), without which the germplasm will lose their
long-term viability.
These convirons or cold storage facilities,
including a standby generator, sustained damages estimated at P20
million.
IPB Crop Science Cluster Director Jose E. Hernandez expects the
NPGRL facilities to be back in normal operation within 11 to 12 months. "We also
expect a minimum of 1 month before electric supply to IPB returns to
normal."
Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton, the head of the IRRI Genebank said, "We are committed to doing everything we can to help our local colleagues get
through this difficult period. Genebanks are fundamental to a country's ability
to feed itself and maintain its agricultural productivity."
The NPGRL,
one of the component units of the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB), College of
Agriculture , University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), maintains these
germplasm collections and serves as the national center in plant genetic
resources activities.
It aims to provide IPB and the national crop
improvement programs a broad range of genetic materials for breeding of superior
crop varieties and help minimize the rapid erosion of natural variability
existing in cultivated species and their wild relatives.
The NPGRL,
established on 12 November 1976 by Presidential Decree 1046-A, is the world base
collection center for germplasm of winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus),
snake gourd (Trichosanthes spp.), bitter groud (Momordica charantia), and wax
gourd (Benincasa hispida). It also holds the duplicate world collection of
mungbean (Vigna radiata), the Asian collection of tomato (Lycopersicon
lycopersicum), and the world's largest collection of Musa balbisiana
(banana).
The NPGRL conserves for national posterity the endemic and
introduced plant genetic resources; provides plant breeding projects in the
national research system with a broad genetic base for crop improvement; and
monitors and coordinates national efforts in the collection, conservation,
utilization, and exchange of plant genetic resources.
Link: http://www.malaya.com.ph/oct20/agri1.htm
Source: Malaya Online Edition via SeedQuest.com
October 20,
2006
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1.25 Reflections on the first meeting of the International Treaty on
Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
Editorial in
SeedQuest.com by Dr. Emile Frison, Director General, International Plant Genetic Resources
Institute (IPGRI)
The first meeting of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant
Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture does not sound like a source of
cliff-hanger thrills, but it was. Not until 5 in the morning on the last day,
after an all-night negotiating session, did delegates finally agree the text of
a contract that will govern the movement of samples of plant genetic resources.
With that in place, the way is clear for farmers and plant breeders to get
access to the biodiversity they need to adapt agriculture to meet unforeseen
future challenges.
Historically, the world has depended, and continues to
depend, on genetic resources from elsewhere. In the 1920s a Russian relative of
wheat donated resistance to a fungal disease that threatened the entire US
harvest. A new virulent race of that disease recently emerged and the solution
will also almost certainly be found in varieties from somewhere else. In recent
years the flow of material among breeders and farmers has dwindled considerably.
The Treaty loosens the regulatory log-jam by establishing a multi-lateral system
for access and benefit-sharing. A single variety may have hundreds of ancestors
from scores of countries in its pedigree. Rather than having to sign scores of
bilateral agreements, contracting parties sign up to the Treaty. That gives them
facilitated access to the plant genetic resources held by all the other
contracting parties.
Possibly the most important of these plant genetic
resources are held in the genebanks of the Centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR). There are more than 650,000 accessions, with a
preponderance of the farmers' varieties and wild relatives that are such a rich
source of sought-after traits. The Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA),
agreed early that Friday morning, sets the terms and conditions for the use of
these and other materials under the Treaty. Most notably, the SMTA establishes
that any variety that uses any material derived from the multilateral system is,
by definition, a "product". If that product is commercialized, a payment of 1.1%
of net sales goes into the Treaty's fund, to support conservation and research
in developing countries. The payment is compulsory if the new variety is not
available for further use in research and breeding and voluntary if it is
available.
An important and innovative aspect of the Treaty is the
recognition of a third-party beneficiary with a legal interest in its
enforcement. The SMTA is an agreement between provider and recipient of the
material, not among the contracting parties of the Treaty, but the monetary
benefits flow to an international fund. FAO (the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations), acting as the third-party beneficiary, has
the right to bring legal action on behalf of the Treaty parties in cases of
suspected infringement.
Infringement will itself be easier to police,
thanks to the simple definition of a product and to the plans for an integrated
information system that will not only accumulate and share information about the
resources -- one of the non-monetary benefits envisaged by the Treaty -- but
will also make it easier to track which samples were distributed to
whom.
The meeting was a huge success. Negotiators were willing to
compromise on the level of payments, for example, and each side moved to meet
the other. The seed industry, which some sceptics were saying before the meeting
would scupper any chance of agreement, proved very constructive. So there is
cause to be hopeful, and we need it.
Swollen shoot disease of cacao, palm
leafhopper, banana bacterial wilt, Asian soybean rust, clover-root weevil, UG99
race of wheat rust; newly virulent pests and diseases are battering at
humanity’s food supply. Developed nations can choose to afford plant protection
chemicals, if they are available and effective. For poor farmers in developing
countries, genetic resources are one of the few assets they can use to secure
their food supply. With the International Treaty now in place, plant genetic
resources will once again be able to play a central role in improving
agriculture and securing our food supply for the future.
Dr. Emile Frison
can be reached at e.frison@cgiar.org
Source:
SeedQuest.com
October 2006
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1.26
Impacts of genetic bottlenecks on soybean genome diversity
Edited by Steven D. Tanksley, Cornell University, Ithaca,
NY
ABSTRACT
Soybean has undergone several genetic bottlenecks. These
include domestication in Asia to produce numerous Asian landraces, introduction
of relatively few landraces to North America, and then selective breeding over
the past 75 years. It is presumed that these three human-mediated events have
reduced genetic diversity. We sequenced 111 fragments from 102 genes in four
soybean populations representing the populations before and after genetic
bottlenecks. We show that soybean has lost many rare sequence variants and has
undergone numerous allele frequency changes throughout its history. Although
soybean genetic diversity has been eroded by human selection after
domestication, it is notable that modern cultivars have retained 72% of the
sequence diversity present in the Asian landraces but lost 79% of rare alleles
(frequency 0.10) found in the Asian landraces. Simulations indicated that the
diversity lost through the genetic bottlenecks of introduction and plant
breeding was mostly due to the small number of Asian introductions and not the
artificial selection subsequently imposed by selective breeding. The bottleneck
with the most impact was domestication; when the low sequence diversity present
in the wild species was halved, 81% of the rare alleles were lost, and 60% of
the genes exhibited evidence of significant allele frequency changes.
Open access article: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0604379103v1?etoc
Source:
: Proceedings ot the National Academy of Sciences
of the United States of America via SeedQuest com
26 October
2006
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1.27
BT corn – a solution to mycotoxin
contamination
Mycotoxin contamination is a serious concern in maize
production, as two of the most important mycotoxins, fumonisins and aflatoxins,
are associated with various diseases in humans and animals. In addition, high
levels of mycotoxins result in lower market gains due to livestock losses and
higher corn rejection for food and feeds, resulting in huge annual losses to the
sector worldwide.
Damage inflicted to crops by insect pests increases
susceptibility to infection by fungal pathogens because wounds encourage
colonization by fungal spores. Bt maize is modified with a gene toxic to common
lepidopteran pests. Does the increased protection against insect pests also
reduce the incidence of mycotoxins in the biotech crop? Felicia Wu, of the
University of Pittsburgh, USA, compares mycotoxins levels in Bt and conventional
maize in an article published in the latest issue of Information Systems for
Biotechnology News Report, and reports the presence of significantly lower
levels of mycotoxin concentrations in biotech maize.
The economic
benefits of mycotoxin reduction would likely be more prominent in developed
countries such as the United States, argues Wu, whereas in areas such as Latin
America, northern China, and sub-Saharan Africa, where corn is a staple food,
the health impacts would far outweigh the market gains.
The complete
article "Mycotoxin Reduction in Bt Corn: Potential Economic, Health, and
Regulatory Impacts" can be read at http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2006/sep06.pdf
Source:
CropBiotech Update 22 September 2006:
Contributed by Margaret E.
Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.28
CSIRO research indicates that insect-resistant cotton may also be water
efficient
Australia
Preliminary results from CSIRO research in
Narrabri have shown that genetically modified insect-resistant cotton may also
be more water efficient.
Two years of field experiments by CSIRO Plant
Industry's Mr Dirk Richards and Mr Stephen Yeates, show that under normal
full irrigation, Bollgard® II cotton used ten per cent less water than an
equivalent conventional variety and had higher yields.
Bollgard® II makes
up most of the Australian cotton crop and has reduced pesticide use by up to 80
per cent.
Research is now optimising agronomic management of Bollgard® II
as it tends to produce bolls earlier than conventional cotton because insect
damage does not delay early crop growth.
Bollgard® II and conventional
cotton extract soil water at a similar rate, but Bollgard® II has a more compact
growing season so uses less water overall for the same or higher yields.
Bollgard® II had lower yields only when it was moisture stressed from
peak flowering to the end of flowering when boll filling started.
Soil
moisture stress applied to conventional cotton at the same time did not affect
yield as much, due to later flowering and a better ability to compensate later
in the season.
This research is helping growers fine tune their water
management strategies for Bollgard® II.
This research is supported by
the Cotton Research and Development Corporation and the Cotton Catchment
Communities Cooperative Research Centre. More information: http://www.pi.csiro.au/enewsletter/PDF/PI_info_Bollgard.pdf
Source:
CSIRO Plant
Industry newsletter via SeedQuest.com
September, 2006
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1.29 Research tracks, controls fruit vitamin C levels
Vitamin C decreases the incidence of several
important human disorders. It is an antioxidant as well; in L-ascorbic acid
(L-AA) form, the vitamin improves the post-harvest properties of fruits. If
Vitamin C levels could be increased in fruit species, both consumers and plants
thus stand to benefit.
Mark W. Davey and colleagues take the first step
in gaining "Genetic Control of Fruit Vitamin C Contents" as they identify three
quantitative trait loci (QTL) in apple, which they found are linked to L-AA
content of fruit flesh. The researchers, who hail from the Catholic University
of Leuven, Belgium, report their findings in a recent issue of Plant
Physiology.
Scientists analyzed the progeny derived from a cross between
apple cultivars Telamon and Braeburn. They examined linkage maps of the apple
parents, and after further analysis, found that: 1) Both parents had QTLs in the
same location, which contributed to L-AA content; 2) One QTL in the Telamon
parent co-localized with a QTL associated with flesh browning, confirming that
L-AA levels are associated with fruit susceptibility to post-harvest browning;
and 3) the QTLs identified are associated with molecular markers, which will
facilitate the transfer of QTLs to other fruit varieties through marker assisted
selection.
Subscribers to the journal can read the complete article at http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/reprint/142/1/343.
Other readers can take a look at the abstract at http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/abstract/142/1/343.
Source:
CropBiotech Update 22 September 2006:
Contributed by Margaret E.
Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.30 Plant acid contributes to blight
resistance
Phytophthora blight is an important soil-borne fungal
disease that affects pepper plants all over the world, and can wipe out pepper
harvests. However, one Mexican accession, Capsicum annuum L. cv. 'Serrano
Criollo de Morelos 334' (SCM), shows a high level of resistance against the
blight. What is the basis of this resistance?
In a recent issue of
Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology, Motoko Ueedaa and colleagues from
the National Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science (NIVTS), and Mie University,
Japan, investigate the "Contribution of jasmonic acid to resistance against
Phytophthora blight in Capsicum annuum cv. SCM334." Salicylic acid (SA)
and jasmonic acid (JA) are plant hormones that contribute to plant defense
responses to stresses such as wounding, ozone exposure, and insect or microbial
attack.
To find out the extent of JA's participation in blight
resistance, scientists grew the SCM cultivar along with a susceptible cultivar,
California Wonder (CW). They then measured SA and JA levels, as well as gene
expression patterns, during infestation with Phytophtora blight. Researchers
found that JA levels increased in SCM immediately after infection with the
pathogen; but, as time passed, JA levels decreased, and SA levels increased,
accompanied by hypersensitive-response (HR). HS is a complex, early plant
defense response that causes cell death at the site of pathogen penetration to
restrict the spread of infection The researchers note that these patterns
indicate that JA-mediated defense is crucial in the resistance of pepper plants
to Phytophtora blight; they also note that the early appearance of JA, and SA's
later accumulation, suggest that both hormones play a separate role in pepper's
defense response.
Subscribers to the journal can download the complete
article through http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmpp.2005.12.002
From
CropBiotech Update 4 August 2006:
Contributed by Margaret E.
Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
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1.31
"Where Will This Crop Grow?" - A computer program can now
tell us
Cali, Colombia
If raspberries can grow in Edinburgh,
Scotland, will they grow in Bogotá, Colombia? A farmer asks "What crops can I
plant on this field?" A plant breeder has just improved a new variety and
wonders, "Where else would it grow as well as in site X?" The answers to these
questions can be found through Homologue™, a computer program created at Centro Internacional de Agricultura
Tropical (CIAT).
"Homologue allows us to find different sites where
a variety or crop will respond well," affirms William Díaz, of CIAT's Land Use
Project, who worked on the program. "It also produces a map of probabilities
where good results can be expected. This is useful for making decisions on
introducing new species, conserving germplasm banks, or conducting participatory
research in sites with similar conditions."
For the breeder, Homologue
will produce a map of probable sites around the world where the variety will
grow well.
Although directed at agricultural technicians and
researchers, the program is very user-friendly, needing only a few basic data
such as longitude, latitude, and, optionally, soil characteristics. It is the
product of research begun more than two decades ago by Peter Jones, agricultural
geographer; James Cock, genetic resources specialist; and other colleagues at
CIAT's Land Use Project.
Dr Jones has already created two
programsFloraMap® and MarkSim®. The former locates sites of possible
adaptation and helps in decision-making to conserve plant species and other
useful organisms in the wild. The latter program simulates climates. The new
programHomologuecombines the two.
Homologue is already being
applied in Colombia to locate sites where organic coffee with certain
characteristics for the international market can be planted.
More
information: http://gisweb.ciat.cgiar.org/homologue/
Source:
SeedQuest.com
27 October 2006
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1.32
Gene switch makes crops drought-resistant when needed
St. Paul,
Minnesota
David Dennis, president of the Canadian plant biotechnology firm Performance Plants, has reported the
development of a "unique" new drought tolerance technology that relies on the
introduction of a single transgene.Expression of the transgene "switches off" under non-drought conditions, so as to avoid negatively impacting plant yield
during those times.
Dennis explained the technology last week in St.
Paul, the U.S., at a symposium on the next generation of biotechnology,
sponsored by the Canadian consulate, the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council, and the
University of Minnesota.
He said his company's technology has proven
successful in field tests with canola, petunias, and Arabidopsis, and it could
increase crop yields by up to 25 percent under "tough" drought conditions.
The technology has gone through four years of field trials. Dennis said
he expects it to become commercially available in genetically modified (GM)
corn, lawn grass, and ornamental plants in three to four years. The technology
should be incorporated into oil seed and other crops after that, he said. While
effective, Dennis noted that the drought tolerance technology has its limits.
"If you get drought from the time you put seed in the ground, there's no
way you can protect the plant. The plants need some water to grow. We are
protecting them at the most sensitive time, when they are flowering," he said.
The article can be viewed online at http://pewagbiotech.org/newsroom/summaries/display.php3?NewsID=1025
Source: Agence France Presse via
SeedQuest.com
2 October 2006
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1.33
Purdue University's new biochip may help create more productive crop
varieties
West Lafayette, Indiana
Purdue University researchers have developed a
biochip that measures the electrical activities of cells and is capable of
obtaining 60 times more data in just one reading than is possible with current
technology. In the near term, the biochip could speed scientific research, which
could accelerate drug development for muscle and nerve disorders like epilepsy
and help create more productive crop varieties.
"Instead of doing one
experiment per day, as is often the case, this technology is automated and
capable of performing hundreds of experiments in one day," said Marshall
Porterfield, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering who leads
the team developing the chip.
The device works by measuring the
concentration of ions tiny charged particles as they enter and exit
cells. The chip can record these concentrations in up to 16 living cells
temporarily sealed within fluid-filled pores in the microchip. With four
electrodes per cell, the chip delivers 64 simultaneous, continuous sources of
data.
This additional data allows for a deeper understanding of cellular
activity compared to current technology, which measures only one point outside
one cell and cannot record simultaneously, Porterfield said. The chip also
directly records ion concentrations without harming the cells, whereas present
methods cannot directly detect specific ions, and cells being studied typically
are destroyed in the process, he said. There are several advantages to retaining
live cells, he said, such as being able to conduct additional tests or monitor
them as they grow.
"The current technology being used in research labs is
very slow and difficult," said Porterfield, who believes the new chip could help
develop drugs for human disorders involving ion channel malfunction, such as
epilepsy and chronic pain. About 15 percent of the drugs currently in
development affect the activities of ion channels, he said, and their
development is limited by the slower pace of current technology. The biochip
would allow researchers to generate more data in a shorter time, thus speeding
up the whole process of evaluating potential drugs and their different effects
on ion channels.
Ion channels are particularly important in muscle and
nerve cells, where they facilitate communication and the transfer of electrical
signals from one cell to the next.
Within the 10-by-10 millimeter chip roughly the size of a dime cells are sealed inside 16 pyramidal
pores, analyzed, and then can be removed intact. Since the technology does not
kill the cells, it could be used to screen and identify different crop lines,
Porterfield said.
"For example, let's say you were interested in
developing corn varieties that need less fertilizer," he said. "If you had a
library of genes that were associated with high nitrogen-use efficiency
thus making the plant need less nitrogen fertilizer you could transform a
group of maize cells with these genes and then screen each cell to determine the
most efficient. Then you could raise the one that needed the least fertilizer,
rather than putting a lot of different genes into hundreds of plants and waiting
for them to grow, as is currently done."
In addition to the potential
savings in time and money, Porterfield said the chip has allowed him to do
research that would otherwise be impossible. He recently conducted a study on
the "Vomit Comet," the nickname for a high-flying research plane used by NASA to
briefly simulate zero gravity. The experiment analyzed gravity's effect on plant
development, trying to solve the riddle of how a plant determines which way is
"up."
"We conducted research with the chip while we were flying in
parabolas over the Gulf of Mexico, going from two times Earth's gravity to zero
gravity again and again," he said. "There is absolutely no way this experiment
could have been done without this chip."
The current technology for
analyzing cells' electrical activity, called "patch clamping," uses a tiny
electrical probe viewed under a microscope. The technology garnered its
inventors the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology in 1991.
"It
requires a lot of know-how and hand-eye coordination," Porterfield said of patch
clamping.
The chip, on the other hand, is automated and could be
mass-produced in the future. Such a readily available chip could record reams
more data than patch-clamping, he said.
Ion channels and pumps establish
a difference in electrical potential across a cell's membrane, which cells use
to create energy and transfer electrical signals. By quickly allowing ions in
and out, they are useful for rapid cellular changes, the kind which occur in
muscles, neurons and the release of insulin from pancreatic cells.
The
chip currently can detect individual levels of different ions. Porterfield
believes that with some modifications, however, the chip will be able to measure
multiple ions at once and perform even more advanced functions such as
electrically stimulating a cell with one electrode while recording the reaction
with the remaining three.
Because ion channels are a prominent feature of
the nervous system and elsewhere, they are a popular target for drugs. For
example, lidocaine and Novocain target sodium-channels. In nature, some of the
most potent venoms and toxins work by blocking these channels, including the
venom of certain snakes and strychnine.
Porterfield's chip is
technically classified as a "cell electrophysiology lab-on-a-chip." The device
is further described in an article in the journal Sensors and Actuators,
published online this month and scheduled to appear in the print edition in
November.
Porterfield has been working on the biochip for almost two
years and is currently working to expand its capabilities. The just-published
study was funded by NASA and the Lilly Foundation.
Writer: Douglas M Main
ABSTRACT
A
MEMS Fabricated Cell Electrophysiology Biochip for in Silico Calcium
Measurements
For the last 50 years the state-of-the-art for studying
electrophysiological activity of single cells has been based on an investigator
using a single microprobe, and attempting to make relevant recordings, one cell
at a time. Here we report the design, fabrication and characterization of a
MEMS-based lab-on-a-chip system for measuring Ca2+ ion concentrations and
currents around single cells. This device has been designed around specific
science objectives of measuring real-time multidimensional calcium flux patterns
around 16 Ceratopteris richardii fern spores in microgravity flight experiments
and ground studies. The 16 microfluidic cell holding pores are 150 _m _ 150 _m
each and have 4 Ag/AgCl electrodes leading into them. An SU-8 structural layer
is used for insulation and packaging purposes. The in silico cell physiology lab
is wire bonded onto a custom PCB for easy interface with a state-of-the-art data
acquisition system. The electrodes are coated with a Ca2+ ion-selective membrane
based on ETH-5234 ionophore and operated against an Ag/AgCl reference electrode.
Characterization results have shown Nernst slopes of 30 mV/decade that were
stable over a number of measurement cycles, and actual fern spore Ca2+
measurements have been recorded with high repeatability and reproducibility.
While this work is focused on technology to enable basic research on C.
richardii spores, we anticipate that this type of cell electrophysiology
lab-on-a-chip will be broadly applied in biomedical and pharmacological research
by making minor modifications to the electrode material and the measurement
technique.
Source: SeedQuest.com
20 October 2006
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++++++++++++++++++++++
1.34 NSF awards UGA $4.1 million grant
to study so-called 'jumping genes' in maize
Transposable elements,
popularly called "jumping genes" when they were discovered more than half a
century ago, are sequences of DNA that can move around chromosomes in a cell. At
first thought to be molecular "junk," they are now recognized as important, even
crucial parts of the blueprints of plants and animals.
The National
Science Foundation has awarded a grant of $4.1 million to the University of
Georgia to identify all the transposable elements (TE's) in maize and to
generate an annotated database that will assist all future research in this crop
plant crucial across the globe.
"The collective experiences of the team
that will work on this puts us in a unique position," said Susan Wessler,
Regents Professor of plant biology at UGA and principal investigator. "Maize is
the organism of choice for understanding how TE's contribute to gene and genome
evolution."
All information from the project, which is expected to take
five years, will be made freely available to the Maize Genome Sequencing Project
and to long-term repositories such as the Maize Genome Database.
"The
scientific goals of this project and the familiarity of maize also provide
outstanding opportunities for student training and for connections between the
research community and the broader public," said Wessler. "This project will
dedicate more than 15 percent of its resources to the development of web-based,
traveling and local museum exhibits that describe the history of maize as a
crop, as a model organism for research and as a key component for many Native
American cultures."
To this end, collaborations have been established
with the UGA Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S.
Botanic Garden.
Genomes differ dramatically in the percentage of TE's in
their genomes. For instance, half of human DNA is transposable elements, while
in some plants, the amount is more than 90 percent. About 80 percent of maize
genomic DNA is derived from TE's.
The project also has an in-lab minority
outreach component. Each participating institution has a commitment to the
education of undergraduates, high school students and other members of the
broader community, especially in the representation of under-represented groups.
Scientist Barbara McClintock discovered the first TE's in maize in 1948,
work that led to her winning the Nobel Prize in 1983.
###
Other principal
investigators for the newly funded grant include, from UGA: Jeffrey Bennetzen,
department of genetics and Kelly Dawe, departments of plant biology and
genetics. Participating from the UGA Museum of Natural History is Byron Freeman.
Other co-principal investigators include Nin Jiang of Michigan State University
and Phillip SanMiguel of Purdue University.
Contact: Phil Williams
phil@franklin.uga.edu
University of Georgia
Soure:
EurekAlert.org
25 October 2006
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+++++++++++++++++++++++
1.35
Sunflower speciation highlights roles for transposable
elements in evolution
In a finding that furthers our understanding of
how hybridization may contribute to genome changes and the evolution of new
species, researchers have found that the genomes of three sunflower species that
arose in evolution as hybrids of the same two parental types have undergone a
massive proliferation of genetic entities known as transposable elements. The
findings are reported by Mark Ungerer and colleagues at Kansas State University
and appear in the October 24th issue of the journal Current Biology, published
by Cell Press.
Theory predicts that for diploid species--that is, those
possessing two sets of chromosomes, like most animals and plants--the origin of
new species through inter-species hybridization may be facilitated by rapid
reorganization of genomes. Previous work on three independently derived hybrid
sunflower species has validated this mode of speciation by documenting novel
structural rearrangements in their chromosomes, as well as large-scale increases
in nuclear DNA content. The nuclear-genome size differences between the hybrids
and their parental taxa occur in spite of the fact that all species possess the
same number of chromosomes and are diploids.
In the new work, the
researchers have determined that the genome size differences between the hybrid
and parental sunflower species are associated with a massive proliferation of
transposable genetic elements that has occurred independently in the genome of
each hybrid species. Transposable elements, made famous by Barbara McClintock in
her study of their behavior in maize, are related to infectious retroviruses and
are capable of multiplying and inserting themselves at different points
throughout a host genome. They are found in virtually all eukaryotic genomes.
The new findings not only add an interesting twist to the origin of new
sunflower species through hybridization, but also suggest that the sunflower
system may emerge as an excellent model group for studying the natural forces
influencing the activation and proliferation of transposable elements in plants.
This is because in addition to their hybrid origins, each of the three hybrid
species is adapted to, and evolved in, a so-called abiotically extreme
environment--two of the species are found in desert environments, while the
third is adapted to salt marshes. Both hybridization and abiotic stress have
been implicated as natural agents of activation and proliferation of
transposable elements.
###
The researchers include Mark C.
Ungerer, Suzanne C. Strakosh and Ying Zhen of Kansas State University in
Manhattan, Kansas. This work was funded by NSF EPSCoR and Kansas State
University.
Ungerer et al.: "Correspondence: Genome expansion in three
hybrid sunflower species is associated with retrotransposon proliferation." Publishing in Current Biology 16, R1-2, October 24, 2006. DOI
10.1016/j.cub.2006.09.020. www.current-biology.com
Contact: Heidi Hardman
hhardman@cell.com
Cell Press
Source:
EurekAlert.org
23 October 2006
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++
1.36 Rice protein change makes crop
virus resistant
Because the viral genome is so small, viruses often
rely on host factors to assist them in infecting the host. One such factor is
the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E), which interacts with
the potyvirus VPg protein. VPg breaks host resistance to viruses. In plants,
both eIF4E and eIF4G appear to play a significant role in plant/virus
interactions. But if host factors are mutated and cannot be recognized by viral
proteins, can plants remain resistant to viral infection?
Laurence Albar
and colleagues try it out on rice, and report that "Mutations in the eIF(iso)4G
translation initiation factor confer high resistance of rice to Rice yellow
mottle virus." Their work is published in the latest issue of The Plant Journal.
Researchers worked on rice resistance to the Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV), a
major pathogen of rice in Africa; as well as on the rice variety Gigante, which
has a very high resistance to RYMV.
Researchers mapped the Gigante
variety's genome to isolate the Rymv1 locus; this locus encodes a gene that
contributes to the plant's resistance. The researchers then derived the
corresponding gene from a rice variety susceptible to RYMV, and transferred it
to the Gigante line. With the new gene, transgenic Gigante lost resistance to
RYMV. Rymv1, the researchers found, encodes an isoform of eIF4G. This gene is
mutated in Gigante, keeping it from interacting with viral proteins, and
allowing the rice variety to be resistant to RYMV infections.
According
to the researchers, this gene "is of outstanding interest as it is the only one
controlling the high resistance of rice against RYMV that has been described so
far." They now plan to do a wider analysis of Rymv1 diversity in rice varieties
and their wild relatives, particularly those that are described as being
resistant to RYMV. This can pave the way for eventual use of the genes in rice
breeding programs.
Subscribers to The Plant Journal can read the complete
article through http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-313X.2006.02792.x
or http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-313X.2006.02792.x
. Other readers can access the abstract through http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-313X.2006.02792.x
.
Source: CropBiotech Update 15 September 2006:
Contributed by
Margaret E. Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
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+++++++++++++++++++++++
1.37
Rye protein shown to bind to ice
Plants that live
in temperate and boreal regions have to be able to survive not only extreme
temperatures, but also temperature fluctuations. In such regions, summer heat is
severe, and winter cold is extreme; in the latter condition, ice crystals can
form in plants, destroying cells by forcing water out of them and effectively
dehydrating the plant. Freezing damage also renders plants more susceptible to
pathogen attack.
Freezing-tolerant plants, which include some cereals,
undergo cold acclimation, a gradual adaptation to cold but not freezing
temperatures. In the process, the plants secrete antifreeze proteins (AFP) that
inhibit the growth of ice crystals. Finding out what proteins keep plants
frost-free can help scientists engineer other plants with cold acclimation.
Mahmoud W.F. Yaish and colleagues of University of Waterloo, Canada report on "Cold-Active Winter Rye Glucanases with Ice-Binding Capacity" in the latest
issue of Plant Physiology, where they characterize glucanases,
pathogenesis-related proteins found in winter rye, to further examine the
enzymes' roles and contributions to cold tolerance.
Glucanases were
previously known to function in plant pathogen resistance, cell wall synthesis,
and pollen development, but the current study shows that these enzymes can
contribute to protecting plants from forming ice crystals in cold conditions.
Scientists found this out by expressing two different glucanases in
Escherichia coli, purifying the recombinant proteins, and assaying them for
their hydrolytic and antifreeze activities in vitro. Glucanases, they surmised,
have evolved not only to possess enzymatic activity in order to resist infection
by pathogens; glucanases also inhibit the formation of large, potentially fatal
ice crystals.
The next question to be addressed is whether glucanases
also act as AFPs in other plant species, for which a better understanding of the
additional roles that glucanases have in cold tolerance in planta is
required.
Subscribers to the journal can read the complete article at http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/full/141/4/1459.
Other readers can take a look at the abstract through http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/abstract/141/4/1459.
Source:
CropBiotech Update 15 September 2006:
Contributed by Margaret E.
Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
(Return to
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+++++++++++++++++++++++
1.38
Update 6-2006 of FAO-BiotechNews (Selected articles).
1) FAO Biotechnology Documents webpage updated
The annotated list
of on-line documents available on the FAO Biotechnology ebsite has recently been
updated. It currently provides over 150 web links o a wide range of
freely-downloadable articles, books, meeting reports, proceedings and studies
published by FAO, or prepared in collaboration with FAO, in recent years
concerning biotechnology in food and agriculture. The webpage (http://www.fao.org/biotech/doc.asp) is available in Arabic, Chinese,
English, French and Spanish and many of the documents are available in several
languages. For more information, contact biotech-website@fao.org.
5)
Publication on biotechnology and genetic resources
The FAO publication
entitled "The role of biotechnology in exploring and protecting agricultural
genetic resources" is now available in HTML format. The book aims to provide an
updated overview of the current status of the world's genetic resources for food
and agriculture, of the use of biotechnology tools for characterizing and
conserving these genetic resources, and of the many specific issues involved in
applying them in developing countries. See the book at http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0399e/a0399e00.htm;
an FAO news story (in Arabic, English, French and Spanish) about the book at http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000355/index.html
or contact Charlotte.Lietaer@fao.org to request a copy.
6) AGORA
initiative expanded
The Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture
(AGORA) initiative was set up by FAO in 2003 together with major publishers to
provide free or low-cost access to leading scientific journals in agriculture
and related biological, environmental and social sciences to public institutions
in developing countries. Originally dealing with 69 low-income countries, it has
now been expanded in its second phase to include universities, colleges,
research institutes and government ministries as well as non-governmental
organisations in an additional 37 lower-middle income countries. The initiative
provides access to over 900 journals, many dealing directly or indirectly with
biotechnology. See http://www.aginternetwork.org/en/index.php
(in Arabic, English, French or Spanish) or contact agora@fao.org for further
information.
9) FAO/IAEA Plant Breeding and Genetics Newsletter
17
The July 2006 newsletter from the Plant Breeding and Genetics Section
of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture and
the FAO/IAEA Agriculture and Biotechnology Laboratory is now available. This
23-page newsletter, issued twice a year, gives an overview of their past and
upcoming events (meetings, training courses etc.), ongoing projects and
publications. See http://www-naweb.iaea.org/nafa/pbg/public/pb-nl-17.pdf
(1.2 MB) or contact k.allaf@iaea.org to request a copy.
15) Molecular
markers for allele mining - Workshop proceedings
On 22-26 August 2005, a
workshop on "Molecular markers for allele mining" was organised by the
International Plant Genetic Resources Institute on behalf of the Generation
Challenge Programme and hosted by the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation in
Chennai, India. Proceedings of the workshop (85 pages) have now
been
published, edited by M.C. de Vicente and J.C. Glaszmann. See http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/publications/pdf/1134.pdf
(1 MB) or contact ipgri-publications@cgiar.org for more information.
16)
GCP 2006 annual research meeting
The Generation Challenge Program (GCP)
annual research meeting was held on 12-16 September 2006 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Presentations and posters from the meeting are now available on the web. See http://www.generationcp.org/arm.php?da=0653125
or contact k.lesnick@cgiar.org for more
information. The GCP is one of the Challenge Programmes approved by the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and its aim is to "harness the rich global heritage of plant genetic resources and create a new
generation of crops that meet the needs of resource-poor people".
(Return to Contents)
=========================
2 PUBLICATIONS
2.01 New
report available from Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and NASDA
workshop on peaceful coexistence among growers of GE, conventional and organic
crops
Washington, DC
In March 2006, the Pew Initiative on Food and
Biotechnology and the National Association of
State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) held a workshop that examined how
growers of conventional, genetically engineered (GE), and organic crops can “peacefully coexist” in our ever-evolving marketplace.
The workshop,
which took place in Boulder, Colorado was the second of three sponsored by the
Pew Initiative and NASDA. Participants included representatives from state and
federal governments; GE, conventional, and organic farmers; the European Union,
seed companies, food processing and marketing companies, academia and the
biotech industry. All gathered to identify potential options for advancing
peaceful coexistence in the marketplace and to understand the existing and
future roles of the public and private sectors in achieving this goal.
Highlights include:
-“Peaceful coexistence” can be described as the
ability of conventional, GE and organic growers to effectively meet the
specifications of their targeted and consumer markets and ensure a strong,
vibrant, diverse agricultural economy.
-Growers of conventional and organic
crops have at times been denied market access when unable to meet the contract
or other market specifications.
-The lack of standardized, internationally
accepted marketing standards, testing methodologies, and protocols pose a
significant challenge to the smooth and efficient operation of both domestic and
international agricultural marketing chains.
-State agricultural agencies
are sometimes pressed to “pick sides” among GE, conventional, and organic
production methods, but they believe all three production systems are critical
to the economic viability and sustainability of U.S. agriculture.
-Overcoming the challenges and capitalizing on the opportunities provided by
fostering “peaceful coexistence” will require a combination of market, research,
farmer-to-farmer communication and Federal, state and local government efforts.
An overview of the conference agenda and the full paper from the
workshop, entitled Peaceful Coexistence Among Growers Of: Genetically
Engineered, Conventional and Organic Crops, can be viewed at: http://pewagbiotech.org/events/0301.
Additionally, proceedings from the first workshop on sharing
confidential business information between state and federal agencies involved in
agriculture biotechnology oversight, can be found at: http://pewagbiotech.org/events/1214.
Proceedings from the third workshop on issues relating to the federal
regulatory system governing agricultural biotechnology, and the appropriate role
for state agriculture agencies in that system, will be available in the near
future.
The Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology is a nonprofit,
nonpartisan research project whose goal is to inform the public and policymakers
on issues about genetically modified food and agricultural biotechnology,
including its importance, as well as concerns about it and its regulation. It is
supported by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts to the University of
Richmond.
Source: SeedQuest.com
12 October 2006
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2.02 National Academies advisory: Native
African vegetables
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to hundreds of
indigenous vegetables -- most of them resilient enough to thrive in poor soil --
that have fed Africans for tens of thousands of years. These plants, however,
receive little or no attention from the research community. LOST CROPS OF
AFRICA, VOLUME II: VEGETABLES, new from the National Research Council, discusses
how greater efforts to explore the potential of such vegetables could enhance
food supplies and economies across the continent.
###
Advance copies will
be available to reporters only beginning at 9 a.m. EST on Monday, Oct. 30. THE
REPORT IS EMBARGOED AND NOT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE BEFORE 4 P.M. EST ON TUESDAY,
OCT. 31. Reporters can obtain a copy by contacting the National Academies'
Office of News and Public Information at tel. 202-Contact: Vanee Vines
NEWS@NAS.EDU
The
National Academies
Source: EurekAlert.org
24 October
2006
(Return to
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2.03 Intellectual Property Management in
Health and Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook of Best
Practices
edited by Anatole Krattiger, Richard T. Mahoney, Lita
Nelsen, Jennifer A. Thomson, Alan B. Bennett, Kanikaram Satyanarayana, Gregory
D. Graff, Carlos Fernandez and Stanley P. Kowalski
This unique book
presents concepts and information in a simple, direct style. The chapters are
prefaced with succinct, no-nonsense editorial overviews that highlight the
contributors key points and place them in the context of evolving best practices
and broader policies and strategies. The Handbook covers:
IP and
Innovation in Health and Agriculture
The Tool Box
Global Access Licensing
Practices
The Ins and Outs of Contracts
IP Policies, Strategies and
Management Valuation, Commercialization and Spinouts
Special Cases (including
Genomics, Bioprospecting and Building Networks)
National, Institutional and
Topical Case Studies
and more
Visit www.ipHandbook.org to download sample
chapters and pre-order the Handbook (to be published in spring
2007).
Contributed by Anatole
Krattiger
anatole@bioDevelopments.org
(Return to
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=========================
3. WEB
RESOURCES
3.01 Global
Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species: What's going on in the area of
underutilized species?
The Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized
Species (GFU) is pleased to announce the publication of its re-styled
website.
Upfront on the home page you will find the latest postings
(documents, web sites, training and funding opportunities and announcements of
upcoming events).
The information is thematically grouped into 11
different categories, and each posting is accompanied by a summary, key words,
and other relevant information.
Several search functions have been
included to make sure that you easily find what you are looking for.
A
list of donors potentially interested to fund work on underutilized species has
been compiled in a donor database
along with other useful information for grant seekers.
A database on Who
is doing What in the field of underutilized species targeting organizations,
institutions, networks and individuals in the public and private sector is being
looked after in order to facilitate improved networking and develop synergies
amongst stakeholders.
You are given the opportunity to sign up and
receive a regular email with the latest information and many more.
Visit www.underutilized-species.org
Contributed
by Paul Bordoni
Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species
Rome,
Italy
underutilized-species@cgiar.org
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++++++++++++++++++++++++
3.02 The soybean breeder’s toolbox
Scientists
at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) recently unveiled an online database,
which they hope soybean breeders, producers, and scientists will use in their
research. "The Soybean Breeder's Toolbox" makes it easier to compare current
soybean genetic maps and will allow study of maps from other legume species when
they become available. Molecular markers on genetic map, and diseases and
insects that attack soybean plants are only a few of the topics that can be
sourced from the database. Also in the online toolkit are data associated with
soybean quantitative traits, such as resistance of different soybean genotypes
to biological and environmental stresses. The toolbox's linkage with other
databases will also make it possible to combine information from other databases
into a single report. The website is the new interface to SoyBase, a pioneering,
ARS-supported plant-genetic database established in 1993.
Access the
database at http://soybase.org/.
View the complete press release at http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2006/060925.htm.
Source:
CropBiotech Update 22 September 2006:
Contributed by Margaret E.
Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell University
mes25@cornell.edu
(Return to
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===========================
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
ANNOUNCEMENTS
UPDATE: Early registration deadline extended. 8-9
February 2007. A national workshop on Plant breeding: A
vital capacity for U.S. national goals, Raleigh, NC. Co-organized by
the Departments of Crop Science and Horticultural Science, North Carolina State
University; and by CSREES, USDA. New early registration deadline: Nov 30, 2006. Additional information at: http://www.plantbreedingworkshop.ncsu.edu/
Ann Marie Thro
CSREES,USDA
athro@csrees.usda.gov
+++++++++++++++
ESF-Wellcome
Trust Conference: Crop Genomics, Trait Analysis and Breeding
8 - 11
November 2006 Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK
Source: via http://plantbreeding.com/
+++++++++++++
Meeting
on plant temperature stress for 2007
"Temperature Stress in Plants" will take place January 21-26, 2007 in Ventura, California. The program will
cover the physiology, biochemistry, and genetics/genomics of plant responses to
high and low temperatures. In addition to model species, important issues
regarding agronomic, horticultural and ornamental species will be addressed. In
order to be considered for an oral presentation, submit abstracts November 1,
2006. For more information, visit http://www.grc.uri.edu/programs/2007/tempstrs.htm.
Source:
CropBiotech Update 22 September 2006:
Contributed by Margaret E.
Smith
Dept. of Plant Breeding & Genetics
Cornell
University
mes25@cornell.edu
+++++++++++++
Rockefeller's
Third General Meeting on "Biotechnology, Breeding, and Seed Systems for African
Crops" to be held 26-29 March 2007
The third general meeting of the
Rockefeller Foundation program on "Biotechnology, Breeding, and Seed Systems for
African Crops" will be held March 26-29, 2007 in Maputo, Mozambique. Rockefeller
Foundation grantees working on the genetic improvement of African crops and crop
seed systems, as well as others who are interested in this work, are invited to
attend. The meeting will be co-hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation and the
Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique (IIAM). More information can be
viewed online at the link below.
http://www.africancrops.net/rockefeller/icv3/
Source: Generation Challenge Program, http://www.generationcp.org
+++++++++++++
REPEAT
ANNOUNCEMENTS
* 2006-2008. Plant Breeding Academy,
University of California, Davis.
The University of California Seed
Biotechnology Center would like to inform you of an exciting new course we are
offering to teach the principles of plant breeding to seed industry personnel.
This two-year course addresses the reduced numbers of plant breeders
being trained in academic programs. It is an opportunity for companies to invest
in dedicated personnel who are currently involved in their own breeding
programs, but lack the genetics and plant breeding background to direct a
breeding program. Participants will meet at UC Davis for one week per quarter
over two years (eight sessions) to allow participants to maintain their current
positions while being involved in the course.
Instruction begins
Fall 2006 and runs through Summer 2008 (actual dates to be
determined)
For more information: (530) 754-7333, email scwebster@ucdavis.edu, http://sbc.ucdavis.edu/Events/Plant_Breeding_Academy.htm
*
5-11 November 2006 International symposium on integrating new technologies
for striga control: towards ending the witch-hunt, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Sponsored by International Sorghum and Millet Collaborative Research Support
Program (INTSORMIL), Purdue University and Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural
Research (EIAR).
Contact: Gebisa Ejeta, Purdue University, USA gejeta@purdue.edu)
http://www.agry.purdue.edu/strigaconference/
*
9-12 November 2006. 7th Australasian Plant Virology Workshop. Rottnest
Island, Perth, Western Australia.
For further information contact: Prof Mike
Jones, Murdoch University, Perth m.jones@murdoch.edu.au
* 4-22 November
2006. International training program on plant genetic resources and seeds:
Policies, conservation and use, Karaj, Iran. For further information on the
program please visit the websites of ICARDA: www.icarda.org (see: Seed Systems Support),
Wageningen International: www.wi.wur.nl
(see: international education at Wageningen UR, courses), or the Generation
Challenge Program: www.generationcp.org (see: capacity
building corner, training courses
* 12 November 2006. The Crop Science
Society of America annual meetings will be held in two
weeks Please note
the following Sunday, 12 November workshop:
Public Plant and Animal
Breeding
(http://crops.confex.com/crops/2006am/techprogram/D1130.HTM)
Sunday, 12
November 2006
1:30 PM-5:30 PM
Marriott Ballroom 1, Second
Floor
Many of you will be arriving on Sunday but may not be fully aware
of
this workshop. CSSA, along with several affiliated groups, is working
hard to develop more public and private support for plant (and animal)
breeding, and this workshop is part of this ongoing process.
* 13-17
November 2006. Cereal science and technology for feeding ten billion people:
genomics era and beyond, Lleida, Spain. www.eucarpia.com or joseluis.molina@irta.es
* 1-5
December 2006: The First International Meeting on Cassava Plant Breeding and
Biotechnology, to be held in Brasilia, Brazil. For more details, email Dr.
Nagib Nassar of the University of Brasilia at nagnassa@rudah.com.br
or visit the meeting website at http://www.geneconserve.pro.br/meeting/.
*
8-9 February 2007.. A national workshop on “Plant
breeding: A vital capacity for U.S. national goals”. Raleigh, NC.
Co-organized by CSREES, USDA; and by the Departments of Crop Science and
Horticultural Science, North Carolina State University. NOTE: EARLY
REGISTRATION DEADLINE EXTENDED to Nov 30, 2006. http://www.plantbreedingworkshop.ncsu.edu/
* 23-27
March 2007. 2nd International Conference on Plant Molecular
Breeding (ICPMB), Sanya, Hainan, China. www.icpmb.org
* 24-28 June 2007. The
9th International Pollination Symposium on Plant-Pollinator
RelationshipsDiversity in Action. Scheman Center, Iowa State
University, Ames, Iowa. The official theme is: "Host-Pollinator Biology
Relationships - Diversity in Action." The Conference webpage can be viewed at
http://www.ucs.iastate.edu/mnet/plantbee/home.html
*
9-14 September 2007. The World Cotton Research Conference-4, Lubbock,
Texas, USA (http://www.icac.org). There is no
cost of pre-registration and if you pre-register you will receive all the
up-coming information on WCRC-4.171 researchers from over 20 countries have
pre-registered.
(Return to
Contents)
=======================
7. EDITOR'S NOTES
Plant Breeding News is an electronic forum for the
exchange of information and ideas about applied plant breeding and related
fields. It is published every four to six weeks throughout the year.
The
newsletter is managed by the editor and an advisory group consisting of Elcio
Guimaraes (elcio.guimaraes@fao.org), Margaret Smith (mes25@cornell.edu), and
Anne Marie Thro (athro@reeusda.gov). The editor will advise subscribers one to
two weeks ahead of each edition, in order to set deadlines for
contributions.
REVIEW PAST NEWSLETTERS ON THE WEB: Past issues of the
Plant Breeding Newsletter are now available on the web. The address is: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/AGP/AGPC/doc/services/pbn.html. We
will continue to improve the organization of archival issues of the newsletter.
Readers who have suggestions about features they wish to see should contact the
editor at chh23@cornell.edu.
Subscribers are encouraged to take an active
part in making the newsletter a useful communications tool. Contributions may be
in such areas as: technical communications on key plant breeding issues;
announcements of meetings, courses and electronic conferences; book
announcements and reviews; web sites of special relevance to plant breeding;
announcements of funding opportunities; requests to other readers for
information and collaboration; and feature articles or discussion issues brought
by subscribers. Suggestions on format and content are always welcome by the
editor, at pbn-l@mailserv.fao.org. We would especially like to see a broad
participation from developing country programs and from those working on species
outside the major food crops.
Messages with attached files are not
distributed on PBN-L for two important reasons. The first is that computer
viruses and worms can be distributed in this manner. The second reason is that
attached files cause problems for some e-mail systems.
PLEASE NOTE: Every
month many newsletters are returned because they are undeliverable, for any one
of a number of reasons. We try to keep the mailing list up to date, and also to
avoid deleting addresses that are only temporarily inaccessible. If you miss a
newsletter, write to me at chh23@cornell.edu and I will re-send it.
To
subscribe to PBN-L: Send an e-mail message to: mailserv@mailserv.fao.org. Leave
the subject line blank and write SUBSCRIBE PBN-L (Important: use ALL CAPS). To
unsubscribe: Send an e-mail message as above with the message UNSUBSCRIBE PBN-L.
Lists of potential new subscribers are welcome. The editor will contact these
persons; no one will be subscribed without their explicit permission.
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