PLANT BREEDING NEWS
EDITION 235
31 May 2012
An Electronic Newsletter of Applied Plant Breeding
Clair H. Hershey, Editor
Sponsored by GIPB, FAO/AGP and Cornell University’s Department of
Plant Breeding and Genetics
-To subscribe,
see instructions here
-Archived issues
available at: FAO Plant Breeding Newsletter
Reviews of
broad issues in research and development
1.01 Nations need food security goals
People in the
news
1.02 Paddy Breeding Station of TNAU bags award
1.03 Cornell University plant breeder works to alleviate aluminum
toxicity in rice
Review of
breeding programs
1.04 New National
Plant Phenomics Centre opens at Aberystwyth University
1.05 ICRISAT and ICAR
partner to build climate resilient agriculture
1.06 HarvestPlus
Extends Reach in Latin America & Caribbean
1.07 Rice research in
Africa provides a strong case for investment
1.08 Drought tolerant
maize boosts farmers’ harvest in Tanzania
1.09 Modern hybrid
corn makes better use of nitrogen, study shows
Policy and IP
issues
1.10 Conventionally-bred plants or animals should be exempt from
patents, say European Parliament
1.11 CIOPORA looks at effects of America Invents Act on plant breeders
Genetic
resources
1.12 Seed diversity decline must urgently be stopped
1.13 USDA links gene flow between weedy and domesticated rice to
rising carbon dioxide levels
1.14 Kansas State
University scientists lead the effort that finds genes underlying the domestication of sorghum and other cereals
1.15 Experimental evidence for the ancestry of allotetraploid Trifolium
repens and creation of
synthetic forms with value for plant breeding
1.16 Researchers look
to relatives for clues in quest to develop sources of bioenergy
1.17 Genes underlying
the key domestication process in sorghum and other cereals
1.18 Implications of
farmers’ seed exchanges for on-farm conservation of quinoa, as revealed by its genetic diversity in Chile
1.19 Time is ticking
for some crop's wild relatives -New edge of extinction research is creating a revival of conservation and
interest in what these old plants mean to
the future
Trait
selection/variety traits; applied breeding
1.20 University of Nebraska-Lincoln researcher breeding dry beans
to be more drought tolerant
1.21 University
of Wisconsin-Madison plant breeders develop heart-healthier oat
1.22 Next-generation
disease resistance breeding
1.23 Newly identified gene helps to increase sugar beet yields
1.24 Generating whitefly-resistant plants
1.25 Improved roots
will boost crops
1.26 Cornell
researcher works to reduce aluminum toxicity in rice
1.27 New nematode
resistant wheat
1.28 Pyramiding
resistance genes to combat bacterial blight in hybrid rice
1.29 Genetic control of seed shattering in rice
1.30 Repeatability
and optimum trial configuration for field-testing of banana and plantain
1.31 ICARDA, Pak-US
Cotton Productivity Enhancement Programme (2011-14)
1.32 Cornell
researcher works to reduce aluminum toxicity in rice
1.33 New nematode
resistant wheat
1.34 Pyramiding
resistance genes to combat bacterial blight in hybrid rice
1.35 Genetic control
of seed shattering in rice
Molecular/basic
genetic research
1.36 International consortium sequences tomato genome
1.37 Candidate genes for drought tolerance identified in coffee
(Coffea canephora)
1.38 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory joins the Illumina Genome
Network
1.39 Potato genome mapping benefits
within a decade
1.40 New bench top machines open up DNA sequencing
1.41 First plant-made drug on the market
1.42 Discovery may allow plant breeders to ‘switch off’ flower
production
1.43 Nuclear-powered crops
1.44 Big advances from tiny technology - Is a game-changing device
in DNA sequencing about to
revolutionise the business of decoding genes?
1.45 BGI reports the completed sequence of foxtail millet genome
Network
news/newsletters
1.46 FAO/IAEA Plant Breeding and Genetics Newsletter 28
1.47 New Research Targets
2.01 Technical Manual
: Plant Breeding with Farmers
2.02 IITA's R4D Review on Crop Improvement published
3.
3.01 Launching of The Resource, a monthly update from NRI
3.02 Website launched for new international plant science network
3.03 A Global Food
Security Index under development
3.04 Tomato expert’s
field notes go online
3.05 Data portal aims to help unlock food production bottlenecks
3.06 Rice Bowl Index highlights
solutions for food security challenges across Asia- Pacific
4.01 CGIAR Program to
improve maize opens call for proposals
5.01 Plant Breeder, Tropical Forages
5.02 Hybrid Barley
Breeder
6. MEETINGS, COURSES
7. EDITOR
1 NEWS, ANNOUNCEMENTS
1.01 Nations need
food security goals
By Mark Kinver
Environment reporter, BBC News
Researchers are calling for a concerted approach to
agricultural policy, based on science Continue reading
the main story
The biggest environmental summit for a decade must make
meaningful progress on global food security and sustainable agriculture, say
researchers.
CGIAR, the world's largest publicly funded research body, has
published a seven-point "call to action" plan.
Ahead of the Rio gathering, scientists are calling for an
improved commitment to deliver nutrition security and lessen the need to aid.
Agriculture is estimated to provide jobs for 40% of the
world's population.
In its statement, CGIAR said: "Faced with environmental
degradation, climate change... and a world population that is continuing to
climb, it is critical for farm and natural resources management and policies to
play a more central role in shaping the broader development and environmental
agendas."
The organisations listed a
seven-point "call to action" list, which they
will present at the gathering in the Brazilian city, including:
"One reason why it is necessary to push attention on to
agriculture in Rio is because negotiations are going really slowly,"
explained CGIAR spokesman Bruce Campbell.
"We thought it was really important to put the focus on
agriculture in Rio, and the 15 research organisations have come together in
order to form a consortium and speak with one voice for the first time."
Dr Campbell added that the agencies were calling on the
negotiators to reaffirm the role of science and technology.
"We are also looking for an improvement between the
links between policy and science so then scientists are so much more linked
into the processes that matter," he said.
The Rio+20
Conference, formally known as the UN Conference on Sustainable
Development (UNCSD), will take place in Brazil on 20-22 June 2012.
The summit marks the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), which was also held in
Rio de Janeiro, and the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on
Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Organisers say that the conference will focus on two themes:
a green economy in the context of sustainable development poverty eradication;
and the institutional framework for sustainable development.
Seven priority areas have also been identified, including:
decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security and sustainable
agriculture, water, oceans and disaster readiness.
Heads of states from more than 100 nations are expected to
attend the summit.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18160089
Source: SeedQuest.com
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1.02 Paddy Breeding
Station of TNAU bags award
TNAU has so far released 50
varieties and possess state-of-art facilities
The Paddy Breeding Station of Tamil Nadu Agricultural
University has been conferred the ‘Best Plant Breeding Centre for Rice Award'
for its overall performance in development of rice varieties by the Directorate
of Rice Research, Hyderabad.
The station has been selected for the award from among the
107 stations in the country. It is noteworthy that the award has been conferred
when the station is celebrating its centenary year, according to TNAU
Vice-Chancellor P. Murugesa Boopathy.
“The landmark varieties that have been developed through Pure
Line Selection by this station triggered the growth of rice production in the
State. The first variety – GEB 24 (Kichili Samba) – released during 1921 played
a significant role in the development of rice cultivars over the years, not
only in India, but world-wide,” he said.
GEB 24 became very popular with wide coverage and thereby
attained world-wide recognition and since then had been used in several
national and international breeding programmes as progenitor for their
varieties. Other noteworthy rice varieties responsible for transforming rice
cultivation in the State were CO4 and CO25, CO37, CO38, CO40, CO43, CO47, etc.
The recently released CO (R) 48 and CO (R) 49 are the fine
grain varieties that cater to the current market demands.
K. Thiyagarajan, Director, Centre for Plant Breeding and
Genetics, TNAU, said the station was functioning with the objective of breeding
improved new rice varieties and hybrids for irrigated, drought and aerobic
situations. It had so far released 50 varieties. It possessed the
state-of-the-art facilities to enable the rice scientists for conducting high
quality research in rice cultivar development.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/article3386807.ece
Source: SeedQuest.com
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1.03 Cornell
University plant breeder works to alleviate aluminum toxicity in rice
May 7, 2012
Ithaca, New York, USA
As rice farmers around the world begin to turn from wet
paddies to dry fields in an attempt to conserve water and mitigate climate
change, they are facing a new foe: aluminum.
Aluminum, the third most abundant element in soil, can be
toxic to plants in acidic conditions. Its harmful effects are diluted in the
flooding of traditional rice paddies but are becoming an issue as farmers try
new ways of raising their crops.
Cornell plant breeder Professor Susan McCouch is working to
help make these new rice-rearing methods more viable. For example, she has
identified several promising varieties of rice that are tolerant to the metal
in research with Leon Kochian of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Robert
Holley Center for Agriculture and Health.
They found, for instance, that japonica varieties are twice
as tolerant to aluminum than the more diverse indica varieties commonly grown
around the world. They also discovered that there are different mechanisms
within each variety that influence their tolerance -- some are able to keep aluminum
from entering the roots, while others take up the metal and detoxify it inside
root cells.
McCouch is now trying to determine whether crosses among the
strains could result in new super-tolerant varieties.
"In the coming years, we will need to double rice
production, with less water and fewer inputs. Genetic variation will be key to
accomplishing that goal," McCouch said.
Insight into aluminum tolerance in rice could also provide a
good model to investigate the effects of aluminum toxicity in such important
cereal crops as maize and wheat, which are less tolerant than rice, McCouch
said. Aluminum toxicity is a primary limitation to crop production on about 50
percent of the world's potentially arable land, including about 20 percent of
land in North America.
Her lab has published several papers about the work over the
past year, in PLoS Genetics and Plant Physiology, and McCouch presented her
findings in April at a Cornell symposium. Harnessing a wider spectrum of
genetic variation requires a lot of time and money, she said at the symposium,
as well as a good roadmap, which is where her lab is providing valuable
insight.
McCouch's cutting-edge rice breeding program still uses
traditional breeding techniques and works with ancient cultivars and wild
strains of rice.
"Gene banks around the world are storing seeds from
thousands of varieties that have never been used. This kind of new information
opens up enormous possibilities," McCouch said.
She also applies the latest genomic sequencing technologies
and algorithms developed in her lab to identify the location of desirable
traits on genes of those varieties. As part of the aluminum tolerance study,
graduate students Randy Clark and Adam Famoso created a novel 3-D imaging and
software system that allowed them to record and assess the entire root system,
rather than relying on traditional methods that use a ruler or a caliper to
measure just the longest root.
"What good is sequencing info if you can't connect the
dots? Knowing where to look for positive alleles and how to recombine them will
be key to breeding in the future," McCouch said.
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=26713&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: SeedQuest.com
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1.04 New National Plant Phenomics
Centre opens at Aberystwyth University
May 14, 2012
Aberystwyth, United Kingdom
Today, Monday 14 May 2012, the new National Plant Phenomics
Centre, which features the most advanced research greenhouse in the UK, will be
formally opened at Aberystwyth University's Institute of Biological,
Environmental and Rural Sciences.
The new Centre is a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council (BBSRC) supported national facility and has been developed at
a cost of £6.8M.
The research conducted at this new national centre will help
to develop new plant and crop varieties to help tackle the global challenges of
climate change, food security and replacing oil based products.
Located on the University's Gogerddan campus, it will be will
be opened by BBSRC Chairman, Professor Sir Tom Blundell FRS at 12.00 p.m.
The new building is one of two significant capital investment
developments that are being opened on the same day.
At 3.30 p.m. Welsh Government Education and Skills Minister
Leighton Andrews will open new teaching and researcher facilities on the
University's Penglais campus.
The new Penglais facility represents an investment of £5.6M
and houses the Bioinformatics and Spatial Modelling laboratories as well as
offering a hub for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.
Together the developments represent the culmination of a four
year £25M capital investment programme made possible by financial support from
the BBSRC, the Welsh Government and the European Union.
Professor April McMahon, Vice Chancellor of Aberystwyth
University said: "This is an
immensely significant day for Aberystwyth University and
IBERS. The opening of a new national facility here at Aberystwyth reflects the
ambition we have as a University to contribute as an international centre of
excellence, both in terms of research and in inspiring a new generation of
highly trained graduates who are equipped with the skills to tackle some of the
pressing environmental challenges faced by society."
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank the
BBSRC and the Welsh Government for their investment in this flagship project
and to all who have been involved during design and construction," she
added.
Professor Wayne Powell, Director of IBERS said: "The
combined effects of world population growth, climate change and the scarcity of
water and land mean that food and water security represent key global
challenges for the 21st century. The National Plant Phenomics Centre means that
researchers based in the UK and internationally have the very latest technology
at their disposal to develop new crop varieties that can thrive in challenging
conditions and make a significant contribution to future food production."
BBSRC Chairman, Professor Sir Tom Blundell, said: "The
benefits of this investment will reach well beyond the walls of the University,
offering a new national capability in crop science. Discoveries made here will
contribute to combating major challenges, such as feeding a growing population.
This investment in bioscience infrastructure not only creates immediate jobs,
in areas such as construction, it also contributes to the potential for growth
of the UK knowledge-based bioeconomy."
Leighton Andrews said: "This superb facility for
research and teaching in the land based sciences is a great example of the kind
of cutting-edge Higher Education the Welsh Government wants to see. We've made
a significant capital investment in Aberystwyth University as part of our
ambitious agenda for science and innovation here in Wales. This new centre will
develop the University's reputation as a globally-significant centre of
bioscience research which should be celebrated."
The centre, which features a state of the art greenhouse -
the only one of its kind in the UK and one of only seven in the world, will
enable researchers to study individual plants in a way that has never before
been possible.
With the capacity to house up to 850 individually potted
plants on a series of conveyor belts measuring over 300 meters long, scientists
will be able to apply different feeding and watering regimes to individual
plants as they study the influence of individual genes.
Ten computer controlled cameras using fluorescence, infra-red
and near infra-red, laser and root imaging technology combine to provide 3D
images of the plants and monitor their growth on a daily basis.
This level of detail, which cannot be achieved using current
research methods, will enable researchers to speed up the process of
identifying potentially beneficial genes.
The beneficial genes will be used for the development of new
plant varieties to tackle the global challenges of climate change and food
security and to replace oil based products.
IBERS Penglais
The new teaching and research facilities at IBERS Penglais
are designed to provide a hub for innovative collaboration between IBERS
scientists and researchers in other areas at Aberystwyth University.
Working closely with computer scientists, IBERS scientists
are collaborating on exciting new developments that pave the way for processing
huge amounts of data about the new varieties of plants that are being developed.
This work is based at the newly established Bioinformatics Laboratory.
The Spatial Modelling Laboratory brings together biologists
and geographers to understand how the geography of an area affects biological
processes. One area of research at Aberystwyth is looking at the spread of
Malaria in Africa, and how this might be affected by climate change.
The new facilities have also been designed to develop new
postgraduate courses including a new degree in Green Biotechnology and
Innovation.
This new MSc will train students in green biotechnology
research, management, business and interaction with industry and provide a new
generation of business aware biotechnologists skilled to develop bio-based
products to replace fossil fuels and meet global government targets for carbon
reduction.
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=26852&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: SeedQuest.com
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1.05 ICRISAT and ICAR partner to build
climate resilient agriculture
22 May 2012
New Delhi, India
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) have
called to adapt new measures to tackle the growing climate related risks and
constraints that prevail in rural areas. The two lead organizations and their
partners emphasized to adopt a different perspective and approach by listening,
observing and learning from the people that are supposed to help with research
findings, technology and knowhow.
"Climate change is happening and its impacts are already
being felt. Climate change will impact several sectors including agriculture,
fisheries, water etc. where the world population depends for their sustenance.
Climate change impacts are imminent, irrespective of the geographical
distribution and the impacts are going to be severe" said Shri Harish
Rawat, Union Ministry of State for Agriculture, Food Processing and
Parliamentary Affairs at the National Agricultural Science Centre, (NASC) here
today. He was speaking at the inauguration of the policy dialogue on "Building
Climate Resilient Agriculture in India", organized by the Research Program
on Markets, Institutions and Policies (RP-MIP) of ICRISAT in collaboration with
ICAR with support from Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Attended by over 60 dignitaries including key policy makers
and other important stakeholders in India including representatives of
concerned ministries and departments, the deliberation highlighted the
grassroots level insights in climate related risks and constraints that prevail
in rural areas. These constraints were identified and analyzed as part of ADB
funded seven-country project "Vulnerability to Climate Change: Adaptation
Strategies and Layers of Resilience".
In his keynote address Director General of ICRISAT Dr William
D Dar said, “We're going to hold ourselves accountable. We'll measure results.
And we'll stay focused on clear goals: boosting farmers' incomes and over the
next decade helping 50 million men, women and children lift themselves out of
poverty. The smallholder farmers who live in the semi-arid tropics and coastal
areas are severely affected by climate change trends that are the result of
mostly industrial and urban lifestyles."
"If I may indulge, the crisis management plan for
drought of the government of India (2012) presents a disturbing picture. The
report says that annually 50 million people are exposed to chronic drought.
Sixteen percent of India's land area is drought prone, 68 percent of land area
sown is exposed to drought. Most drought prone areas in India lie in the arid
(19.5%) semi-arid (37%) and sub-humid (21%) areas of the country occupying
77.6% of total land out of 329 mil. ha. Thirty three percent of land receives
less than 750 mm of rainfall and classified as chronically drought prone."
added Dr Dar.
"Thus spoke US President Barack Obama last Friday at a
symposium on “New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition” on the eve of the
G8 meeting at Camp David. In the same speech, President Obama unveiled a $3bn
(£1.9bn) plan to boost food security and farm productivity in Africa funded by
private US companies. "It's a moral imperative, it's an economic
imperative and it's a security imperative," Pres. Obama said. The $3bn
announcement by Obama is a bold US initiative which, however, goes only a small
way to fulfilling the $22bn pledge of the G8 nations in 2009," added Dr
Dar.
Director General of ICAR Dr S Ayyappan in his opening address
said "The collaboration of ICAR with ICRISAT dates back decades and has
been quite fruitful in addressing the farmers’ problems in totality. As far as
climate change is concerned, it is a global phenomenon. The increase in the
atmospheric temperature, due to rise in greenhouse gas levels such as carbon
dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, is the prime driver of climate
change."
Today’s dialogue is part of the ongoing collaborative project
between ICRISAT and ICAR (CRIDA) on `Vulnerability to Climate Change:
Adaptation Strategies and Layers of Resilience’ and this meeting is crucial to
give a final shape to the conclusions that emanated from this project through
in-depth analysis of datasets with a micro-level perspective through expert
consultation process for evolving a policy document based on the project
outcome.
During the deliberations’, it was reported that the early
signs of increasing climatic variability are gradually becoming more visible in
the form of increasing melting of Himalayan glaciers, flash floods, and intense
rainfall over short periods. In Indian context, the climate change is likely to
exacerbate the current stresses and increase vulnerability of food production
and livelihoods of the farming community. Most specifically, the small and
marginal farmers are most vulnerable to the impact of climate change.
Every 1oC increase in temperature throughout crop cycle may
reduce wheat production by 4-5 million tones which can be reduced to 1-2
million tones with timely planting.
The milk production is projected to decrease by 1.5 million
tones by 2020 due to increase in temperature leading to heat stress in
livestock.
Increase in sea and river water temperatures are likely to
affect fish breeding, migration, and harvests.
In addition, it was also reported that by the end of the 21st
century rainfall will increase by 15-31%, and the mean annual temperature will
increase by 3 to 6°C.
Dr Dar observed “For generations to come, what we do now will
decide the future.” The voices at the grassroots level will be heard if “we act
now, we act together and we act differently,” he concluded.
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=27095&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: SeedQuest.com
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1.06 HarvestPlus Extends Reach in Latin
America & Caribbean
May 15, 2012
Washington, DC
Latin American and Caribbean
countries (LAC) are about to benefit from a renewed effort to improve nutrition
and public health. AgroSalud, a program that has been developing
more nutritious staple food crops for LAC, has been integrated into
HarvestPlus, a global program that improves nutrition by developing food crops
rich in minerals and vitamins through a process called biofortification.
“This now allows us to expand and align biofortification in
LAC with our programs in Sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, making HarvestPlus
a truly global program to improve nutrition,” said HarvestPlus Director,
Howarth Bouis.
Marilia Nutti, who coordinates BioFORT a
biofortification program based at Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research
Corporation), will now also coordinate the biofortification program for LAC.
Nutti has built BioFORT into an extensive network of 150 Brazilian partners
that includes 11 Embrapa units, numerous universities, state government, NGOs,
farmer associations, and researchers. At least ten different nutrient-rich crop
varieties have been released in Brazil including crops as diverse as cowpea and
cassava.
“We are pleased to support Marilia Nutti in this new
position,” said Pedro Antonio Arraes Pereira, President of Embrapa. “We are
confident that under her leadership, HarvestPlus will be able to reproduce the
success with biofortification that we’ve had in Brazil throughout the LAC
region.”
Nutti will now focus her attention on Guatemala, Haiti, and
Nicaragua, which have some of the highest levels of vitamin and mineral
deficiencies in the region. Panama, where the government already supports
biofortification, will also benefit from renewed efforts. In line with the
HarvestPlus approach, the program will include breeding and nutrition research,
delivery of nutrient-rich crops to farmers, developing food products based on
biofortified crops, and measuring impact.
HarvestPlus leads a global effort to make familiar staple
foods that people eat every day more nutritious and available to those
suffering from hidden hunger. We use a process called biofortification to breed
higher amounts of vitamins and minerals directly into foods such as bean,
cassava, orange sweet potato, rice, maize, pearl millet, and wheat. HarvestPlus
is part of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Improved Nutrition and
Health. It is coordinated by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture
(CIAT) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
Source: HarvestPlus Highlights, Spring / Summer 2012
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1.07 Rice research in Africa provides a
strong case for investment
May 2, 2012
Cotonou, Benin
Excited by the work of the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice)
and its partners on the development of new stress-tolerant and
climate-resilient technologies for major rice production systems in Africa, the
Chair of the AfricaRice Board of Trustees Dr. Peter Matlon stated at the recent
Board meeting, “We believe that rice research in Africa provides a strong case
for investment.”
The work includes marker-assisted selection for tolerance to
important yield-limiting and yield-reducing stresses, such as salinity,
drought, cold, iron toxicity, rice yellow mottle virus and rice blast as well
as component technologies to increase labor, nutrient and water productivities
to close yield gaps and reduce risks in farmers’ fields. Several of these
technological options are already being tested in participation with farmers.
The Board described AfricaRice’s new product-oriented 10-year
strategic plan, which presents a clear vision of success to help Africa achieve
almost 90% self-sufficiency in rice by year 2020, as “a compelling and
convincing agenda for realizing Africa’s tremendous rice potential.”
The current thrusts of AfricaRice were recognized by the
Board as signs of a new vitality and resurgence of rice research in Africa.
These include:
1.
Evidence-based policy advocacy;
2.
The establishment of ‘Rice Sector
Development Hubs’ to conduct proof-of concept work with public and private
sector partners to develop competitive, equitable and sustainable rice value
chains tailored to market demand;
3.
Focused research product
development to enable sustainable intensification and diversification of
rice-based systems (varieties, agronomic options, mechanization); and
4.
Strengthening of the capacities of
national rice research and extension communities and rice value-chain actors.
In particular, AfricaRice’s strategic vision and leadership,
diversified partnership and sound financial management were highlighted by the
Board, based on the following indicators:
• Significant
increase in average annual contribution of member countries to AfricaRice
• Increase in
reserve funds that contribute to financial stability and efficient management of risks
• Increase in
the volume of joint projects with national partners
• Increase in
the number of PhD students (43 in 2011 compared with 9 in 2006) and MSc/DEA students ( 51 in 2011 compared
with 5 in 2006)
• Increase in
the number of workshops and training programs to build Africa’s research and development capacity
relating to rice
• Launch of the
CGIAR Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) activities in Africa under the
leadership of AfricaRice
• Launch of the
Africa-wide Rice Task Forces
• Strategic
alliance forged with the African Union, and
• Winning of
several international and regional awards, including the Japan International Award for Young Researchers
“Our ambition is to maintain high standards of excellence at
all levels and to keep in mind that AfricaRice can achieve its mission only
through strong national agricultural research systems and strategic
partnerships worldwide in order to bring the best efforts of rice science to
bear on the immense challenge of food security faced by Africa,” said
AfricaRice Director General Dr. Papa Abdoulaye Seck.
Gratefully acknowledging the strong support of donors and
partners, particularly the member countries of AfricaRice, the Board concluded
that rice research in Africa was on the right track.
AfricaRice is an intergovernmental research association of 24
African member countries. It is also a member of the CGIAR Consortium.
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=26591&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: SeedQuest.com
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1.08 Drought tolerant maize boosts
farmers’ harvest in Tanzania
In Tanzania, farmers who used to grow millet, sorghum and
other legumes are now part of an international research project called Water
Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA). The farmers are using five maize varieties
that are being tested in WEMA's efforts to increase food production and help
farmers face the challenges of climate change.
Barnabas Kiula, WEMA's lead researcher in Tanzania, said that
Situka, one of the maize varieties being introduced, can be grown in dry
conditions and still be ready for harvest in only 75 days, when most varieties
need at least 90 days to mature. According to him, the pressing need for food
security in the region led to the decision to experiment which introduced maize
to areas which have not traditionally grown the crop. "People are dying of
hunger in this area. They live by food handouts every single year. We hope that
drought tolerant maize could reverse this situation," he said.
Hassan Mshinda, director-general of the Tanzania Commission
for Science and Technology, which is coordinating WEMA activities in the
country, said that affordable, drought resistant varieties of staple crops will
be important for dealing not only with climate change but also with general
poor growing conditions and low yields in some African countries.
More information is available at http://allafrica.com/stories/201205141155.html
Source: Crop Biotech Update 18 May 2012
Contributed by Margaret Smith
Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics, Cornell
University
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1.09 Modern hybrid corn makes better
use of nitrogen, study shows
April 30, 2012
West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
Today's hybrid corn varieties more efficiently use nitrogen
to create more grain, according to 72 years of public-sector research data reviewed
by Purdue University researchers.
Tony Vyn, a professor of agronomy, and doctoral student
Ignacio Ciampitti looked at nitrogen use studies for corn from two periods –
1940-1990 and 1991-2011. They wanted to see whether increased yields were due to
better nitrogen efficiency or whether new plants were simply given additional
nitrogen to produce more grain.
"Corn production often faces the criticism from society
that yields are only going up because of an increased dependency on
nitrogen," said Vyn, whose findings were published in the early online
version of the journal Field Crops Research. "Although modern hybrids take
up more total nitrogen per acre during the growing season than they did before,
the amount of grain produced per pound of nitrogen accumulated in corn plants
is substantially greater than it was for corn hybrids of earlier decades. So,
in that sense, the efficiency of nitrogen utilization has gradually
improved."
Vyn and Ciampitti's analysis covered about 100 worldwide
studies. Of those, 870 data points were taken from the earlier period through
1990, and 2,074 points were taken from studies after 1990, when transgenic
hybrids started hitting the market. All studies involved analyses of total
nitrogen uptake and grain yield by corn plants at maturity, usually in response
to multiple nitrogen application rates.
Grain yields in these research studies averaged about 143
bushels of corn per acre over the last 21 years compared with an average of 115
bushels in the previous 50 years. Those studies showed that in the earlier
period, one pound of nitrogen applied to a field produced about 49 kilograms of
grain. In the more recent period, the same amount of nitrogen produced about 56
kilograms of grain.
About 90 percent of the corn data points examined in Vyn's
study evaluated nitrogen rates between zero and 250 pounds per acre. Over both
periods, the average rate of nitrogen fertilizer distributed in experimental
fields was nearly the same – 124 pounds per acre in the earlier period vs. 123
pounds in the later period.
Vyn said genetic improvements have led to corn plants that
require less space around them, allowing growers to squeeze more plants into an
acre. Research fields from the modern era averaged about 28,900 plants per acre
– about the average final plant populations in Indiana cornfields in 2011 -
compared with 22,800 plants per acre from 1940-1990.
"The maximum individual plant nitrogen uptake stayed
exactly the same despite the average gain of 6,000 more plants per acre,"
Vyn said. "The modern plants are just more efficient at taking nitrogen up
and utilizing it than they were before."
Vyn and Ciampitti are working toward methods to increase
grain yields further by investigating the contribution of nitrogen to plant
biomass and yield formation processes in high-yielding hybrids under a wide
range of nitrogen inputs and production stress factors. Knowing that modern
hybrids are sustaining a reasonable quantity of nitrogen uptake even under
progressively higher plant densities is a good start, Ciampitti said.
"We are getting clues on how plants have already
improved nitrogen use efficiency, and we will use that to push for further
increases," Ciampitti said. "We finally feel like we're shedding some
light on what traits plant breeders should select for to increase nitrogen
efficiency even more."
Vyn and Ciampitti plan to further investigate how water use
efficiency and nitrogen use efficiency are tied together, as well as how plants
can achieve more tolerance to environmental stresses.
Dow AgroSciences, PotashCorp and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture funded their work.
Abstratc
Physiological Perspectives of Changes Over Time in Maize
Yield Dependency on Nitrogen Uptake and Associated Nitrogen Efficiencies: A
Review Ignacio A. Ciampitti, Tony J. Vyn.
Over the past three decades, the study of various mechanisms
involved in maize grain yield (GY) formation and its relationship with nitrogen
(N) uptake dynamics has been increasingly acknowledged in the scientific
literature. However, few studies have combined investigations of GY response to
N fertilizer with detailed physiologically based analyses of plant N dynamics
such as N uptake quantities, timing, and (or) partitioning – and the complex
interactions of those with specific genotypes (G), management practices (M),
and (or) production environments (E). Limited reporting of both N and yield
dynamics at plant-component, individual-plant, and community levels has
contributed to a considerable knowledge gap as to whether the physiological
mechanisms that govern maize plant N dynamics and their relationship with GY
formation have changed with time. We, therefore, undertook a comprehensive
review to discern trends in physiological aspects of maize response to changing
plant densities and fertilizer N rates (M components) under the umbrella of
evolving G x E interactions. We reviewed 100 published and unpublished papers
based on field experiments which consistently reported total plant N uptake at
maturity and maize GY (frequently among other physiological variables).
Our analyses were limited nearly exclusively to experiments
involving hybrid (as distinct from inbred) response to M input levels where
plant density data was available. Dissection of the complex interactions among
years, plant densities and N rates began with division of treatment mean data
(close to ∼3000 individual
points) into two time periods defined by year(s) of the original research: (i)
studies from 1940 to 1990 – "Old Era" and, (ii) studies from 1991 to
2011 – "New Era." For the Old Era, maize GY averaged 7.2 Mg
ha−1 at a mean plant density of 5.6 pl m−2 with a total plant N
uptake of 152 kg N ha−1, a grain harvest index (HI) of 48% and N harvest
index (NHI) of 63%. For the New Era, maize GY averaged 9.0 Mg ha−1 at a
mean plant density of 7.1 pl m−2, total plant N uptake of 170 kg N
ha−1, a grain HI of 50% and a NHI of 64%.
The most striking findings in terms of overall GY and plant N
uptake were: (1) on a per-unit-area basis, both potential GY and NIE (GY/N
uptake) increased from Old to New Era at comparable N uptake levels, and (2) on
a per-plant basis, total plant N uptake at maturity had not changed between
eras despite increased plant density in the New Era genotypes.
Other important findings in terms of plant growth and
component partitioning responses to N were (i) a consistently strong dependency
between dry matter and N allocation to the ear organ in both eras; (ii) higher
total plant biomass (BM) accumulation and N uptake, on an absolute basis,
during the post-silking period with New Era genotypes accompanied by relatively
smaller changes in HI and NHI; (iii) a strong correlation between plant N
uptake at silking time and per-plant GY and its components in both eras; (iv)
New Era (56.0 kg GY grain kg−1 N) was primarily associated with reduced
grain %N, and to a minor degree with NHI gains; and (v) New Era genotypes
showed higher tolerance to N deficiency stress (higher GY when no N fertilizer
was applied), and larger GY response per unit of N applied, relative to Old Era
hybrids.
This improved understanding of the physiological factors
underlying progress in maize yield response to N over time, within the context
of changing G x E x M factors, serves to help guide maize programs focused on
achieving further improvements in N use efficiency.
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=26519&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: SeedQuest.com
1.10 Conventionally-bred
plants or animals should be exempt from patents, say European Parliament
May 10, 2012
Strasbourg, France
Parliament wants to protect European breeders from excessive
patent protection, which it believes could stifle innovation and progress. In a
non-binding resolution adopted on Thursday, it says products such as
anti-carcinogenic broccoli or high-yield dairy cows, produced by conventional
breeding techniques, should not be patented.
MEPs recognise that patents are an important tool for the
transfer of technology but stress that "excessively broad patent
protection can hamper innovation and progress and become detrimental to small
and medium breeders by blocking access to animal and plant genetic
resources".
The non-legislative resolution was adopted.by 354 votes to
192, with 22 abstentions.
Exemptions for
conventional breeding
Parliament calls on the European Patent Office to exclude
products derived from conventional breeding and all conventional breeding
methods from patenting. It also wants the Commission and the Member States to
ensure that the EU continues to exempt breeders from its patent law on plant
and animal breeding.
Concern for the
impact on industry
MEPs remind the Commission of its duty to report annually “on
the development and implications of patent law in the field of biotechnology
and genetic engineering”, pointing out that it has not published any reports
since 2005. They want the Commission's next report to examine the impact of the
patenting of breeding methods on the breeding and food industry.
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=26784&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: SeedQuest.com
1.11 CIOPORA looks at
effects of America Invents Act on plant breeders
May 24, 2012
Geneva, Switzerland
By Catherine Saez
CIOPORA, an international association of plant breeders, held
its annual meeting recently with a focus on novelties in plant patents
introduced by the America Invents Act, to become effective on 16 March 2013.
According to a press release [pdf] on the outcome of the
meeting and an article by two patent experts in the CIOPORA Chronicle, three
major areas of plant patenting are related: grace period, priority claim and
novelties in procedures.
The one year “grace period”, which allows plant breeders to
announce or commercialise their inventions within the year following the plant
patent application, has been maintained in the America Invents Act. There had
been some expectation that it might be removed.
Plant patent applicants must indicate the priority claim for
the earlier plant breeders’ rights application issued by the respective
governmental authority when applying for a US plant patent. Once the priority
claim is confirmed, the effective date for the US plant patent will be
considered to be the earlier plant breeder’s rights application, according to
the release.
Third parties can submit information relevant to the
patentability of new plant varieties or challenge the plant patent after it has
been granted under the new act, CIOPORA said.
CIOPORA is the International Association of Breeders of
Vegetatively Reproduced Ornamental and Fruit Varieties.
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=27128&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: Intellectual Property Watch
1.12 Seed diversity
decline must urgently be stopped
May 24, 2012
Brussels
Civil Society urges EU law-makers
to come up with an environment, farmer and consumer friendly review of the
legislation on the marketing of Seed and Propagating Material (S&PM)
PDF French version: Il faut sans délai stopper le déclin de la biodiversité au
sein des semences
PDF German version: Der Verlust der Saatgut-Vielfalt muss gestoppt werden
PDF English version: Seed diversity decline must urgently be stopped
Today, a broad coalition of over 240 civil society
organisations and enterprises (1) from 40 countries from the EU, the EFTA,
candidate countries and from 6 continents urged European leaders to reverse the
disastrous decline in biodiversity in Europe.
In their Open Letter to the Members of the European
Parliament and 7 European Commissioners the NGOs argue that the present review
of the legislation on the marketing of Seed and Propagating Material (S &
PM) (2) represents a unique opportunity to make the long overdue move towards a
sustainable European seed policy that contributes to the protection and
improvement of biodiversity and the environment, that takes into account
consumers´ interest in diversity on the food market and in availability of
healthy food also in the future, and that responds to needs of small scale
farmers and gardeners for locally adapted seeds.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates
a loss of cultivated agricultural biodiversity of 75% since 1900, when the seed
market emerged. EU seed legislation, established in the 1960s, contributed to
this erosion process by banning all seeds from the market that are not
compatible with a list of criteria, many of these criteria being shaped for
seed production for large scale and industrial needs. In the meantime, during
the last 30 years, the seed sector has gone through massive concentration
processes, leading to nowadays not more than 10 multinational companies
controlling 74% of the global seed market.
“In addition to making the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP)
more environmentally friendly, maintaining seeds diversity is essential to
ensuring that agriculture systems are resilient to the threats they face” said
Faustine Defossez, agriculture and bioenergy policy officer for the EEB.
“European agriculture faces enormous challenges including soil depletion, loss
of biodiversity, water quality and without serious investments these will not
be resolved. A sound review of the legislation on Seed and Propagating Material
is one essential tool to get there” she added.
Agricultural Biodiversity has been rightly identified as “the
very stuff of food production and an essential resource for plant and animal
breeding” by the IAASTD (2009) (3). For Antje Kölling from the IFOAM EU Group,
the use of varieties bred under organic farming conditions as well as other
locally adapted varieties with a wider genetic basis is essential to conserve
and improve the capacity of food production systems to adapt successfully to
changing environmental conditions, and thus to ensure future food security.
Moreover, the availability of a broad range of varieties bears the potential to
support the delivery of ecosystem services from farm land and to reduce the
amount of inputs such as water, chemicals and pesticides. “To respond to the
pressing challenges our food systems are facing, the EU seed legislation
urgently needs a ‘Greening’ – which means we need to create spaces that
facilitate the use and marketing of plant varieties with a broader
intra-varietal genetic spectrum” she added.
Seed savers groups throughout Europe are concerned by the EU
seed legislation. “European private gardens play an important role in providing
fresh and healthy food to the citizens. But they are also an important refuge
for an almost extinct diversity of vegetables and fruits”, says Christian
Schrefel, president of Arche Noah, seed savers association in Central Europe.
“The private freedom of exchanging seeds must not be sacrificed in the name of
productivity and uniformity. Illegalizing these activities would lead to
accelerated extinction of European seed diversity and drive us further towards
seed industry dominance.”
“Seeds are much more than an economic commodity. They have an
ethical value linking culture and food habits.” Piero Sardo, President of the
Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, is concerned that the disappearance of
local seeds has gone hand in hand with the disappearance of small farmers,
local food cultures and traditional knowledge. “Increasing seed diversity also
means stimulating healthy food diversity and the richness of taste,” Sardo
says.
Guy Kastler from the European
Coordination Via Campesina, organisation fighting for farmer’s rights,
points out the essential contributions that farmers in Europe have made
throughout centuries, make and will continue to make to the conservation and
development of agricultural biodiversity: “The review of the S&PM
legislation must recognize the rights of farmers in Europe to save, reuse,
share, sell and protect their seeds.”
It is now time for policy makers to act and implement
citizens and farmers needs for an overdue review that allows use of sustainable
seeds and diversity in tastes and colours.
http://www.arc2020.eu/front/2012/05/seed-diversity-decline-must-urgently-be-stopped/
Contributed by Luigi Guarino
1.13 USDA links gene
flow between weedy and domesticated rice to rising carbon dioxide levels
May 23, 2012
Beltsville, Maaryland, USA
New research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
confirms that rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide facilitate the flow
of genes from wild or weedy rice plants to domesticated rice varieties. As a
result, domesticated plants could take on undesirable weedy characteristics
that may interfere with future rice production.
This is the first study to demonstrate that the effects of
increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations include not only an
influence on gene flow between closely related domesticated and wild plant
genotypes, but that this gene flow is not the same in both directions. The
investigation was conducted by researchers at the Agricultural Research Service
(ARS), which is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency.
"We know that global climate change will require some
farmers to revise production strategies in response to shifting weather
patterns and crop demands," said ARS Administrator Edward B. Knipling.
"These new findings will help plant breeders design and interpret studies
on how changes in climate may affect crop response."
ARS plant physiologist Lew Ziska led the investigation.
Collaborators included David Gealy, Martha Tomecek, Aaron Jackson, and Howard
Black. Ziska and Tomecek work at the ARS Crop Systems and Global Change Laboratory
in Beltsville, Md., and the other scientists work at the ARS Dale Bumpers
National Rice Research Center in Stuttgart, Ark.
Weedy wild rice, often called red rice, is the same species
as domesticated rice and is very difficult to control in production settings.
The team conducted a two-year combination growth chamber and field study to
document how atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations affect growth in weedy
and domesticated rice and to observe the exchange of genetic material between
the two plant types.
Twenty-four-hour carbon dioxide concentrations in the
chambers were set at 300, 400 and 600 parts per million (ppm). These
concentrations approximated the atmospheric carbon dioxide values present
during the end of the 19th century, the current value, and values projected for
the end of the 21st century, respectively.
When grown in carbon dioxide concentrations of 400 ppm and
600 ppm, both types of rice put out more tillers and flowers and grew taller,
compared to plants grown at carbon dioxide concentrations of 300 ppm. However,
these changes in height, which scientists believe are an important factor in
pollen sharing and therefore impact gene flow, were more pronounced in the wild
rice.
The number of flowers produced by the wild rice grown in 600
ppm carbon dioxide was doubled compared to rice grown at 300 ppm, a
significantly larger increase than the flowering increase in the domesticated
rice. At the greatest concentration of carbon dioxide, wild rice also produced
flowers an average of eight days earlier, a shift that apparently enhanced the
likelihood of pollen transfer between the two rice types.
The researchers then conducted a genetic analysis of the
hybrid seed offspring of the two rice varieties. The results of these tests indicated
domesticated rice transferred only a small amount of genetic material to its
weedy relative, even at the greatest concentration of carbon dioxide. But the
weedy plants transferred a relatively greater amount of genetic material to
their domesticated relatives, which differed from 0.22 percent at carbon
dioxide concentrations of 300 ppm to 0.71 percent at carbon dioxide
concentrations of 600 ppm.
The transfer of wild genetic material to the domesticated
rice line resulted in the production of seed with significant weedy
characteristics that would be undesirable in domesticated rice production.
Results from this study were published today in PloS One.
As USDA's chief scientific research agency, ARS is leading
America towards a better future through agricultural research and information.
ARS conducts research to develop and transfer solutions to help answer
agricultural questions that impact Americans every day. ARS work helps to:
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=27122&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: SeedQuest.com
1.14 Kansas State University scientists
lead the effort that finds genes underlying the domestication of sorghum and
other cereals
May 24, 2012
Manhattan, Kansas, USA
A study by a team of university and government scientists led
by a Kansas State University researcher, indicates that genes responsible for
seed shattering – the process by which grasses disseminate their seeds – were
chosen in a similar, but independent manner during sorghum, rice and maize
domestication.
“When early human groups were domesticating different wild
grasses, they inadvertently or unintentionally selected the same sets of
mutations that make more efficient crop production possible,” said Jianming Yu,
associate professor of agronomy at K-State. “That was critical in the
transition out of the hunter-gatherer phase of human history. You can call it
just luck or the wisdom of ancient farmers, both of which are fascinating to
know.”
Cereal crops, including sorghum, rice and maize, were
domesticated from their early wild ancestors by humans thousands of years ago,
because of their importance as a food source, Yu said. Although these crops
were domesticated in different geographical regions, they all underwent
parallel selection, which involves systemic and parallel changes during the
domestication process.
The study, “Parallel domestication of the Shattering1 genes
in cereals,” was published May 13 in the online version of the journal, Nature
Genetics. In order to identify the molecular basis underlying seed shattering
in sorghum, which is the world’s fifth major crop, the researchers conducted
map-based cloning and diversity mapping in sorghum first, and then examined the
identified gene in other cereals.
“Once we better understand seed shattering in sorghum, the
better we will understand seed shattering and domestication in other cereal
crops,” Yu said. “The discovery of the shared genetic mechanisms provides us an
opportunity to better appreciate the wisdom of ancient human groups in turning
wild grasses into cereals.
As the demands for food, feed and fiber increase,
domesticating other grasses into crops would also benefit from the current
research findings.”
The implications for sorghum alone are huge, because of sorghum’s
emerging applications in bioenergy and stress management, as well as its
long-time importance as a food and feed source, said Tesfaye Tesso, assistant
professor of agronomy and sorghum breeder. A better understanding about the
origins of sorghum, a very diverse species, helps in terms of preserving
natural resources for breeding use, classifying germplasm, and facilitating the
process of bringing useful genes from wild relatives to crops.
Kansas leads the nation in grain sorghum production, growing
51 percent of all grain sorghum grown in the United States in 2011, according
to the Kansas Grain Sorghum Producers Association. The 2011 crop totaled 110.0
million bushels.
Seeds on wild grasses shed naturally when they mature, which
ensures their natural propagation, Yu said. When humans began cultivating those
crops, however, seed shattering would have caused inefficient harvesting and
large losses in grain yield, because some of the seeds which were to be
harvested, would have already disbursed naturally.
“Selection for non-shattering crop plants would have greatly
facilitated harvesting and improved production,” said Zhongwei Lin, K-State
research associate in agronomy and the first author of the publication. He
noted that several other genes have been identified as being responsible for
seed shattering in rice and wheat.
Prior to the most current study, however, no findings had
been made on whether other cereals share the same molecular genetic basis for
shattering, although such a hypothesis was proposed more than a decade ago. The
highly similar genomes of these cereals and the critical role of non-shattering
in their domestication make this speculation plausible.
The researchers’ discovery that seed shattering in sorghum is
controlled by a single gene, Sh1, and their work in rice and maize suggest that
the Sh1 genes for seed shattering have undergone parallel selection during
domestication in multiple cereals.
“It is great to have this team of scientists with
complementary expertise in different species to work on this project,” said
Frank White, K-State professor of plant pathology. “Sorghum is important to
Kansas and we appreciate the K-State Targeted Excellence Program for initiating
and supporting the research.”
Other K-State researchers involved in the study were Xianran
Li, research associate in agronomy, as well as Harold Trick, professor of plant
pathology, and Jiarui Li, research assistant professor and Zhao Peng, Ph.D.
candidate – both in plant pathology. The team also included researchers from
the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Iowa State University, USDA-ARS,
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Purdue University.
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=27136&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: SeedQuest.com
1.15 Experimental
evidence for the ancestry of allotetraploid Trifolium repens and
creation of synthetic forms with value for plant breeding
May 10, 2012
New Zealand
AgResearch scientists have made a breakthrough proving a
long-held hypothesis that white clover originated as a hybrid of other clover
ancestors, followed by a chance doubling of the chromosome number to restore
fertility.
This opens the way for breeding and management that unlocks
benefits for farmers and pastures. AgResearch is already actively using the new
information in breeding programmes to produce improved clovers for New Zealand.
The findings have just been published in the journal BMC
Plant Biology. This will share the work with researchers and scientists
around the world. White clover (Trifolium repens) is widespread and has
become the most important legume in grazed pastures worldwide.
Evidence from AgResearch studies using DNA sequence analyses,
chromosome staining, interspecific hybridisation and breeding experiments
supported the hypothesis that a diploid alpine species (T. pallescens) hybridised
with a diploid coastal species (T. occidentale) to generate
allotetraploid T. repens.
The coming together of these two narrowly adapted species
(one alpine and the other maritime) thousands of years ago, led to the hybrid
clovers we know today. It is suggested that during the Ice a=Age T.
pallescens was forced to retreat to low altitude coastal refuges of
Portugal and Spain and similar sites where species T. occidentale
currently occurs. An inter-species hybridisation event between these two plants
with very narrow but different adaptations produced the broadly adapted white
clover that rapidly established throughout Europe following the retreat of the
glacial advances.
“These findings immediately create new opportunities for
clover improvement by extending the genetic resource base because it
facilitates the development of 'synthetic white clovers' from the now defined
ancestors,” said Dr Warren Williams who led the research.
“The benefits of this are important and exciting as this
opens the way to select traits using breeding to increase traits that could
benefit pasture persistence, animal nutrition and pest resistance,” said Dr
Williams.
“Finding the missing link between white clover and the plants
that hybridised to create it allows us to reincorporate ancestral genes and
this has significant possibilities as the world looks to a growing population.”
The successful team comprised Warren Williams of AgResearch
who is also a Professorial Fellow in Plant Breeding, College of Sciences,
Massey University, and Nick Ellison, Helal Ansari, Isabelle Verry and Wajid
Hussain all from AgResearch’s Grasslands Campus.
View the article: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2229-12-55.pdf
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=26765&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: SeedQuest.com
1.16 Researchers look to relatives for
clues in quest to develop sources of bioenergy
May 14, 2012
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Arranging DNA fragments into a genome sequence that
scientists can interpret is a challenge often compared to assembling a puzzle
except you don’t have the box and have no idea what the picture is supposed to
be. Sometimes clues from other publicly-available DNA sequences of related
organisms can be used to guide the assembly process, but its usefulness depends
on how closely related any two sequences are to one another. For example, a
reference genome might be so distantly related from the one being assembled, it
would be akin to comparing a Model-T to a contemporary hybrid car.
For researchers interested in switchgrass, a perennial grass
that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is investigating as a prospective
biofuels feedstock, assembling the plant genome poses an even more complicated
puzzle than usual because it has multiple copies of its chromosomes. The genome
of a close switchgrass relative, foxtail millet (Setaria italica), is described
in the May 13, 2012 edition of Nature Biotechnology “Reference genome sequence
of the model plant Setaria”
For Tom Brutnell, a co-author on the study and director of
the Enterprise Institute for Renewable Fuels at the Donald Danforth Plant
Center, the Setaria genome is the starting point for his own research
interests. “Now that we have the genome sequence, we can kick start the
development of genetic tools for Setaria.” His proposal under the DOE JGI’s
2012 Community Sequencing Program builds off the availability of two Setaria
genomes, that of foxtail millet and its wild ancestor green foxtail (S.
viridis), which is also described in the paper. “What we really want is an
Arabidopsis for the Panicoid grasses,” he said, referring to the ubiquitous
model plant used by many researchers. “Green foxtail is smaller than foxtail
millet—we can get it to flower when it’s just six inches tall and you go from
seed to seed in six to eight weeks.
In contrast, foxtail millet is a proper crop so it’s taller,
has a longer generation time of four months and no one has really developed
efficient transformation methods for it. Our project with the DOE JGI allows us
to tap the Setaria genomes to fast track S. viridis as a model genetic system.”
One of the challenges in studying grasses for bioenergy
applications is that they typically have long lifecycles and complex genomes.
Jeremy Schmutz, head of the DOE JGI Plant Program at the HudsonAlpha Institute
of Biotechnology, pointed out that foxtail millet (Setaria italica) has several
advantages as a model. It’s a compact genome and large quantities of it can be
grown in small spaces in just a few months.
“We’re not thinking of Setaria as a biofuel crop per se but
as a very informative model since its genome is so structurally close to
switchgrass,” said Jeff Bennetzen, a BESC researcher, the study’s co-first
author and a professor at the University of Georgia. He originally proposed
that the DOE JGI sequence the foxtail millet genome under the 2008 Community
Sequencing Program. Schmutz said that roughly 80 percent of the foxtail millet
genome has been assembled using the tried-and-true Sanger sequencing platform,
along with more than 95 percent of the gene space—the functional regions of the
genome. “The Setaria genome is a high quality reference genome,” he said. “If
you want to conduct functional studies that require knowing all the genes and
how they are localized relative to one another, then use this genome.”
One such area of study is adaptation. Since it is found all
over the world, Setaria is considered a good model for learning how grasses can
adapt and thrive under various environmental conditions. Additionally it
appears to have independently evolved a pathway for photosynthesis that is
separate from that used by maize and sorghum. “With the sequencing of the
Setaria genome,” the team noted in their paper, “evolutionary geneticists now
have an annual, temperate, C4, drought- and cold-tolerant grass that they can
comprehensively compare to other plants that have or have not yet evolved these
adaptions.” C4 plants are distinguished by their ability to conduct
photosynthesis faster than C3 plants under high light intensity and high
temperatures.
The DOE JGI Plant Program focuses on genomes that have been
selected for their relevance to DOE missions in energy and environment, and
leads the world in sequencing plants in this area. Aside from foxtail millet
and switchgrass, other DOE Plant Flagship genomes sequenced include, among
others, poplar and soybean. Several of these Flagship genomes are also part of
the Gene Atlas project, currently in its pilot phase. Designed to be a reference
by which researchers can look up the gene information gathered under several
standard experimental conditions, the Gene Atlas is projected to offer
researchers a method of interpreting their data by comparing them against
“normal” results for these plants. New public releases of these Flagship
genomes and of other plant projects occur periodically, and the sequence and
analysis is made public at www.phytozome.net.
Photo: Nature Biotechnology “Reference genome sequence of the
model plant Setaria”
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=26853&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: SeedQuest.com
1.17 Genes underlying the key
domestication process in sorghum and other cereals
May 14, 2012
Manhattan, Kansas, USA
A study by a team of university and government scientists led
by a Kansas State University researcher, indicates that genes responsible for
seed shattering – the process by which grasses disseminate their seeds – were
under parallel selection during sorghum, rice and maize domestication.
The study, “Parallel domestication of the Shattering1 genes
in cereals,” was published May 13 in the online version of the journal Nature
Genetics.
In order to identify the molecular basis underlying seed
shattering in sorghum, which is the world’s fifth major crop, the researchers
conducted map-based cloning and diversity mapping in sorghum first, and then
examined the identified gene in other cereals. Cereal crops, including sorghum,
rice and maize were domesticated from their early wild progenitors by humans
thousands of years ago, because of their importance as a food source, said
Jianming Yu, associate professor of agronomy at Kansas State University.
Although these crops were domesticated by human groups in different
geographical regions, they all underwent systemic and parallel changes during
the domestication process.
“Once we better understand seed shattering in sorghum, the
better we will understand seed shattering and domestication in other cereal
crops,” Yu said. “Moreover, as the demands for food, feed and fiber increase,
domesticating other grasses into crops would also benefit from the current
research findings.”
The implications for sorghum alone are huge, because of
sorghum’s emerging applications in bioenergy and stress management, as well as
its long-time importance as a food and feed source, he said. A better
understanding about the origins of sorghum, a very diverse species, helps in
terms of preserving natural resources for breeding use, classifying germplasm,
and facilitating the process of bringing useful genes from wild relatives to
crops.
Seeds on wild grasses shed naturally when they mature, which
ensures their natural propagation, Yu said. When humans began cultivating those
crops, however, seed shattering would have caused inefficient harvesting and
large losses in grain yield, because some of the seeds which were to be
harvested, would have already disbursed naturally.
“Selection for non-shattering crop plants would have greatly
facilitated harvesting and improved production,” said Zhongwei Lin, research
associate in agronomy at Kansas State University and the first author of the
publication. He noted that several other genes have been identified as being
responsible for seed shattering in rice and wheat. Prior to this current study,
however, no systematic findings have been made on whether other cereals share
the same molecular genetic basis for shattering, although such hypothesis was
proposed more than a decade ago. The highly similar genomes of these cereals
and the critical role of non-shattering in their domestication make this
speculation plausible.
The researchers found that seed shattering in sorghum is
controlled by a single gene, Sh1. That finding, paired with findings of
conserved collinearity – genes and their orders are similar on corresponding
chromosome segments from different species – of genomic regions containing the
Sh1 orthologs (genes can be traced back to the same ancestral copy) across
several cereals, the identification of the rice OsSh1 and the structural
variation and quantitative trait locus analyses of the two maize orthologs
(ZMSH1-1 and ZMSh1-5.1+ZmSh1-5.2) suggest that the Sh1 genes for seed
shattering have undergone parallel selection during domestication in multiple
cereals.
“It is great to have this team of scientists with
complementary expertise in different species to work on this project,” said
Frank White, professor of plant pathology at Kansas State University. To
identify the molecular basis underlying seed shattering in sorghum, the team
constructed a large population from a cross between a wild sorghum with complete
seed shattering, Sorghum virgatum, and a non-shattering domesticated sorghum
line, Tx430. Once the gene was pinpointed, they moved on to a diverse set of
sorghum lines and landraces to examine how many different version of
domesticate copy of Sh1 exist. Not surprising, they found three different ones,
which corroborated the earlier inference of multiple origins of sorghum in
different parts of the African continent from morphology characteristics.
The project was supported by U.S. Department of Agriculture
National Institute of Food and Agriculture, National Science Foundation Plant
Genome Research Program, Department of Energy Plant Feedstock Genomics Program,
USDA-Agricultural Research Service and Kansas State University Targeted
Excellence Program and Center for Sorghum Improvement.
Other Kansas State University researchers include Xianran Li,
research associate in agronomy, and Tesfaye Tesso, assistant professor of
agronomy, as well as Harold Trick, professor of plant pathology, and Jiarui Li,
research assistant professor in plant pathology, and Zhao Peng, doctoral
candidatein plant pathology. The team also included researchers from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Iowa State University, USDA-ARS, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln and Purdue University.
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=26872&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: SeedQuest.com
1.18 Implications of farmers’ seed
exchanges for on-farm conservation of quinoa, as revealed by its genetic
diversity in Chile
Quinoa cultivation in Chile presents an ancient and active complex
of geographic, climatic, social and cultural interactions that has determined
its current biodiversity in the three main growing zones (north, central and
south). Importantly, these interactions involve the participation of farmers,
whose activities are at the base of seed exchange networks due to their
knowledge and in situ conservation of genetic diversity.
The present study reports how a better understanding of
farmers’ seed exchanges and local production practices could impact the genetic
structure and diversity of quinoa at national scale in Chile. Using field
interviews and characterization of 20 microsatellite genetic markers in a
multi-origin set of 34 quinoa accessions representative of Chile and the South
American region, the phenetic analysis of germplasm was consistent with the
current classification of quinoa ecotypes present in Chile and Andean zone.
This allowed the identification of five populations, which
were represented by quinoa of Salares (northern Chile), Coastal/Lowlands (central
and southern Chile), Highlands (Peru, Bolivia and Argentina) and Inter-Andean
Valleys (Ecuador and Colombia). The highly informative quality of the markers
used revealed a wide genetic diversity among main growing areas in Chile, which
correlated well with natural geographical–edaphic–climatic and
social–linguistic context to the expansion of quinoa biodiversity.
Additionally, in addition to ancient seed exchanges, this
process is still governed by the diverse agricultural practices of Andean
farmers. Genetic erosion is considered an imminent risk due to small-scale
farming, where the influence of increased migration of people to urban systems
and export-driven changes to the agro-ecosystems may further reduce the
diversity of quinoa plants in cultivation.
The Journal of Agricultural Science
Press 2012 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0021859612000056
Contributed by Francisco Fuentes
1.19 Time is ticking
for some crop's wild relatives -New edge of extinction research is creating a
revival of conservation and interest in what these old plants mean to the
future
May 30, 2012
USA
A botanist brings a species of alfalfa from Siberia, to the
United States. His hope? The plant survives, and leads to a new winter-hardy
alfalfa. But what also happened during this time in the late 1800's, isn't just
a story of legend and lore. The truth of the matter is creating a current
revival in both interest and conservation of what's now called a crop's
"wild relative."And several researchers members of the American
Society of Agronomy (ASA) and Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) say it
couldn't come at a better time. The lack of attention has put crop wild
relatives in a precarious position, says ASA and CSSA member Stephanie Greene.
Green is a plant geneticist with the USDA-ARS in Prosser, WA and the U.S.
National Plant Germplasm System, the country’s primary steward of seed and
other crop genetic material.
Twenty percent of all wild plants are now threatened with extinction,
according to recent estimates, and that’s before the potential impacts of
climate change are factored in. Yet, “as the world moves forward with all these
initiatives to conserve biodiversity,” Greene says, “it’s recognized that crop
wild relatives have been left behind.”
Green is leading new efforts to tally crop wild relatives
living in the United States, identifying which are most important to global and
American agriculture, and developing a nationwide strategy for protecting the
plants both in gene banks and in the wild. But conserving crop wild relatives
is only the first step. The real goal is to get the diverse stock of genetic
material, or germplasm, into the hands of plant breeders, especially those
seeking to adapt crops to the increased drought, greater disease pressure, and
erratic weather climate change is expected to bring.
But few are studying crop wild relatives more intensely or
championing for protection more vigorously than Nigel Maxted, a scientist at
the University of Birmingham in England. Maxted is pressing for conservation in
many ways, most significantly by developing a step-by-step, standardized
protocol countries can use to identify and protect the crop wild relatives
within their borders. The first countries he worked with to execute a plan were
Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.
Most recently, he helped Portugal, Switzerland, the U.K., and
several other European nations complete conservation strategies, and he’s now
collaborating with several more. Two of his graduate students currently work in
China and North Africa. And a former student is now assisting Greene with the
U.S. strategy. Greene says, while threatened by climate change just like all
wild species, these wild relatives are the same plants that could help us adapt
our food systems to the new conditions. “That’s why it surprises me. Why aren’t
these plants the poster children [for plant conservation]?” she says. “We know
they have value.”
For more information, see "Crop Wild Relatives and Their
Potential for Crop Improvement," as featured in the current edition of CSA
News:
https://www.crops.org/files/publications/csa-news/crop-wild-relatives.pdf
The full article
is available for no charge for 30 days following the date of
this summary.
View the abstract
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=27254&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: SeedQuest.com
1.20 University of
Nebraska-Lincoln researcher breeding dry beans to be more drought tolerant
May 18, 2012
Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
When University of Nebraska-Lincoln Dry Bean Breeding
Specialist Carlos Urrea arrived at the UNL Panhandle Research and Extension
Center near Scottsbluff in 2005, western Nebraska was in the middle of its
worst drought in decades. The drought and water allocations from natural
resource districts limited the amount of water often available for production
agriculture in the Panhandle.
This is why breeding new dry edible bean cultivars that are
more tolerant to drought and heat is one of the main objectives of Urrea’s
program.
Dry bean germplasm lines with drought tolerance, in addition
to disease resistance, and seed quality, are being developed simultaneously in
western Nebraska and Puerto Rico as part of a “shuttle breeding project.’’
Urrea is cooperating with the USDA Agricultural Research Service Tropical
Agricultural Research Station (USDA-TARS) at Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.
New dry bean lines are being grown at Scottsbluff and at the
University of Puerto Rico in Fortuna. The advantage of this arrangement, he
explained, is that he and his colleagues can select for multiple traits in
different locations: some traits at one of the sites, other traits at the other
site. Then the lines from both sites can be combined.
Urrea selected Puerto Rico because of its warmer climate. He
is working beside Dr. Tim Porch of USDA with a goal of developing beans that
are adapted to both Puerto Rico and western Nebraska. Results so far have
included the release of two black-bean germplasm lines with heat and drought
tolerance in addition to resistance to multiple diseases (common bacterial
blight, root rot, and bean common mosaic virus). Germplasm also has been
released that can be used for different bean breeding programs in the United
States. And Urrea said there will be more lines to come in different market
classes: great northern, pintos, and small reds.
Perhaps some of those lines have the potential to be released
to the public as cultivars. But before that is known, Urrea said, new lines
would need to be tested on a larger scale, in growers’ fields.
In addition to heat and drought tolerance and resistance to
several diseases, Urrea said these new lines also would need several other
desirable traits: an upright plant architecture to facilitate direct combine
harvest; high seed quality; and maturity traits that would fit growing
conditions in western Nebraska.
Urrea visited the bean breeding site at Puerto Rico early in
2012 and is impressed with the lines selected this year.
Another goal of this project is to find and mark the genes responsible
for drought tolerance. Urrea said he and his colleagues have developed a
mapping population of dry beans between tropical and temperate lines that was
tested last year and will be tested again this year at both locations. This
project is in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Prosser,
Wash., (Phil Miklas), USDA-TARS at Mayaguez, PR (Tim Porch) and North Dakota
State University (Juan Osorno and Angela Linares).
Urrea recently attended an Association Mapping Workshop at
North Dakota State University hosted by the BeanCAP. He was learning how to
employ molecular markers (single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs in
scientific terminology) generated by the BeanCAP to uncover genomic regions
associated with drought tolerance. About 10,000 SNPs have been developed by the
BeanCAP.
The sources for this mapping population included dry bean
lines from the CIAT Center for Tropical Agriculture and from National Dry Bean
Breeding Program in Mexico, Urrea said. He said the the source of drought
tolerance that he is using for mapping was identified through testing on
terminal drought (when irrigation is stopped at the flowering stage of plant
development). Nature has cooperated in this effort; in each of the past several
years. After the irrigation was stopped, precipitation also was scarce, with
less than 1 inch of rain between blossom stage and harvest each year. Those
conditions make life difficult for dry bean producers, but are favorable for
Urrea’s research.
Using dry bean lines from the Center for Tropical Agiculture
not only helps with the drought tolerance project, but also has other benefits
to the breeding program, Urrea said. Every year, he introduces new lines coming
from CIAT, some from specific crosses between different common bean (Phaseolus
vulgaris) species like tepary and scarlet runner beans. In doing so, he has
been able to identify some lines that are well adapted to western Nebraska’s
conditions and drought, and started intergressing those into his dry bean
breeding program through hybridization.
The goal is to develop dry edible beans that will use water
more efficiently, and perhaps use less water.
One potential benefit: if bean producers don’t need as much
water to raise their bean crop, they might be able to use some of the available
supply for other crops on their farms, Urrea said.
Urrea and other U.S. bean breeders also are looking at how
drought affects the nutritional composition of dry beans. About 96 accessions
from different centers of origin and domestication were screened in 2012 under
drought and non-drought stress plots. This research is part of BeanCAP
(Coordinated Agricultural Programs) efforts and includes several other states,
including Michigan, North Dakota, Washington and Idaho.
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=27015&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: CropWatch
1.21 University of
Wisconsin-Madison plant breeders develop heart-healthier oat
May 16, 2012
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
University of Wisconsin-Madison plant breeders have developed
a new oat variety that's significantly higher in the compound that makes this
grain so cardio-friendly.
"The biggest thing that stands out about this new
variety, BetaGene, is that it's both a high yielding variety and high in beta
glucan. Beta glucan is a heart-healthy chemical that is exclusive to oats,"
says John Mochon, program manager of the Small Grains Breeding Program in the
UW-Madison agronomy department.
BetaGene is 2 percent higher in beta glucan on average than
other oat varieties on the market. That may not sound much, but it's huge from
a nutrition standpoint. A 2 percent bump translates to a 20-percent boost in
beta glucan levels in products made from the oat.
Nutrition researchers liken beta glucan to a sponge that
traps cholesterol-rich acids in the bloodstream. Consuming 3 grams daily of
this soluble fiber-combined with a healthy diet-may lower the blood's level of
LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, lessening the risk of coronary heart
disease, according to one report from the USDA's Agricultural Research Service.
UW breeders have increased acreage of the new variety this
year in hopes of releasing it for the 2014 growing season.
Wisconsin is among the top oat-producing states. Growers here
plant about 300,000 acres of oats each year-about half of that harvested as
forage and fed to livestock, the rest harvested for grain-with yields averaging
60 to 70 bushels per acre. But better returns from other crops and other market
forces have made oats less attractive to growers, Mochon says. Overall oat
acreage in the United States has declined steadily over the years.
"That's why I'm trying to add value to oats. It's one of
my goals to reverse that trend," he says. "Things like increased beta
glucan, developing forage lines, developing lines that are rust resistant, and
developing lines that have a high groat percentage are all part of this
effort."
Mochon hopes that BetaGene will help improve demand for oats.
The new variety has already generated some interest in the food industry. At
least one large milling company paid a visit to Wisconsin to learn more about
the experimental variety.
It has taken UW breeders 14 years to bring BetaGene to this
point. They performed the original cross in 1998 and nurtured the oat in
variety trials until they were confident that it was ready for growers. This is
standard operating procedure for vetting experimental crop varieties. It takes
12 to 15 years to prove that they can yield well, fend off disease and have a
track record for success before being considered for release, Mochon says.
In this case, there was also an international angle to be
considered. Canada is a big oat producer and therefore an important potential
market, so Mochon is working to ensure BetaGene also meets requirements for
certified, licensed sale north of the border.
http://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=26937&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=
Source: SeedQuest.com
1.22 Next-generation disease resistance
breeding
Crop
plants with DNA deletions are not GMOs
16 May 2012
by Sophien Kamoun and Eric Ward
Bacterial blight caused by Xanthomonas can result in up to
50% yield reduction in severe epidemics.
In 2007, Sebastian Schornack, then a freshly minted Ph.D.
student from the laboratories of Thomas Lahaye and Ulla Bonas at the
Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, was fastidiously carrying out
follow-up experiments to his thesis work. For the past few years he had been
studying how the bacterium Xanthomonas infects its plant hosts.
Specifically, he was interested in a class of “effector” proteins, called
transcription activator-like (TAL) effectors, that the bacterium delivers to
the nuclei of host cells to alter plant gene expression.
Ever since their discovery in the late 1980s, the unusual
structure of these effectors proteins has intrigued plant microbiologists. TAL
effectors contain many near-perfect repeats 34 amino acids in length with two
hypervariable residues, but the biological meaning of this peculiar modular
structure was unknown. At the time Schornack was finishing his thesis, TAL
effectors had just been discovered to bind specific DNA sequences in the
genomes of their host plants, where they activated expression of host genes
thought to favour colonization by the pathogen. While comparing the identity of
the hypervariable amino acids in the repeats of particular TAL effectors with
the corresponding DNA sequence of their binding sites, Schornack experienced a
flash of insight, and noticed a defining pattern [Schornack].
Following discussions with Jens Boch and experimental work
with their colleagues at Halle University, it became evident that, indeed, a
“code” built into the TAL effector proteins determines their DNA binding
specificity [Boch]. Not long after that, across the Atlantic, another Ph.D.
student Matt Moscou, working with Adam Bogdanove at Iowa State University,
independently reached a similar conclusion using clever computational analyses
of TAL effector-induced expression changes in rice plants [Moscou].
Both teams immediately grasped the impact of their
discoveries – synthetic TAL effectors could be custom designed to bind any
target DNA sequence. Such a technological breakthrough would have far
reaching implications in biotechnology.
Fast forward to 2012: the reach of TAL effectors has gone
beyond the study of plant-microbe interactions. TAL effectors are now
ubiquitously used in biotechnology and the emerging field of synthetic biology
[Bogdanove]. Scientists have also shown that by hooking TAL effectors to
nucleases, enzymes that nick DNA, they can target an exact site in a genome to
produce variations. For instance, one study revealed that injection of mouse embryos
with TAL-nucleases yields adult mice that vary at specific, predicted positions
in their genomes [Tesson]. The possibilities are immense for using TAL
technology to induce targeted variations in the genomes of mammals, flies,
worms and plants. Laboratories worldwide are putting the technology to creative
use with numerous exciting applications certain to emerge.
A game-changing application of TAL technology to crop
breeding is described in a recent paper in Nature Biotechnology by Bing Yang
and colleagues [Li]. In this landmark study, the authors used TAL-nucleases to
remove a small stretch of DNA from the genome of rice that rendered it
susceptible to bacterial blight, an important disease that affects millions of
hectares throughout Asia.
This study ushers in a new era in crop breeding. Plant
geneticists will now be able to use TAL-nucleases to introduce precise,
favorable modifications in any region of the genome.
Remarkably, because Li and colleagues have bred out the TAL
sequences, the resulting rice varieties lack any foreign DN
