STUDY SHOWS BIOTECH BAN HARMFUL FOR AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY
A study
by Australia’s Rural Industries Research and
Development Corporation reported that Australia will be left
behind if state governments maintain their bans on biotech
crops. Researchers from The University of Adelaide found
that Australia could gain $15.31 million a year if biotech
crops were adopted. If the EU also dropped their moratorium,
Australia could gain $28.33 million a year. It also raised
the point that the ban would drive scientists and their research
to countries that are supportive of the technology.
Noting
that the country could be at risk for becoming an “agricultural
backwater”, the study noted that non-biotech GM crops
could become a niche market like that of organic produce.
With reports from the April 6 issues of Asia Pulse and The
Sydney Morning Herald.
CIMMYT FIELD TRIALS GM WHEAT The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
is conducting its second field trial of promising transgenic
drought tolerant wheat. The transgenic lines carry the DREB
gene, given to CIYYMT by the Japan International Center for
Agricultural Sciences. The gene, obtained from Arabidopsis
thaliana, exhibited promise in its initial field trial and
in earlier greenhouse trials.
CIMMYT reported that the second trial focuses on four transgenic
lines and uses a larger plot to ensure better control and
analysis. The experimental lines and control plants will
be subjected to both watered and drought conditions to determine
their respective performance. After a few months, researchers
will determine if results are useful for producing hardy
wheat for drought-prone areas.
See the CIMMYT release at http://www.cimmyt.org.
VIETNAM TO BOOST BIOTECH DEVELOPMENT
The Secretariat
of the Communist Party Central Committee issued a directive
to boost biotechnological development
and application to serve national industrialization and modernization.
The Vietnam News Agency said that the directive highlighted
the role of biotechnology in the country’s development
in ensuring food security, successful crop restructuring,
and sustainable development of agricultural and rural development.
In addition, biotechnology was noted to help supply essential
products for public health care, protect the environment
and develop the biological industry.
The directive forwarded the following agenda:
- Create
quality and high-yield crops and domestic animals to
effectively serve economic restructuring, raise the competitiveness
of local farm produce, and increase the proportion of
processed farm, forest and aquatic products.
- Lift
the country's biotechnology to the regional level;
turn biological industry into a high tech sector,
capable of producing key products ensuring a steady growth
of the
national economy.
- Promote
the application of biotechnology in agricultural production
and rural areas.
In related developments, State President Tran Duc Luong
urged the Agricultural Genetic Institute to boost scientific
research with the focus on biological technology. During
his working visit to the subsidiary of the Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development in Hanoi President Luong described
scientific research, especially biotechnological research,
as a pressing need for modern Vietnam. He pointed to the
need to raise the country's biotechnological capabilities
to the regional level, and to gradually move closer to world
standards in the next five to ten years.
For summaries of agri-biotechnology articles in Vietnam,
email Vietnam Trade Network (VITRANET) at vitranetvn@hn.vnn.vn.
RESEARCH PROPOSES NEW REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS FOR GM
Genetically
modified (GM) crops are stringently regulated before market
entry, and the process of regulation itself,
although thorough, is growing to be increasingly costly.
Kent Bradford and colleagues at the University of California
Davis provide new proposals on "Regulating transgenic
crops sensibly: lessons from plant breeding, biotechnology
and genomics." Their paper is published in the latest
issue of Nature Biotechnology.
The researchers admit that a cautious approach to admitting
GM was prudent, but the experience of long years of work
with GM crops, as well as expanding knowledge of plant genome
structure and dynamics, can allow regulatory requirements
to be modified, in order to reduce costs and uncertainty
without compromising safety. They also propose that, as in
conventional breeding, regulatory emphasis should be on phenotypic
rather than genomic characteristics once a gene or trait
has been shown to be safe.
Using studies of regulatory processes used for genetically
modified crops over the years, the researchers proposed to
following to streamline the current regulatory process: Deregulate
the transgenic process, where the product, and not the process,
should be evaluated; Rationalize the basis for transgenic
regulation, since some molecules, such as the 35s promoter
of the cauliflower mosaic virus, have already been consumed
by humans at much higher levels than those in transgenic
plants; Exempt selected transgenes and classes of transgenic
modification from regulation, such as RNAi, use of nontoxic
proteins to modify plant development, well-studied marker
genes that impart antibiotic resistance, and selected marker
genes that impart reported phenotypes; Create regulatory
classes in proportion to potential risk; and eliminate the
event-specific basis of transgenic regulation.
Read the complete article at http://www.nature.com/nbt/
journal/v23/n4/full/nbt1084.html.
S.A. STILL LOW ON
BIOTECH KNOWLEDGE
Almost 80 per cent of South Africans still have little understanding
of biotechnology. The vast majority are uncertain about what
it is and whether or not it is good. These are among the
key findings reported in a survey conducted by the Public
Understanding of Biotechnology (PUB) Programme of the Department
of Science and Technology in collaboration with the Human
Sciences Research Council. Among the findings are:
- Majority
(60%) did not know whether GM foods are on sale or whether
they have been eating it.
- 26
per cent perceived no risk from biotechnology, 21 per
cent perceived a risk but the majority of the latter could
give no reason for their perception
- Support
for continuation of biotechnology practices ranged
from 49 to 62 per cent for biotech foods, pest resistant
crops, medicines and bio-degradable plastics.
- 65
per cent would buy GM maize if it is healthier, 52
per cent if cheaper, 55 per cent if more environmentally-friendly,
and 50 per cent will eat eggs from chickens fed on GM maize.
- The
best sources of trustworthy information were universities,
government and media. Issues on which more information was
desired, were medical biotechnology (44 per cent) and GM
foods and agro-biotechnology (24 per cent)
- As
regards food labeling 51 per cent never read labels
and only 1 per cent indicated a need to indicate GM content
on the label. Indication for ingredient and health content
on labels was 21 per cent in each case.
The report is available at http://www.pub.ac.za.
PHYTOME DBASE MAKES PLANT GENOME DATA AVAILABLE
The University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, USA
currently plays host to the newest plant genome database.
Called Phytome, the database contains information on more
than 730,000 unique protein sequences in more than 25,000
protein families with a focus on the angiosperms, or flowering
plants.
In addition to its sequence base, Phytome also contains
phylogenetic and functional information for predicted protein
sequences (or unipeptides). It allows users to search 735,024
Unipeptides in 26,393 multiple-member families (plus many
more singleton families) from 39 different plant species.
These include many of the world's most valuable crops, such
as rice, wheat, corn, and potatoes.
The Phytome project is supported through a five-year, US$1
million grant awarded in 2002 by the U.S. National Science
Foundation (NSF). Visit the database at http://www.phytome.org.
BLUE ROSE BLOOMS
Roses are available in red, white, pink, and yellow, but
the Holy Grail of rose breeders has always hitherto remained
the color blue. Blue roses have long been synonymous with
the impossible, for despite all efforts at conventional breeding,
a true blue rose would need to create a blue pigment called
delphinidin, whose gene is not functional in roses.
SUNTORY Ltd of Japan, in cooperation with Florigene Ltd
of Australia, however, recently unveiled the world's first
blue roses, created using techniques in genetic modification.
Since 1990, both companies have been transferring the genes
necessary to create delphinidin from other flower species
such as petunia. In the process, Moondust, the world's first
blue carnations, were developed and eventually commercialized.
The blue rose is the product of genetic modification of
roses through insertion of a gene from the pansy.
Read the press release - and see the roses - at
http://www.florigene.com.au/news/news.php
PHILIPPINE PROVINCE SUPPORTS BT CORN PLANTING
The Cebu
City council, in the Philippine province of Cebu, recently
approved a resolution supporting the move of The
Department of Agriculture (DA) in propagating Bt corn production
in the country. The resolution, authored by councilor Edgardo
Labella, states that the production of biotechnology crops
is “a paradigm shift in the field of agriculture.”
The councilor
likewise said that there is a need to support the DA in
advocating the use of Bt corn to improve production.
The resolution, moreover, urges the DA to expedite the nationwide
propagation of BT corn production “in order achieve
food security as well as to reduce the costly importation
of food products that could grow in the country, and even
in Cebu City.”
Bt Corn was approved for commercial planting in the Philippines
in 2003, making it the first biotech crop to be approved
for use in Asia.
Read
the complete article at http://www.thefreeman.com/
local/index.php?fullstory=1&issue=articles_20050314&id=28321
RICE GENOME SHUFFLES, LOSES PLASTID GENES, RESEARCH FINDS
Mitsuhiro Matsuo and colleagues from the Center for Gene
Research, Nagoya University, Japan report that “The
Rice Nuclear Genome Continuously Integrates, Shuffles, and
Eliminates the Chloroplast Genome to Cause Chloroplast–Nuclear
DNA Flux.” In the report, Matsuo reports that, although
DNA sequences constantly migrate from rice chloroplasts to
the nucleus, these sequences are continuously shuffled until
they are lost. The paper appears in the latest issue of The
Plant Cell.
Using
the rice nuclear genome database (http://rgp.dna.affrc.go.jp/),
which includes >85% of the total genome sequence of Oryza
sativa ssp japonica, researchers found that gene sequences
are constantly transferred from plastids (such as chloroplasts)
to the nucleus, constant gene reshuffling occurs within the
nucleus itself, and this reshuffling results in the eventual
elimination of plastid DNA sequences within two million years
of their integration. Calculations also show that the rice
nuclear genome incorporated a large portion of plastid genome
at least three times in the past 1.7 million years.
These data indicate that the plant nuclear genome is in
equilibrium between frequent integration and rapid elimination
of the chloroplast genome, which may explain why plant genomes
do not seem to be expanding, despite the frequent integration
of plastid DNAs.
Read the complete article at http://www.plantcell.org/
cgi/reprint/17/3/665
ANNOUCEMENTS
ASTI RELEASES SSA DATA
ON CD
The Agricultural Science and Technology
Indicators (ASTI) Initiative recently released individual
briefs and data sets
for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. These include Ethiopia,
Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania,
and Uganda. Also in the new releases are overview publications
on agricultural research trends in the region, as well as
statistical briefs. The documents may be ordered in CD-ROM form from http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/pubs.htm#asticd.
Web users can also download individual briefs in PDF from
http://www.asti.cgiar.org/pubs-africa.htm
UNIVERSITY HOLDS ONLINE WRITING COURSE
The Konrad
Adenauer Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila
University (CFJ), Philippines is now accepting
applications for a six-week online course on Reporting on
Food and Agriculture to be held from 2 May – 11 June
2005.
The course aims to develop skills on writing about farm
topics and will tackle a wide range of issues including environmental
degradation, genetically modified seeds, trade policies,
and disaster reportage. Major global commodity exchanges
and their influence on the decisions of Asian farmers will
also be explored.
Fellowships are available to qualified and deserving journalists
who are full-time staff of a news media organization in Asia.
Applications must be received by Monday, 25 April 2005. Application
forms may be downloaded from http://cfj.ateneo.edu or requested
by e-mail at newsroom@admu.edu.ph and submitted by fax at
+632 926 3254. |