Articles in the June 13, 2008 Issue of Crop Biotech Update

NEWS

Global
• Report Tackles Global Impact of Biotech Crops
•
• Leaves Keep Their Cool to Protect Photosynthesis

Africa
• Doubled Haploid Approach to Develop Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa
• New Production System to Boost Rice Yield in West Africa

Americas
• Argentina Approves New GM Maize Variety
• Honduras to Increase GM Maize Cultivation
• Australian Sunflower Genes Could Fortify U.S. Sunflowers
• Companies to Develop Nitrogen Use Efficient Lawn Grass
• Bacterial Extracts to Combat Fungal Diseases
• Dow AgroSciences and Sangamo BioSciences Announce Biotech Milestones

Asia and the Pacific
• ERMA Plans Hearing for GM Field Test Application
• UA Receives Approval for Release of GM Wheat and Barley
• Keeping Biotech-Derived Foods Halal in Indonesia
• UA Scientists Receive Grant to Solve Iron Deficiency
• India Declares "Food Safety and Quality Year 2008-09"
• Bangladesh Scientist Emeritus Calls for Biotech Directorate
• Lawmakers Consider First-Ever Biodiversity Bill in Vietnam

Europe
• Deliberate Release of GM Crops in Spain
• Scientists Find Horizontal Gene Transfer of No Significance
• EFSA Develops Database of External Scientific Experts
• VIB and Bayer Team Up for Plant Research

Research
• Functional Human IL13 from GM Tobacco
• GM Papaya Transgenes Remain Stable For Several Generations
• Novel Arsenic Transporter in Plants
• Scientists Develop Nitrogen Use Efficient Rice

Announcements
• Solanaceae Genome Workshop
• World Congress on In Vitro Biology

Document Reminders
• Report on Synthetic Biology Now Published

Scientists Find Horizontal Gene Transfer of No Significance

The controversy surrounding the transfer of antibiotic-resistance gene from transgenic plants to bacteria has been put to rest when scientists from France and Switzerland found that horizontal gene transfer is so insignificant that transgenic plants play no part in the spread of antibiotic resistances. The scientists studied soil bacteria from a field where genetically modified Bt maize has been growing for years. Antibiotic resistance genes occur naturally in bacteria due to the fact that these genes are already commonly found in the soil.

To read more, visit: http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/news/365.docu.html.

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This article is part of the Crop Biotech Update, a weekly summary of world developments in agri-biotech for developing countries, produced by the Global Knowledge Center on Crop Biotechnology, International Service for the Aquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications SEAsiaCenter (ISAAA)

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