CROP BIOTECH UPDATE
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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 Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications SEAsiaCenter (ISAAA)
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January 30, 2009
In This Week’s Issue:
News
Global
• Scientists Decode Sorghum Genome
• UN Calls for Continued Efforts to Fight Hunger
• Von Braun Receives Bertebos Prize
• Brain Chemical Causes Locusts to Swarm
Africa
• Drought-Tolerant Maize for Africa
Americas
• Collaboration Yields Complete Pepper Genetic Map
• Brazil Approves Herculex Corn for Cultivation
• Monsanto and GrassRoots Sign Agreement
Europe
• Climate Change Might Enhance Grassland Productivity
• UK Report Says Technology Can Guarantee Global Food Sustainability
Research
• Tracing the Evolution History of Rice to Improve Future Varieties
• Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria for Efficient Biofuel Production
• Reading Genomes Like Books
• Lignin Discovery May Lead to Revision of Plant Evolution Timeline
Announcements
• BioAsia 2009
• Call for Biotech Humanitarian Award Nominees
• Moscow International Biotech Congress
• International Conference on Highlands Agriculture
• BecA Seeks Technology Manager
Document Reminders
• Global Risk Report 2009
• Agropedia - Online Agricultural Information Resource
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NEWS
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Global
SCIENTISTS DECODE SORGHUM GENOME
An international team of researchers have deciphered the genetic blueprint of sorghum, a hardy crop and important food, fodder and biofuel source. Scientists believe that the breakthrough could eventually lead to the development of drought-resistant crops for arid regions with rapidly burgeoning population, such as West Africa. Sorghum is the second grass to have its genome sequenced, after rice. The comparative analysis of the sorghum genome appears in the recent issue of the journal Nature.
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), a close relative of sugarcane, originates from tropical Africa where it is a staple food and is now grown in dry areas in the U.S. and India. Worldwide production of sorghum is estimated at 60 million tons annually. The researchers used the whole genome “shotgun” method of sequencing, wherein short random DNA stretches are partially sequenced and then analyzed by a supercomputer to reconstruct the original genome sequence. The technique was first pioneered in the Human Genome Project.
With approximately 730 million nucleotides and 30,000 genes, the crop’s genome is 75 percent larger than the size of rice. Comparisons of the genome with rice shed light on the evolution of grasses and of C4 photosynthesis, a carbon fixation pathway found in plants growing in conditions of high temperature and light intensity and low water availability. The scientists also found evidences that recent gene and microRNA duplications contributed to sorghum's drought tolerance. For instance, the rice miRNA 169g, upregulated during drought stress, has five sorghum homologs.
Subscribers to Nature can read the full article at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature07723 For more information, read http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v457/n7229/full/nature07723.html and http://www.jgi.doe.gov/News/news_09_01_28.html
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon warned that the global economic crisis could push more people into poverty and urged rich nations to step up their commitments against hunger and malnutrition. The global food crisis issue may have slipped out of the headlines but the worst is far from over. Speaking at the Food Security for All meeting in Madrid, Ban said the high commodity prices pushed the total number of hungry people close to one billion last year. “World poverty cannot be reduced without improvements in agriculture and food systems,” Ban added.
"Prices have fallen from their peaks in 2008, but the food crisis has not gone away,” says the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). “The underlying trends show that global agricultural production cannot keep up with rising demand. The world's 450 million smallholder farms can increase production, lifting millions of poor farm families out of poverty, while helping to feed the world, if they get the support and investment they need.” FAO Director General Jacques Diouf called for an investment of US $30 billion per year in agriculture of developing countries to double food production by 2050 and ensure the basic right to food for all people.
The Madrid conference, organized by the Spanish Government and co-sponsored by the United Nations, followed the 2008 World Food Summit held in Rome at which donors pledged more than US $20 billion in agriculture and food aid.
For the full article, read http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/9904/icode/ and http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2009/sgsm12067.doc.htm
Dr Joachim von Braun, director of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), received the Bertebos Prize 2009 in Stockholm for “his outstanding work in development economics and as effective head of several development research institutions focusing on food, agriculture and rural poverty.”
The Bertebos Prize is awarded by the Royal Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, Kungliga Skogs- och Lantbruksakademien (KSLA), every second year at the annual Commemorative Meeting to a person who has carried out high quality research and its application within the areas of food, agriculture, ecology or animal health. Professor Ingo Potrykus of Magden, Switzerland won the award in 2007.
Details of the award are at http://ifpriblog.org/2009/01/27/joachim-von-braun-awarded-bertebos-prize.aspx and http://www.berte.se/eng/html/pris/pris.asp
Serotonin, the neurotransmitter that controls people’s moods is also responsible for the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-like transformation of solitary, harmless locusts into marauding swarms, according to a paper published by Science. Scientists from Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Sydney found that solitary locusts can be turned into gregarious ones, the term used to describe locusts in swarm mode, simply by tickling their hind legs. Tickling simulates the jostling locusts experience in a crowd. The scientists found that gregarious locusts had three times more serotonin compared to locusts in solitary mode.
Dr Swidbert Ott, from Cambridge University, one of the co-authors of the article, said: "Serotonin profoundly influences how we humans behave and interact, so to find that the same chemical in the brain is what causes a normally shy antisocial insect to gang up in huge groups is amazing."
The findings have important implications for controlling locusts, one of the most devastating insect pests affecting 20 percent of the world's land surface. The scientists noted the possibility of controlling locusts using serotonin transport blockers. But given the ubiquity of serotonin in animals, the serotonin antagonist must be specific for the receptor involved in the solitary-gregarious phase transformation, which is yet to be identified.
The paper published by Science is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1165939 An article summary is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1169280
Maize is the staple food of more than 300 million Africans. The crop, however, is severely affected by frequent drought. Drought leads to crop failure, hunger, and poverty. Global climate change is expected to worsen the problem. Recently, a public-private partnership was formed to develop drought-tolerant maize varieties using conventional breeding, marker-assisted breeding, and biotechnology. Known as Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), the project is led by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) in collaboration with CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), Monsanto Company, and agricultural research systems, farmer groups and seed companies in Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed funding of US $42 million to the project. The first conventional WEMA varieties are expected to be available in six to seven years. Transgenic drought-tolerant varieties will be available in about ten years.
Visit for more information http://www.aatf-africa.org/aatf_projects.php?sublevelone=30&subcat=5
Cornell University and Canada-based DNA LandMarks will make available to the public the first complete genetic map of the pepper genome. The map is based on a set of common genes shared by tomato, potato, eggplant and other species in the nightshade family, as well as the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. It is the fruit of a five-year collaboration between the two organizations. DNA LandMarks, unit of BASF Plant Science, shared its library of DNA markers in pepper to support the effort of Cornell University to create a genetic map of this important vegetable crop.
“This collaborative endeavor will help molecular scientists and plant breeders around the world to be more successful,” said DNA LandMarks CEO Joachim Richer. “A reliable, well-anchored genetic map is the foundation for effective marker-assisted breeding in any crop.”
The map is available at http://www.sgn.cornell.edu/cview/map.pl?map_version_id=58 Visit http://www.dnalandmarks.com/english/ for more information.
The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture has given Dow AgroSciences the green light to sell genetically modified corn hybrids with Herculex I insect protection technology. The authorization was given for 2B710HX, 2B688HX, 2B707HX, 2C520HX and 2A525HX corn hybrids. Herculex I corn varieties are resistant to the fall armyworm (Spodoptora frugiperda) and sugarcane borer (Diatraea saccharalis), serious corn pests that cause yield losses of more than 40 percent in Brazil.
The Brazilian National Biosafety Technical Committee (CTNBio) approved the cry1F-expressing transgenic corn for commercial release in December. Herculex I corn hybrids have been cultivated in the U.S. and Canada since 2001 and in Argentina since 2005.
Read more at http://www.dowagro.com/newsroom/corporatenews/2009/20090128a.htm An article on CTNBio’s approval is available at http://agenciact.mct.gov.br/index.php/content/view/50013.html
Monsanto announced that it will be working with North Carolina-based firm GrassRoots Biotechnology Inc. to identify novel genetic elements, including promoters and genes, which can enable crops to express traits such as improved yield and tolerance to environmental stresses. Under the three year agreement, Monsanto will use promoters- DNA segments that determine when and where a trait is expressed- sourced from GrassRoots in a broad range of crops, including corn, soy, cotton and canola, to optimize an array of biotechnology traits. In a press release, Monsanto vice president of biotechnology Steve Padgette said that the availability of these genetic elements can further leverage Monsanto's extensive gene library and lead to the development of crops with a greater number of beneficial characteristics.
Read the press release at http://monsanto.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=684
Results of a study conducted by researchers at the University of Bayreuth and the Helmholtz Center in Munich revealed that frequent freeze-thaw cycle in winter can increase biomass production. For their experiments, the researchers installed underground heating on their plots. This enables five additional thawing periods to take place in the winter of 2005/2006. They found that manipulated plots produced 10 percent more above-ground biomass than the control plots. Freeze-thaw cycle, however, reduced root length over the whole subsequent growing season. The scientists said that the increase in biomass can be explained by several factors, including increase in nitrogen supply and microbial activity in spring.
Global warming is expected to increase the frequency of soil freeze–thaw cycles in the cool-temperate and high-latitude regions. According to the scientists, changes in productivity resulting in an increased shoot-to-root ratio and shifts in timing are capable of altering ecosystem stability and ecosystem services, such as productivity and nutrient retention.
Subscribers to New Phytologist can download the full article at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2007.02309.x For more information, read http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=17550
Modern biotechnology should be used to develop crops that are resistant to environmental stresses, have higher yields, and have nutritionally enhanced traits. Only technology can guarantee global food sustainability. This was stressed in a report “The Vital Ingredient - Chemical Science and Engineering for Sustainable Food” prepared by the United Kingdom’s Royal Society of Chemistry and Institution of Chemical Engineers.
Commissioned by the British House of Commons, the report also said that “regulations must be based on evaluation of the risk, using sound evidence, and not a socio-political fear of new technology.”
Download a full copy of the report at http://www.rsc.org/images/FoodReport_tcm18-142397.pdf
By comparing the sequences of a single gene in fourteen rice species, an international team of researchers has successfully traced the evolutionary history of the world’s most important crop. Scott Jackson from Purdue University and colleagues from the University of Arizona and the Chinese Academy of Sciences focused their attention on moc1, a gene that decides how many shoots will form on a rice plant. The team said that understanding the variations of moc1 could lead to the development of domesticated rice varieties with more branching, increased plant size or other favorable characteristics.
Jackson said that the comparison revealed how rice has changed from as far back as 14 million years ago. The scientists found that differences in the current sizes of rice genomes resulted from differences in the amplification of jumping genes. As rice adapted to climate changes and other natural circumstances, its genetic structure changed, keeping some genes and losing others. Scientists are now on a hunt for wild rice genes that can be used to breed better rice varieties.
For more information, read http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2009a/090123JacksonRice.html The open access paper published by PNAS is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1073_pnas.0812798106
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Hasselt University in Belgium have identified plant-associated microbes that can improve plant growth on marginal land. The findings may help scientists design strategies for sustainable biofuel production that do not use food crops or agricultural land.
In a previous study, the team led by Daniel van der Lelie successfully developed microbial gene-expressing poplar trees that can degrade soil contaminants. An added bonus, the researchers observed, was that the poplar trees grew faster even when no contaminants were present. This led to the search for bacteria that increase biomass and carbon sequestration in poplar trees growing on marginal soils.
The team isolated endophytic bacteria present in poplar and willow roots and tested selected strains’ abilities to increase plant growth in a controlled greenhouse environment. Cuttings inoculated with Enterobacter sp. 638 and Burkholderia cepacia BU72 showed up to 50 percent increase in biomass production. Analysis of genes from four bacterial species resulted in the identification of possible mechanisms that could help these microbes thrive within a plant environment, including the production of plant growth-promoting hormones.
The complete article is available at http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/PR_display.asp?prID=874 The paper published by Applied and Environmental Microbiology is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/AEM.02239-08
Comparing whole genome sequences of different organisms to construct their evolutionary trees can be very tedious and time consuming. Scientists use techniques that rely on the comparison of small sets of genes that the organisms being compared have in common. These methods, however, might not be applicable when comparing distantly related organisms. Inspired by the text comparison methods used to detect plagiarism in computer programs, books and other publications, a team of researchers from University of California, Berkeley developed an improved method for comparing whole genome sequences.
“The method treats the genome like a book without spaces,” said Sung-Hou Kim lead researcher of the study. Kim noted that the method, called FFP, produces groupings of organisms largely consistent with current groupings but with some discrepancies. For instance, the relative positions of the groups in the family tree are quite different from those based on conventional gene alignment methods.
In addition to its application in comparative genomics, Kim expects that FFP will help in tracing human ancestry and disease demography, as well as in grouping metagenomic data. The paper appears this week in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The complete article is available at http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/01/28_genomecomp.shtml
What sets land plants apart from their aquatic counterparts is their ability to sprout upward through the air, unsupported except by their own woody tissues. Wood is composed of cellulose fibers impregnated with lignin molecules. Lignin-containing cell walls are considered to be key innovations in the evolution of terrestrial plants from aquatic ancestors some 475 million years ago. Lignin is of particular interest to biofuel researchers since it binds cell walls and prevents the extraction of cellulose, a key component in biofuel production.
Secondary growth and lignified cells are unique to vascular plants, or so scientists thought. A team of researchers from the University of Columbia and Stanford University has recently identified a marine alga with lignified cells. The scientists, in a paper published by Current Biology, noted that the finding “raises many questions about the convergent or deeply conserved evolutionary history of these traits, given that red algae and vascular plants probably diverged more than 1 billion years ago.”
Download the full paper at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2008.12.031
BioAsia 2009: The Global Biobusiness Forum will be held on February 2 - 4, 2009 at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC), Hyderabad, India. The Chief Minister of the Government of Andhra Pradesh will be joined by the Ministers of Science and Technology of Sri Lanka, Iran, and Spain in giving talks during the inaugural session. Prof. Marc Van Montagu, Founder and Chairman, Institute of Plant Biotechnology for Developing Countries,Belgium, will be given the Genome Valley Excellence Award.
Contact Bhagirath Choudhary of the International Service for Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) South Asia office at b.choudhary@cgiar.org.
The Fifth Moscow International Congress on Biotechnology: State of the Art and Prospects of Development and the VII International Specialized Exhibition Biotech World 2009 will be held March 16-20, 2009 at the House of Moscow Government. Organizers of the Congress include the Russian Academy of Sciences, Government of Moscow, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, and Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation.
Details of the Congress are available at http://www.mosbiotechworld.ru/eng/index.php
The International Conference on Highlands Agriculture will be held on May 17-20, 2009 in Karaj, Iran. The conference is sponsored by Iran’s Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The conference will focus on the integrated management of the resource base to sustain agricultural development
and livelihoods in the highlands and mountainous areas of Central and West Asia and North Africa.
Visit the conference website at http://www.icarda.cgiar.org/Announcement/2008/IntlConfHighlandsAgriculture/HighlandsAgriculture.htm
The Africa-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) hosts Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA), a new center for excellence in modern plant, microbe and animal biology in Africa. The BecA-ILRI Hub is recruiting a Technology Manager to facilitate research and capacity building through strategic planning, technical coordination, implementation and monitoring of new technologies within the BecA-ILRI Hub and outside. This is an international senior level appointment reporting to the Director of the BecA-ILRI Hub.
Visit these websites for complete information http://ilrinet.ilri.cgiar.org/index.php?option=com_employmentlisting&c=posting&view=posting&id=11&Itemid=442 or http://hub.africabiosciences.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=53&Itemid=1
The Global Risk Report 2009, prepared in anticipation of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is now available for download. The report identifies deteriorating fiscal positions, a hard landing in China, a collapse in asset prices, gaps in global governance and issues relating to natural resources and climate as the pivotal risks facing the world this year. The report also warns of weather-related disasters disproportionately affecting subsistence farming and the threat of drought to food security.
Download the report at http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/globalrisk/index.htm
Agropedia, an online repository of agricultural information in India, is now available for agricultural extension workers and students. Described as an audiovisual encyclopedia, the site has a virtual library of information, blogs, and question and answer fora. Initially, nine crops are featured - rice, wheat, chickpea, pigeon pea, vegetable pea, lychee, sugarcane, groundnut, and sorghum.
The site is sponsored by the National Agricultural Innovation Project of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
Visit the site at http://agropedia.iitk.ac.in/.