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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October 23, 2009
In This Week’s Issue:
News
Global
• Diouf: Need for Total and Rapid Elimination of Hunger
• Hall of Laureates to Honor Borlaug
• Wageningen, CIP and Cornell Team up to Fight Phytophthora
Africa
• SASHA for Sub-Saharan Africa
• Turning Food Crisis into Opportunities for African Agriculture
Americas
• Mexico Approves GM Corn Trials
• NSF Gives USD 101 Million to 32 Plant Genome Projects
• Corn Amylase Improves Efficiency and Environmental Footprint of Corn to Ethanol
• Internet and Newspapers as Sources for Biotech Communication
Asia and the Pacific
• India's GEAC Recommends Commercial Release of Bt Brinjal
• GM Blue Roses to Hit Japanese Shelves Next Month
• Monsanto and Huazhong Agric University Collaborate on Plant Biotech Research
• Bangladesh Food Minister Stresses Use of Modern Technology in Agriculture
Europe
• Royal Society Report Calls for "Sustainable Intensification of Global Agriculture"
• Changing Smell of Plants Announces Pathogen Attack
Research
• Nanoagriculture: Carbon Tubes Enhance Seedling Germination and Plant Growth
• Structure of Phytohormone Receptor Reveals New Ways of Improving Drought Tolerance
Announcements
• Workshop on National Biotech Communication Strategies
• Bio MicroWorld 2009
• GM Crops Coexistence Conference in Melbourne
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NEWS
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Global
DIOUF: NEED FOR TOTAL AND RAPID ELIMINATION OF HUNGER
The current economic crisis that has forced 105 million more people into hunger is historically unprecedented says Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf. Hence, he called for a "broad consensus on the total and rapid elimination of hunger" during the World Summit on Food Security of Heads of State and Government on November 16-18, 2009.
World leaders have to agree to increase development assistance for agriculture, Diouf also said in his annual address to mark World Food Day. "That amount of $44 billion of official development assistance that we need to devote to agriculture development is very low compared with the $365 billion spent in 2007 to support agriculture in the rich countries, the $1,340 billion spent by the world each year on armaments and the trillions of dollars found in short order in 2008–2009 to prop up the financial sector," he explained.
In related matters, the FAO Committee on World Food Security (CFS) have agreed on a reform to make CFS the "inclusive international and intergovernmental platform dealing with food security and nutrition and to be a central component in the evolving Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition."
See the FAO press releases at http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/36350/icode/ and http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/36446/icode/
The former Des Moines Public Library in Iowa, USA has been transferred to the World Food Prize Foundation and will be transformed into the Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates to honor the man's humanitarian legacy.
"The Hall of Laureates will ensure that the legacy and spirit of Dr. Norman Borlaug will continue to inspire Borlaug-like achievements in the fight against hunger well into the 22nd Century," said Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation.
According to the World Food Prize website, upon completion of the $29.8 million restored Hall of Laureates, the building will serve as: a museum to recognize great achievements in agriculture; a convocation center at which to hold the Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium, known as the "Borlaug Dialogue;" a home for the World Food Prize Global Youth Institute; an educational facility featuring interactive displays on hunger and food security; and a conference center and community hall available to other groups and organizations for their meetings and events.
Visit http://www.worldfoodprize.org/press_room/2009/october/building-dedication.htm for additional information.
Netherlands-based Wageningen UR has signed an agreement with the American Cornell University and the International Potato Center (CIP) in Peru to develop potato varieties with durable resistance against the dreaded late blight disease. Caused by the fungal pathogen, Phytophthora infestans, the disease costs potato growers some USD 5 billion annually.
The organizations will work together under the DuRPH project (durable resistance against Phytophthora through cisgenic marker-free modification), funded by the Dutch government and started in 2006. One of the focal points of the agreement is making the results available for countries whose food supply depends mainly on their potato cultivation, especially those in East Africa and East Asia.
"This initiative is completely in line with the Dutch agriculture ministry's goal to use the results of our research and our technologies for stacking genes to benefit developing countries," said Anton Haverkort, DURPH project leader. The new joint international project also aims to design a cultivation system that includes so-called resistance management.
For more information, visit http://www.durph.wur.nl/UK/
"The food crisis can be turned into opportunities for a food secure future. It has led to renewed interest in agriculture and is an opportunity for African countries to reenergize their agricultural sectors." Hartmann, the Director General of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), forwards these thoughts along the World Food Day's theme on "Feeding the world in times of crisis."
Hartmann adds that: "The most effective way to end hunger and poverty is by increasing investments in the agricultural sector to improve productivity, diversify food systems, and intensify food processing and regional trade for wealth generation. We need not re-invent the wheel, technologies and know-how exist, they just need to be put into practice."
View the rest of Hartmann's interview in http://www.iita.org/cms/details/news_details.aspx?articleid=2899&zoneid=81
The Mexican government has approved the first field trials of genetically modified corn in the country. According to a joint statement by the country's agriculture (SAGARPA) and environment (SEMARNAT) ministries, the field tests "will be limited to a specific area, totally isolated from other crops, and will be monitored closely by the government." The statement, however, didn't mention companies or institutions involved or the site of the field tests. The ministries also said that 35 permit requests had been made.
Mexico is the world's fourth largest corn producer, producing some 22.5 million tons annually according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The statement (in Spanish) is available at http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/prensa/?contenido=49586
Corn Amylase (CA), an enzyme essential to convert available starch to fermentable sugars in the production of biofuels, can improve the efficiency, cost, and environmental footprint of biofuels. It will reduce the demand for natural resources, the consumption of fossil fuels, the emission of greenhouse gases, reduce utility costs at the plant and improve the energy balance (compared to ethanol produced from conventional corn). In Corn Amylase: Improving the Efficiency and Environmental Footprint of Corn to Ethanol through Plant Biotechnology published in the e-journal AgbioForum, John Urbanchuk and colleagues from LECG, LLC and Michigan State University review the potential economic and environmental benefits of CA on the production of ethanol from corn and sorghum.
Results were confirmed in a trial of a new variety of corn developed by Syngenta that expresses alpha-amylase directly in the seed endosperm. The authors noted that "This technology represents a novel approach to improving ethanol production in a way that can be integrated smoothly into the existing infrastructure."
For the full article visit http://www.agbioforum.org/v12n2/v12n2a01-stone.htm
Where do public officials obtain information about science issues including agricultural biotechnology? Based on a study of two groups that included elected state officers of the National Future Farmers of America (FFA) Organization and Texas House and Senate legislators, respondents relied on the Internet and newspapers as source for agricultural biotechnology. However, Texas legislators used the Cooperative Extension Service significantly more often than did state FFA officers, whereas the FFA officers relied more on the Internet. These were the findings of Gary Wingenbach, a professor in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications at Texas A&M University.
The study published in the Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education, also tackled current and possible future legislators' perceptions of biotechnology. It provided a better understanding of the impact of media types when communicating the science of biotechnology to others.
View the abstract at http://www.jnrlse.org/view/2009/e08-0022.pdf.
India's Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), the country's biotech regulator, has recommended the commercial release of Bt brinjal in the country. The recommendation came seven years after the approval of Bt cotton, the country's first transgenic crop. Bt brinjal, which is resistant to the dreaded fruit and shoot borer (FSB), has been under research and development and stringent regulatory approval process since 2002.
GEAC has submitted the recommendation to Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forest (MOEF). Ramesh said in a press release that the ministry will make the decision after consultation with scientists, farmers, consumer groups and NGOs scheduled early next year or "after all stake holders are satisfied that they have been heard to their satisfaction." The objective of the consultation, Ramesh noted, is to "arrive at careful, considered decision in the public and national interest."
For more information, read http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=53217
Japan's Suntory Ltd announced that it will start selling the world's first blue rose next month. The product of more than two decades of research, the blue rose will be on sale for 2,000-3,000 yen (about USD 22-33) per stem.
Growers have been breeding roses for thousands of years, creating different varieties that produce flowers of different sizes and colors. But because roses naturally lack blue pigmentation, elusive blue roses became synonymous with the impossible. Horticulturists have long referred to the blue rose as the holy grail of the plant breeding world. During the Victorian times, blue roses signified the attempt to attain the impossible. Even Rudyard Kipling made a poem about the impossible quest for blue roses.
With the Australian company Florigene, Suntory made the impossible possible by expressing the flavonoid 3'5'-hydroxylase and anthocyanin 5-acyltransferase genes from pansies and petunias in roses. The genes encode enzymes that play important roles in the synthesis of delphinidin, the elusive blue pigment.
Suntory in a press release said that the new variety, named Applause, is "recommended as a luxurious gift for special occasions such as wedding anniversaries and birthdays."
Read more at http://www.suntory.com/news/2009/10592.html
Monsanto Company announced that it has signed a collaboration pact with China's Huazhong Agricultural University to "further the development of novel traits such as higher yield, drought resistance and nitrogen use efficiency." Monsanto will evaluate and advance certain technologies developed by Professor Qifa Zhang's research team at the Huazhong University, it said in a press release.
"We're excited to be working with a prominent research team in China who has demonstrated great expertise in genomics and biotechnology discovery research," said Steve Padgette, Monsanto's Vice President for Biotechnology. "This collaboration will benefit both parties." The company recognized China as an important place for research and development in plant biotechnology.
Monsanto has also established a scholarship program at the university for top undergraduate students pursuing degrees in plant biotech, plant breeding, plant protection, horticulture and other agricultural disciplines.
The press release is available at http://monsanto.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=759
Food and Disaster Management Minister of Bangladesh M. A. Razzaque, chief guest at a reception ceremony of agriculturist lawmakers in Dhaka, emphasized the use of modern agricultural technology to alleviate the food crisis in the country. He mentioned that varietal improvement through breeding and modern techniques may be utilized to assure food security in a country where population surge is the great threat to food availability.
The Minister also suggested employing agriculturists up to the grass root unit (Union Council) of administration. The meeting was presided over by Prof. MAS Mondal, Vice Chancellor, Bangladesh Agricultural University and was attended by around 3,500 people.
For more information about the meeting, email Dr. Khondoker Nasiruddin of the Bangladesh Biotechnology Information Center at nasirbiotech@yahoo.com.
There is a need for "sustainable intensification of global agriculture in which yields are increased without adverse environmental impact and without the cultivation of more land." This was a main point raised in the United Kingdom's Royal Society report on Reaping the benefits: Science and the sustainable intensification of global agriculture.
The study conducted by a working group of experts in agriculture, international development, conservation biology and plant science, examined the contribution of the biological sciences to food crop production. It concludes with a general recommendation that a diversity of technologies needs to be used to enhance production. The specific recommendations of the report include the following:
Tomato plants under attack from the Botrytis fungus give off an aromatic substance that can be measured in greenhouses, scientists at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands discovered. Botrytis or gray mold is an important disease in global tomato cultivation, normally controlled using chemical pesticides.
Through a series of tests, Roel Jansen and colleagues showed that tomato plants infected by Botrytis fungus give off more methyl salicylate into the greenhouse air. Often the plants emit sufficient amounts of this hormone substance for it to be measurable in the air. The researchers believe that detection of volatile compounds in the greenhouse air presents a new way of preventing and managing disease and plague problems in greenhouse horticulture. "If you can identify a plague in a greenhouse on time there will be even less need for pesticides," Jansen says. "The trend in greenhouse horticulture is for fewer but larger greenhouses. An outbreak of a disease or plague therefore forms an even greater threat as it can easily spread throughout the entire greenhouse."
Read more at http://www.wur.nl/UK/newsagenda/news/smell191009.htm
A great deal of research has been made in recent years on the potential of using nanoscale particles for different biological and medical applications. For instance, a team of researchers successfully developed 'carbon nanobombs', which can be used to blow up aberrant cancer cells. Research is also underway to use nanoparticles in agriculture, to improve the productivity of plants for food, fuel, and other uses.
Mariya Khodakovskaya, Alexandru Biris and their colleagues at the University of Arkansas have reported the first evidence that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can penetrate the hard outer coating of seeds with beneficial effects. CNTs, with a diameter 1/50,000th the width of a human hair, were found by the scientists to affect germination and growth rates of tomato seeds. Nanotube-exposed seeds sprouted up to two times faster than control seeds and the seedlings weighed more than twice as much as the untreated plants. The activated process of water uptake could be responsible for the significantly faster germination rates and higher biomass production for the plants that were exposed to CNTs, the researchers state.
The growth-enhancing effect of CNTs may prove to be a boon for biomass production for plant-based biofuels and other agricultural products.
The paper published by ACS Nano is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nn900887m
Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute and the University of California, San Diego have produced a three-dimensional representation of the important phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA), attached to its target protein called PYR1. ABA is produced by plants in large amounts during times of stress, and particularly during conditions of drought. Plants under the influence of this hormone begin to conserve water. However, the exact molecular mechanism by which ABA helps plants tolerate drought remains poorly understood. Understanding the inner workings of this molecule may help scientists design new ways to protect crops against prolonged dry periods, potentially improving crop yield worldwide.
The search for the molecules that regulate the ABA signaling pathway has been going on for sometime. Recently, a team of researchers, led by Sean Cutler, successfully pinpointed a protein that plays a linchpin role in the relay of ABA signals: PYR1.
Cutler's work led to the current study. "This early research with Sean led to new important questions," said Julian Schroeder, co-author of the research. "We wanted to know if abscisic acid bound specifically to the PYR1 protein as a hormone receptor or whether it acted like a glue between PYR1 and partner proteins."
The research showed that two copies of PYR1 fit snugly together in plant cells. There, they are targeted by abscisic acid. Each copy of the PYR1 molecule has an internal open space like the inside of a tin can, and when a hormone molecule comes along, it fits neatly into one of the two spaces. This induces part of the PYR1 protein that the team calls the "lid" to close.
"One possible way to translate this research to agricultural products would be to design chemicals to mimic the action of abscisic acid," noted EliGetzoff, co-author of the paper. "Such chemicals would then be sprayed on crops to protect them in the face of looming drought."
The paper published by Science is available to subscribers at http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1181829 For more information, read http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/10-09Drought.asp
A related article can be found at http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/sentarticle/default.asp?ID=4138
Validation of the National Communications and Public Awareness Strategy and Plan of Peru is the theme of a workshop to be held at the National Agrarian University La Molina, Peru on November 17, 2009. The workshop aims to analyze and validate a communication plan and public perception on biosafety that is appropriate for Peru. This workshop is part of the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Biosafety Project in four countries- Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru - through the Global Environment Facility which is being coordinated by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, and the Institute of Biotechnology of the National Agrarian University La Molina. Collaborating institutions include the International Potato Center and the National Institute of Agrarian Innovation of Peru.
Additional information may be obtained by emailing Dr. Javier Verastegui of the LAC Biosafety Project-Peru at verastegui.javier@gmail.com
The Genetically Modified Crops Coexistence Conference (GMCC) will take place from 10 to 12 November, 2009 in Melbourne, Australia. The conference will cover key issues on coexistence between GM and non-GM agricultural supply chains ranging from the production level to the market place. Topics include: gene flow in agricultural systems; strategies for coexistence and organizational measures across the supply chain; socio-economics of coexistence and cost/benefit analysis of coexistence strategies; legal and policy issues of coexistence frameworks; and traceability and control of coexistence.
For further information, visit http://www.gmcc-09.com/