http://www.isaaa.org/kc/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).en-usFri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9561During the recently concluded international economic forum held in Madrid, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General José Graziano da Silva revealed that funding seems to be the significant problem in the international effort to boost food security and development in Africa. "In the Horn of Africa we are losing the window of opportun...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Globalhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9555Agricultural biotechnology has received firm backing from Ghana's Minister for Environment, Science and Technology Hon. Ms. Sherry Ayittey. The Minister's sentiments came during the second Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB) all chapters annual planning meeting in Accra, Ghana on May 1, 2012. Hon. Ayittey noted that while Afri...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Africahttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9557The FAO Director General José Graziano da Silva has made a clarion call to oil rich African nations to utilize revenues generated from oil to make their countries food secure. Graziano da Silva was speaking during FAO's Regional Conference for Africa on 30 April, 2012 in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo. "I would like to appeal to African nations...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Africahttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9556The CGIAR research program on maize is now receiving proposals and concept notes by scientists for initiatives to improve maize. The Maize Competitive Grants Initiative allows scientists worldwide to apply for funds to support research and capacity building activities that will make a significant contribution to the improvement of the crop. Concept...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Africahttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9549Cornell University plant breeder Susan McCouch has identified several promising rice varieties that are tolerant to aluminum, the third most abundant element in soil and toxic to plants in acidic conditions. Together with Leon Kochian of the US Department of Agriculture's Robert Holley Center for Agriculture and Health, they found that japonica var...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Americashttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9550With the help of the $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), University of Georgia (UGA) professor and plant geneticist Wayne Parrott will try to uncover more uses of soybean. According to him, soybean is a key crop essential for satisfying the nutritional needs of the increasing global population. He added that extensive study...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Americashttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9553The International Food Information Council (IFIC) revealed the results of their survey on consumers' perception of food technology conducted in March 2012. This year's survey, which is a part of a series conducted since 1997, focused on public awareness and perceptions of various aspects of plant and animal biotechnology, measured confidence in the...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Americashttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9539Amyris, under a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant, successfully processed the improved sweet sorghum hybrids from energy crop company Ceres, Inc. The sweet sorghum hybrids from Ceres undergo a process of extraction of juice from the stem. Then this juice is concentrated into sugar syrup, after which it is brought to Amyris' pilot facility in Ca...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Americashttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9504Renee Kim from Hanyang University in South Korea published a paper about a survey on the attitude of South Korean consumers towards GM foods. Kim used a quantitative model that identifies the major determinants of consumers' choice behavior for GM foods. Survey results showed that the consumers' socio-economic status and their perception on the ben...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Asia and the Pacifichttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9516Agri-Science Queensland has released five new wheat breeding lines that are tolerant and resistant to the root-lesion nematode Pratylenchus thornei, a plant parasite affecting two-thirds of Australia's grain crops and reduce yield by up to 65 percent. Nematodes invade wheat roots making it difficult for plants to absorb water and nutrients from the...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Asia and the Pacifichttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9541India's key scientists and entomologists who met during the national seminar on "Biotechnological Approaches in Pest Management" at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) recommend using biotech for optimum pest management. The national seminar was hosted by PAU's Department of Entomology and School of Agricultural Biotechnology. Guests included Dars...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Asia and the Pacifichttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9548The Asian Development Bank released a report titled Food Security and Poverty in Asia and the Pacific: Key Challenges and Policy Issues during the 45th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors held at the Philippine International Convention Center in April 2012. The study estimated that the world's population will increase by more than two billion by 2...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Asia and the Pacifichttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9563Several esteemed scientists in the Philippines emphasized the need for an alternative to excessive pesticide spraying in eggplant. Dr. Emiliana Bernardo, entomologist and member of Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP) of the Department of Agriculture, said that the current practice of spraying in eggplant farms calls for a healthier and mor...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Asia and the Pacifichttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9565According to researchers from The University of Western Australia (UWA), understanding the root system and function of crop plants is the "next frontier" to increase Australia's grain production, keep farms viable, and help continue to feed the world despite the onset of increasing drought and climate change. The research team was led by UWA-based ...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Asia and the Pacifichttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9566Mr. Zhang Laiwu, Vice Minister of Science and Technology of People Republic of China, announced at a news conference held by the State Council Information Office that China will take ten measures to promote the transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture. The 10 measures are: * Implement agricultural science and technology k...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Asia and the Pacifichttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9543A new crop technology was co-developed by University of Queensland's (UQ) Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) and DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred. The team, led by Prof. Graeme Hammer, director of QAAFI's Centre for Plant Science, is composed of UQ scientists. Their goal is to develop a world-class model which will assist farme...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Asia and the Pacifichttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9544The James Hutton Institute (JHI) has been awarded a £1.25 million research grant to be utilized in projects that will help improve the quality and reliability of malting barley, increase knowledge of root development, and identify disease resistance in barley. The institute was able to secure four projects among the other nine crop research proje...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Europehttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9560Biologist Professor Ralf Reski, Chair of Plant Biotechnology of University of Freiburg, Germany and a group of scientists from Germany, Spain, France, Italy and Ireland formed the consortium MOSSCLONE. The consortium consisting of five academic partners and five small and medium enterprises (SMEs) aims to develop a novel, precise and inexpensive me...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Europehttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9564EuropaBio has published a document listing the status of GM applications in the decision making phase of the EU approval process. The approval process in the EU is considered one of the strictest. After an extensive scientific risk assessment, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will endorse a particular decision to the European Commission fo...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Europehttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9546Scientist Dae-Yul Son of Daegu Haany University and colleagues assessed the allergic risk of pollens coming from genetically modified (GM) pepper with resistance to cucumber mosaic virus and GM Chinese cabbage with high phenylethylisothiocyanate (PEITC) content. They compared the amino acid (AA) sequences of the inserted gene products of GM pepper ...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Researchhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9545A study was conducted to evaluate the long-term and age-specific effects of feeding Bt maize on the immune response of pigs and to know the fate of cry1Ab gene and protein. This study was conducted by Peadar Lawlor of Teagasc, Ireland, and other scientists and was published in PLos One open-access journal. Forty day old pigs were fed with different...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Researchhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9547One of the considerations in the development of biotech crops is the preservation of nutritional property of the crop. The biotech crop must contain at least equal nutritional value as that of the parent line. Thus, Young-Sang Lee of Soonchunhyang University in Korea and team conducted a study to compare the nutritional and phytochemical compositio...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Researchhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9508A research funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust shows a new group of molecules which control some of the fundamental processes behind memory function. This discovery may be the key to the development of new therapies as treatment for neurodegenerative disea...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Beyond Crop Biotechhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9509Three-dimensional atomic structure of a human protein which is mainly involved in regulating the activities of cells has been identified by the Scripps Research Institute. This new finding can be helpful in understanding a process called RNA-silencing and use it to treat diseases.The update on RNA-silencing focused on Argonaute2, which is a protein...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Beyond Crop Biotechhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9538Scientists who want to unlock cancer's secrets are faced with the challenge of quantifying DNA alterations that may underlie malignancy in cancer cells. To help solve the complications of the search for genetic alterations in cancer, researchers at the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University developed a...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Beyond Crop Biotechhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9542A new announcement from Pfizer, Inc. and ProtalixBioTherapeutics said that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the ELELYSO™ for injection. This new drug is for the enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) of adults with type 1 Gaucher disease. ELELYSO™ is the first plant cell-based ERT that FDA has approved. This new drug is derived fr...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Beyond Crop Biotechhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9554A new software that "spellchecks" gene sequences was developed by Lauren Bragg, a PhD student from Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the University of Queensland. The new software Acacia analyzes the output of next-generation gene sequencing instruments which read the bases that code for DNA and spell out the ...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Beyond Crop Biotechhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9558Lasius neglectus ants were studied by two scientists from the Immunity and Infection Research at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom and from Stanford University in the United States to determine how organisms transfer immunity between related individuals and to discriminate between pathogens. The study published in the journal PloS B...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Beyond Crop Biotechhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9559A conference on "Czech Contribution to Sustainable Bioeconomy" is going to be held in Brussels, Belgium on May 31, 2012. It is organized under the auspices of the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the EU and in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic and with the Technology Centre AS CR. The conference wil...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Announcementshttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9552The Crop Science Society of America released an article that discusses the different challenges in the regulation of genetically engineered crops in the U.S. The paper highlights the results of a research study conducted by Esther McGinnis and colleagues at the University of Minnesota. Download a copy of the article at https://www.crops.org/news-me...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Document Remindershttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=9562A short video describing how biotechnology can be applied to our everyday lives is available at the Europabio website at http://www.europabio.org/biotechnology-invisible-revolution-0...Fri, 11 May 2012 17:00:00 +0800Document Reminders