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-usWed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10988An international team of scientists has identified the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine of the mid-ninetheenth century. The scientists said that a strain of Phytophthora infestans called HERB-1 triggered the disaster, and not the US-1 strain that was long thought to have been the culprit.A team of molecular biologists from USA and Europ...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Globalhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10993The Wheat Initiative, an international consortium of public and private organizations, published a vision document on wheat improvement. To address the challenges in wheat internationally, the Wheat Initiative aims to: * develop a global strategic agenda for wheat research through the identification of research and outreach priorities and challeng...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Globalhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=11001The US Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with The Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) and Vibha Agrotech Limited will collaborate to develop wheat and rice with drought and salinity tolerance through genetic modification. ACPFG's gene systems and technologies and the evaluation and rice transformation c...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Globalhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10986Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates stated during the International Agriculture and Food Security Briefing in Washington D.C. that investing in agriculture is essential to succeed against world poverty, adding that nothing improves an economy as efficiently as agriculture. Several congressmen and staff attended the briefing, along with ...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Globalhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10996Researchers from the University of Nairobi, ISAAA AfriCenter, and Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) conducted a study to estimate the potential economic benefits of adopting Bt cotton in selected African countries. Governments in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) reg...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Africahttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10998John Komen and David Wafula wrote a book titled An Evaluation of Trade Barriers to the Adoption of Genetically Modified Crops in the East African Community. The book is based on a literature review of recent studies that analyzed the actual and potential trade implications of GM crop adoption in East African countries. The authors noted that East A...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Africahttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=11003Representatives of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) network in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda as well as potential members from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe met in Dar es Salaam from May 8-10, 2013 to discuss existing and future activities. The activity was organized by the African Agricultural Technology Fou...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Africahttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10985During a Journalist Roundtable at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi on May 1, 2013, Romano Kiome, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture of Kenya, has dismissed last year's ban on the import of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the country--calling it ill-advised and lacking the backing of law. He s...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Africahttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10991Scientists at Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa) in Brazil are developing a biotech soybean that can produce an anti-viral protein that can be used to fight human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The biotech soybean produces cyanovirin-N, an anti-viral protein that inhibits the virus cycle by binding to certain sugars. The power of ...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Americashttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10987The Governments of Canada, and Saskatchewan, and the University of Saskatchewan announced the creation of the Canadian Wheat Alliance (CWA), a new initiative to coordinate research and development projects to improve wheat varieties by reducing losses due to extreme weather conditions such as drought, heat, cold, and diseases. The CWA will invest a...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Americashttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10983A historical analysis of corn research shows that new hybrids are taking up more nitrogen than older plant varieties after the crucial flowering stage, a clue as to how plant scientists will need to adapt plants to increase yields. With this finding, scientists have studied the timing of nutrient uptake in corn and how that process affects yield. T...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Americashttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10992A new high-tech glass greenhouse in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, U.S., simulates the growing conditions of any climate in different parts of the world. The research facility owned by Syngenta has 22 rooms which are virtually shadowless, with artificial lighting, and fully air conditioned. A "fertigation system" is also employed in the fa...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Americashttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10989Indonesia's National Genetically Modified Product Biosafety Commission (KKHPRG) has approved the world's first genetically modified sugarcane which will soon be commercialized. Dr. Bambang Purwantara, a member of the commission said that all the institutions mandated to approve biotech crops have given their approval to the drought resistant sugarc...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Asia and the Pacifichttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10997Dr. William Dar, Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), said during the inauguration of ICRISAT's Sixth Meeting of Project Monitoring Committee in Agri-Biotechnology that modern science tools like genomics and molecular breeding are essential to facilitate crop improvement given the extre...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Asia and the Pacifichttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10999A paper published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry implies that regulation on compositional equivalence may no longer be justified, based on a review of 20 years of literature on the subject. Paper co-authors Rod A. Herman of Dow AgroSciences and retired US FDA officer William D. Price found that in 148 GM crops approved in the US ...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Asia and the Pacifichttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=11000Dr. Dang Kim Son, Director of Vietnam's Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD) proposed in a recent seminar his "Iphone or Irice – Options for Vietnam's sustainable development". He emphasized that the new trend for the country's industrialization is to invest in agriculture and rural development as well as ...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Asia and the Pacifichttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10990Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation, commissioned a survey of 1,856 respondents (460 aged 14-18 and 1,396 adults) aiming to get the UK's attitudes to science, biomedical research, and science education. Some of the main findings in the survey are as follows: * 75% of the adults and 60% of the young people are interested in medical resea...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Europehttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10994University of Tsukuba scientist Xiang Yu and colleagues conducted environmental biosafety assessments of three transgenic lines of woody plant blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) that has choline oxidase (codA) gene which confers different levels of salt tolerance. The assessment include investigations on the beneficial or harmful effects of the transge...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Researchhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10995A total of 156 agricultural fields across six U.S. states were studied to investigate the effect of weed managements systems of glyphosate resistant (GR) crops in weed community structure and composition. The fields were categorized into three weed management systems: a) a single continuous GR crop; b) a rotation of two GR crops; and c) a GR crop r...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Researchhttp://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=10978A research conducted at Michigan State University (MSU) shows that malaria transmission from mosquitoes to humans can be interrupted by the bacteria Woolbachia. The bacteria acts like a vaccine for the insects, protecting them from malaria parasites. Zhiyong Xi, MSU assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, said "Our work is the f...Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:00 +0800Beyond Crop Biotech