CHALLENGES OF AGRO-BIOTECH EXPLORED
There
is a need for concerted efforts on the part of the international
community to link up agro-biotechnologies and intellectual
property rights with development objectives. This was highlighted
by Pranav Desai of the Centre for Studies in Science Policy
of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, in a paper “Challenges
of agro-biotechnologies, intellectual property rights and globalization” published
in Asian Biotechnology and Development Review.
Desai noted that the new economic environment of liberalized
policies, increasing globalization, and the presence of emerging
technologies, has shaped the direction for science and technology
and its organizational structure. This reality has raised several
socio-economic, ethical and political issues that need to be
addressed. For example, national systems of innovations are
under increasing strain due to liberalization, competition,
increasing range of technologies, and uneven technological
development. Similarly, strategies to maximize benefits of
emerging technologies should take into account means to dovetail
biotechnology with economic priorities, resource endowment
and the science and technology infrastructure of a country.
Read the full article in the Volume 7, No.
2 issue of Asian Biotechnology and Development Review. Visit
the journal’s
website at http://www.ris.org.in/abdr.html.
INDIA WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHTS MANAGEMENT OF GM FIELD TRIALS
In
the recent “National Workshop on Management of Field
Trials of Genetically Modified Crops” in New Delhi, India,
Croplife International introduced its Model Best Practices
Guideline for the Management of Confined Field Trial of Genetically
Engineered Plants. The first half of the program consisted
of a training session highlighting the important educational
tools found in CropLife International’s Field Trial Compliance
Protocol. The second session included a discussion on the current
state of field trials in India and related issues under the
Indian regulatory system.
|
| Mr
Michael Leader, Croplife International, Sh RK Sinha
of AICBA, Dr Morven McLean of Agbios, Dr KK Tripathi
and Dr TV Ramaniah of Department of Biotechnology (Left
to Right) |
The workshop featured several experts and government officials
concerned with GM field trials. Among them was Dr. Morven McLean
of Agbios, Canada, who highlighted the key Standard Operating
Protocols (SOPs) for every stage of confined field trials,
from the transport and storage, to the management of the confined
trial site, the harvest and disposal of materials, and the
management of trial sites after harvest.
Dr.
KR Koundal, director of the Indian Council of Agricultural
Research’s National Research Center on Plant Biotechnology
( ICAR NRCPB), made a presentation on “Transgenic Crop
Development and Evaluation” and highlighted ICAR’s
guidelines and its six stages of transgenic crop development
and evaluation by All India Coordinated Trials Projects. ICAR
Deputy Director General for Crop Science Gautam Kalloo had
earlier advanced ICAR’s support in conducting field trials
of GM crops and called for suggestions to improve the existing
guidelines for transgenic crop development and evaluation in
the ICAR system.
The workshop’s participants included a number of government
officials, as well as representatives from public and private
research groups.
The workshop was organized by The International Service for
the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) in collaboration
with the Biotech Consortium of India Ltd (BCIL), with support
from CropLife International (http://www.croplife.org) and Agbios,
Canada (http://www.agbios.com). For more information, contact
Bhagirath Choudhary of ISAAA South Asia at b.choudhary@isaaa.org.
NEW RESEARCH TO LOOK INTO COCOA
A
research team from the United Kingdom’s University
of Reading will undertake a five-year, Eu 1.4 million project
to study the cacao genome. The project aims, among others,
to assist cocoa farmers in identifying high-yielding varieties,
dealing with threats to the crop, and developing new varieties
of cocoa. The research is being funded by Cocoa Research UK
(CRUK) and the government of the Netherlands.
CRUK was established in 1996 to promote UK-based cocoa research.
It seeks to safeguard the future of the cocoa trade and industry,
guarantee that consumers receive high quality chocolate products,
and ensure continuing supplies of good quality cocoa at prices
which provide a worthwhile return to all those involved in
the cocoa chain, from growers through to chocolate manufacturers.
For more information, visit http://www.cocoaresearch.com/ and http://www.confectionerynews.com/news/news-ng.asp?
n=61909-cocoa-genes-research.
SOY-BASED PRODUCTS ON THE RISE IN EUROPE
Demand for soy-based alternatives to dairy and meat products
has resulted in a growth of 10 per cent in the European market.
Market analyst Prosoy reported that the positive health impact
of soya as well as changes in lifestyle contributed to this
development.
Over 100 soy-based products are now readily available in European
supermarkets. Innovations have been introduced particularly
in improving its taste, hence boosting its acceptance by consumers.
Prosoy predicts a double-digit growth in the next three years.
For more news on food related topics, visit http://www.navigator.com.
IFPRI REPORTS ON AFRICA PROSPECTS FOR
2025
In “Looking Ahead: Long Term Prospects for Africa’s
Agricultural Development and Food Security,” Mark Rosegrant
and colleagues of the International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI) use scenarios to illustrate the future for Africa if
current economic trends continue.
Using
computer modeling to project supply, demand, price, and
trade of 32 major food commodities for five regions of
Sub-Saharan Africa and two regions of West Asia and North
Africa through to 2025, researchers found that 1) the number
of hungry
children in Africa would decrease dramatically to 9.4 million
by 2025, 2) West Asia and North Africa will actually see
a decline of 2.3 million hungry children by 2025, and 3)
agricultural
production grows only modestly to 2025.
To
address food and nutrition security for Africa, researchers
recommend common
policy priorities for governments to consider.
These include 1) reform of agricultural policies, trade,
and tariffs; 2) increased investment in rural infrastructure,
education,
and social capital; 3) better management of crops, land,
water, and inputs; 4) increased agricultural research
and extension;
and (5) greater investments in women. The report also recommends
investment in both conventional breeding and biotechnology,
such as genetic engineering of key crops, tissue
culture,
and other molecular techniques.
The report can be downloaded at http://www.ifpri.org/
2020/dp/vp41.pdf.
Supplements include fact sheets on child malnutrition in
Africa, policy and investment priorities, and water and food
security,
all of which may be downloaded at http://www.ifpri.org/media/20050811Outlook2025.asp.
PAPER RECOUNTS NEW GM METHODS
One
of the newest methods for introducing genes into agriculturally-important
crops, as well as ensuring proper insect resistance management,
is gene pyramiding, or introducing more than one resistance
trait into plant cells. The techniques involved are recounted
by Dr. Claire Halpin of the University of Dundee in the United
Kingdom, as she looks into the future “Towards ‘stacked’ traits
- prospects for multi-gene manipulation in plants.” Her
article appears in the latest issue of the Information Systems
for Biotechnology News Report.
Current strategies in stacking traits involve adding the transgenes
one at a time into plant cells, which may be done by either
crossing a plant containing one transgene with other plants
harboring other transgenes, or re-transforming transgenic plants
with additional transgenes. Another stacking method is to introduce
more than one transgene at one time, say by having different
multiple DNA fragments on one tungsten bullet in biolistics.
Yet another method is to link the genes together into a single
sequence so that they will transfer as a single entity into
a plant.
The newest strategies, Dr. Halpin writes, now involve the
use of bacterial operons and internal ribosome entry sites
(IRESs). In this technique, scientists can introduce a multiple
number of genes into one vector, along with DNA sequences which,
when transcribed, attract ribosomes to different sites of the
transcript. These different sites are the start sequences of
different proteins, allowing different gene products to be
expressed from a single transcript.
Yet another method is to introduce a single gene with a single
IRES, to be expressed as a single protein containing multiple
domains. Once in a cell, this polyprotein could be broken down
by the host cell into component proteins, all of which may
code for different traits.
Read more at http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2005/
news05.aug.htm#aug0501.
GENE FOUND TO CONTROL RICE PLANT REGENERATION
Most
of today’s experiments with plants involve a tissue
culture step, where plant tissues are transferred to a medium
and made to regenerate whole plants. This regeneration is an
essential step in genetic transformation of plant cells, and
depends on the genetic background of the plant involved. For
instance, it is not easy to culture and regenerate monocots,
including rice, wheat, and maize, all of which are agronomically
important crops.
In “Isolation of a rice regeneration quantitative trait
loci gene and its application to transformation systems,” Asuka
Nishimura of the Honda Research Institute in Japan and colleagues
find a way to make a hitherto hard-to-regenerate rice strain
grow well in an artificial medium. Their findings appear in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online.
By conventional crosses of low-regeneration rice strain Koshihikari
with high-regeneration rice strain Kasalath, researchers identified
some quantitative trait loci which control the regeneration
ability in rice. Quantitative trait loci (or QTLs) are genes
which code for quantifiable or measurable traits, such as plant
height. The main gene in the locus, researchers found, encodes
ferredoxin-nitrite reductase (NiR), which is expressed in higher
levels in Kasalath than in Koshihikari. Using the NiR gene
as a selection marker, researchers succeeded in selectively
transforming a foreign gene into rice.
For more, download the article at http://www.pnas.org/
cgi/reprint/102/33/11940.
INTERDROUGHT II SLATED FOR SEPTEMBER
The second Interdrought Meeting is scheduled for September
24-28, 2005, in Rome, Italy. The meeting is especially concerned
with the drought situation in developing countries, and aims
to serve as a platform for presenting and debating key issues
and strategies relevant for increasing the yield and stability
of crops under drought conditions by genetic and crop management
approaches.
For more information, write to Dr. Hans Bohnert at heid@lifeuiuc.edu,
or visit http://www.plantstress.com/id2.
BIO-EUROPE 2005
The International Congress Center in Dresden,
Germany will be the site of Bio-Europe 2005, the 11th Annual
International
Partnering Conference scheduled November 7-9, 2005. Last
year’s
conference attracted over 1400 delegates and 850 companies.
More information can be obtained from http://www.ebdgroup.com/bioeurope/index.htm.
ICAR TO HOLD IPR CONFERENCE
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research
and the Indian Potato Association will hold a “National Conference on
IPR and Management of Agricultural Research” on August
27-29, 2005 at the NASC Auditorium, Pusa, New Delhi. The Conference
will be organized into 8 technical sessions on IPRs in Indian
perspective, SWOT analysis for protection of intellectual property
rights in India, patenting in the Indian context, patenting
and IPR portfolio management, technology transfer and public-private
partnership, facilitated access to genetic resources and associated
knowledge, and two sessions on protection of plant varieties
and farmers’ rights.
For more information, contact Dr. J.S.Minhas, the Organizing
Secretary, at minhasjs@excite.com
|
| CBTNews
Feature |
| AGRICULTURAL
PRACTICES OF THE MAPUCHE OF CHILE
Like a slender knife set between sea
and soil, Chile cuts thinly through the South American
continent, with blade rich in lakes and plains, mountains
and rivers. Further south of the country are marshes
and forests, fringed by the snow-capped Andes Mountains,
bordered by the Bio-Bio River, and home to a proud,
stalwart tribe who have lived and resisted invasions
for hundreds of years.
|
| Read
more... |
| |
ANZFA BOOKLET ON GM SAFETY ASSESSMENT
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has released
a booklet “GM foods: Safety assessment of GM foods” which
incorporates recent developments in safety assessment, particularly
international methods. It is a follow-up to the booklet published
in 2000 on GM foods and the consumer. The new publication
contains a overview of safety assessment (i.e., basics of
gene technology, safety assessment process, GM foods in the
marketplace), a detailed look at safety assessment, and a
summary of scientific data used by FSANZ to assess safety
of GM foods. For a copy of the booklet, visit http://www.foodstandards.
gov.au.
USDA RELEASES COUNTRY REPORTS ON AGRI-BIOTECH
The United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign
Agricultural Service has released its Global Agricultural
Information Network Reports of selected country situationers
on agricultural biotechnology. These countries include
Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, and Singapore.
The reports which were prepared by country specialists discuss
country overviews on biotechnology and tackles issues such
as trade and production, biotech policy, marketing issues,
capacity building and outreach programs.
The full reports can be downloaded from
http://www.fas.usda.gov/
gainfiles/200508/
146130571.pdf.
COTTON DBASE LAUNCHED
The
Agricultural Research Service (ARS), in association with
Cotton Incorporated (CI) and Clemson University Genomics
Institute (CUGI) has launched the Cotton Microsatellite Database.
This collection is the first step toward development of a
DNA marker database and creating a map of the cotton genome.
Access the database at http://www.mainlab.
clemson.edu/cmd.
|
