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IITA: GE ESSENTIAL TO IMPROVE COWPEA
The International
Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has over the
years tried, without much success, to improve cowpea, a
protein -rich crop, through conventional breeding.
Cowpea is an ideal crop for improving the nutrition of
resource poor farmers, especially since animal protein
is expensive. Dr. Christian Fatokun,
IITA Cowpea Breeder,
said that his institute had collaborated with advanced
laboratories all over the world and committed
substantial human and financial resources
into cowpea improvement
all to no avail because of abundant diseases and insect
pest attacks on the crop. Fatokun added that Nigeria is
the leading producer of the
crop but the yield is so
poor that a farmer hardly realizes more than 300
kilograms of yield per hectare. To increase the yield,
pesticides must be applied, butwhich are expensive and
not environment- friendly. To achieve any success in
controlling the insects, especially Maruca vitrata,
thatwhich destroys the cowpea flowers and
causes severe yield
loss, genetic engineering is essential to incorporate
resistance in the crop, said Dr. Fatokun.
A few years ago, the Institute was instrumental in the
development and subsequent adoption of the Nigerian
Biosafety Guidelines, and the establishment of a
national policy on biotechnology. Other stakeholders
supporting the public awareness drive of biotechnology
in Nigeria include the National Biotechnology
Development
Agency (NABDA) and
several national universities with specific study
programs in biotechnology. For more of IITAs research
email IITA Taye Babaleye, Head,
Public Affairs, at
t.babaleye@cgiar.org.
Can Biotech Crops Be Good Neighbors?
(SRC:New York Times -- ATH:Andrew Pollack)
The biotechnology industry and some scientists and
lawyers say that the flow of genes from GM crops to
other plants will not be a large health, economic,
or legal problem in the U.S., despite concerns to the
contrary. They argue that genes have flowed naturally
from crop to crop and from crop to weed for ages,
causing few problems. Drew L. Kershen, a law professor
at the University of Oklahoma, cites the example of two
close relatives, canola, which is grown for
vegetable oil, and oilseed rape, which is grown for
industrial lubricants and contains far higher levels of
substances that can be harmful to people. The two can
readily pollinate one another, but with proper buffers
between them, they can be grown safely without
intermingling, Kershen says. Some scientists say that
even
if GM genes do flow between plants, it does not matter.
C. Neal Stewart Jr., professor of plant molecular
genetics at the University of Tennessee in the U.S.
and author of "Genetically Modified Planet:
Environmental Impacts of Genetically Engineered Plants,"
says that the effect of adding a single gene from a GM
plant
to an existing weed is likely to be tiny compared with
the effects of introducing an existing species into a
new environment, as in the case of kudzu in the southern
U.S. Stewart says that in his experiments, crossing
insect resistant canola with weeds, the offspring are
typically less fit than other weeds, because in addition
to the insect resistance, they also inherited other
canola genes that are not suitable for the "harsher"
life of a weed. The article says that in any case,
farmers who target those countries and food companies
that do not accept GM food can lose sales from
"contamination." In a 2002 survey by the Organic
Farming Research Foundation in the U.S., eight farmers
reported losing organic certification from contact with
GM crops, and many more said that they had to pay to
test their crops.
The article can be viewed online at the link below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/26/weekinreview/26poll.html
BT PROTEINS EXPLORED, ENGINEERED, ENHANCED
Recent work on Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)
endotoxins has revealed that modifications in a few key
protein domains may increase toxin activity,
Nachimuthu Saraswathy and Polumetla Ananda Kumar report
in the current issue of the Electronic Journal of
Biotechnology.
The insecticidal properties of Bt are attributed to the
presence of endotoxins, which are synthesized during the
sporulation phase of the bacterium.
These endotoxins are composed of three main domains,
each of which may contribute to forming pores in the
cell membranes of larval midgut (Domain I),
determining the insect specificity of a toxin (Domains
II and III), and stabilizing protein structure (Domain
III). Saraswathy and Kumar, both of the National
Research Centre for Plant Biotechnology in New Delhi,
describe the protein engineering studies conducted on
different endotoxins, which led to an understanding of
their molecular mode of action, as well as the
construction of novel toxins with enhanced insecticidal
activity and specificity. Proteins were mutated at each
domain and tested for binding capacity and toxicity.
Mutations at Domain I resulted in low or no toxicity on
tested insects, while mutation at Domains II
and III resulted in altered toxin specificity and
receptor binding.
Download the full paper at
http://www.ejbiotechnology.info/content/vol7/issue2/full/3/3.pdf
Italy Tests GM Grapes and
Berries
(SRC:Crop Biotech Update -- ATH:n/a)
This article reports that Italian researchers have been
field-testing genetically modified (GM) grapes,
raspberries, and strawberries since 2001.
GM strawberry and raspberry plants transformed with the
DefH9-iaaM gene have been found to grow more, larger,
and heavier fruits than their
non-GM counterparts. Similar experiments are also being
carried out on grapes, and more projects are underway.
Bruno Mezzetti of the Universita Politecnica
Della Marche in Italy works on biotechnology projects,
mostly involving strawberries and raspberries. He says
that both berries "have specific problems such as
increasing productivity, improving berry size and
quality, and among fruits these berries are quite useful
in biotech programs because [of] the short production
cycle." Mezzetti says: "In general the first problem
with these crops is the development of [highly]
efficient regeneration and transformation protocols; we
[succeeded]
in getting results in these different crops, and it is
now interesting to compare the effect of the same gene
in different types of plants and fruits."
Italy's grape industry currently faces problems from
viruses, fungi, and the complex yellowing called
"Flavescence dor" Mezzetti says,
"At the moment there are no [alternatives], and the
biotech tool could provide really useful alternatives."
The article can be viewed online at the link below.
http://www.isaaa.org/kc/
Biotech Events
November 17
– 21
The 3rd International Conference on Structural Genomics
(ICSG 2004)
Washington DC, USA
Contact:
Courtesy Associates, Inc., 2025 M Street NW, Suite 800,
Washington, DC 20036, USA; Tel: +1 (202) 973 8687;
Email:
ICSG2004@courtesyassoc.com;
URL:
http://www-nmr.cabm.rutgers.edu/icsg2004/index.htm
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