يهدف مركز معلومات التكنولوجيا الحيوية إلى توصيل مفهوم التكنولوجيا الحيوية والهندسة الوراثية وتطبيقاتها إلى كل فئات المجتمع وتنمية مداركه في هذا الشأن ، كما أنه يقوم بدور هام في إيضاح  كل من الفوائد والمخاطر المحتملة - إن وجدت - والتي يمكن أن تنتج عن تطبيقات التكنولوجيا الحيوية، من خلال حوار يتسم بالعقلانية والشفافية

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June 5, 2005

Vision, bimonthly newsletter issued by the Biotechnology Information Center, Egypt

9 Gamaa St., Agricultural Research Center, AGERI Premises

Phone: 202 5721582 – 5715803 Fax: 202 5721582

approval for growing. While its opinion is needed for the application to proceed, it will be many months before this is presented to

any EU panel of experts. In March, EFSA cleared another GMO maize for cultivation -- the ency's first foray into the politically

 sensitive issue of GMO crops that might be grown in the European Union. Set up in 2002, EFSA's views are used by

the European Commission as independent scientific opinion on the safety risk of GMO products for entry into the food chain, for

consumption by humans and animals and for release into the environment. While the EU has now lifted its 6-year ban on allowing

imports of new GMOs, there have no approvals since 1998 on any new gene-spliced crop that could be planted in Europe's fields --

and the EU's 25 governments are deeply divided on the issue. A handful of GMO crops, mainly maize types, before the moratorium

began in 1998. No new crop has been allowed for planting since then.

agwere authorized for growing across the EU shortlyBRUSSELS - Europe's food safety agency gave a clean bill of health on Friday

for the planting of genetically modified (GMO) maize, its second positive assessment on the growing of biotech crops. The maize,

a sweet variety known as Bt-11, is marketed by Swiss agrochemicals company Syngenta and engineered to protect itself from attacks

by corn borer insects. "The GMO panel concluded...there is no evidence to indicate that the placing of Bt-11 maize and its derived

products on the market is likely to cause adverse effects on human or animal health or on the environment in the context of

its proposed use," the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said. The only possible adverse effect might be a resistance to a new

protein introduced in corn borers that were exposed to the maize after several years of growing, it said. To delay the development

of resistance to this, cultivation of the maize should be accompanied by a risk management program, it said, without elaborating.

EFSA's broadly positive assessment for Bt-11 maize is only the first step toward possible EU

NEW DNA TEST TO IDENTIFY FUSARIUM HEAD BLIGHT IN GRAINS

MANY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES NOW HAVE WELL DEVELOPED PROGRAMS

ROME - Several developing countries now have well developed biotechnology programs; they are approaching the leading

 edge of biotechnology applications and have significant research capacity, according to a new Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) assessment on the status of research and application of crop biotechnologies in developing countries. Based on

a review of the information in the FAO database on Biotechnology in Developing Countries (FAO-BioDeC), which covers both

 genetically modified (GM) crops and non-GM biotechnologies, the assessment suggests that developing countries will soon

have new GM crops available, such as virus-resistant papaya, sweet potato and cassava, as well as rice tolerant to abiotic stresses

 (salinity and drought). Most of the genetically modified organisms (GMOs) commercialized so far in developing countries have been acquired from developed countries and focus on a limited number of traits (mainly herbicide tolerance and insect pest resistance) and crops (commodities such as cotton, soybean and maize). However, the FAO assessment reveals that several developing countries have been conducting research on a wider range of crops, such as banana, cassava, cowpea, plantain, rice and sorghum, and on traits relevant for food security, such as abiotic stress tolerance and quality. Argentina, Brazil, China,

Cuba, Egypt, India, Mexico and South Africa have taken the lead. A second group of countries has medium-scale agricultural biotechnology programs, usually in a few key areas. Other developing nations have relatively limited research capacity,

according to the FAO report. “We hope that research activities in developing countries will increasingly focus on issues

 important for food security”, said Andrea Sonnino, from FAO's Research and Technology Development Service.

Copyright by Kashar News  

Plants Yield Key to 'Silencing' HIV Genes For the first time, scientists have shown that humans use an immune defense process common in plants and invertebrates to battle a virus. The new finding that human cells can silence an essential part of HIV’s genetic make-up could have important implications for the treatment of people infected with the virus. Led by

 Kuan-Teh Jeang, M.D, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part the National Institutes of Health, the researchers published their findings in this week’s issue of the journal Immunity. “This research suggests that a novel approach to HIV therapy targeting a stable component of HIV might be feasible,” says NIAID Director

Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. The phenomenon, called RNA silencing, was  detected first in plants and later in insects.

Although plants and insects lack the sophisticated immune defenses of higher organisms, they nevertheless successfully battle viruses by detecting, and then silencing, viral genetic material. Silencing leads to the destruction of viral RNA. Viruses, however, are not permanently defeated because they have evolved ways to suppress the silencing action. Until now, scientists have not had

clear evidence that RNA silencing plays a role in the defensive repertoire of mammals and other vertebrates. Dr. Jeang and his colleagues set out to determine if RNA silencing (also called RNA interference or RNAi) contributes to human cells’ defense against HIV. They asked three questions. First, does HIV have genetic sequences that an HIV-infected cell can detect and transform into the necessary precursors of RNAi, called short interfering RNA (siRNA)? Second, do human cells use

 siRNAs to disable HIV? Third, if human cells try to battle HIV using RNAi, does HIV have a way to evade the defensive maneuver? The answer to all three questions, the scientists determined, is yes. The most unexpected finding, according to Dr. Jeang, was the way HIV uses

one of its proteins, called Tat, to suppress the silencing efforts of the cell. HIV is well known for evading drugs by quickly mutating its genes. However, the virus could not evade the newly discovered sequence-specific siRNA attack by mutation. Instead, HIV required a virally encoded protein to blunt the assault. Dr. Jeang believes that Tat may be shielding a rare HIV Achilles’ heel,

a genetic sequence that, for functional reasons, the virus cannot change in order to escape siRNA attack. This novel siRNA sequence discovered by the team may lead to the development of new RNAi-based drugs to which HIV would not be able to develop resistance by simple mutation. The first author of the paper is Yamina Bennasser, Ph.D, of NIAID. Other authors are Shu-Yun Le, Ph.D, of the National Cancer Institute and Monsef Benkirane, Ph.D, of the Institut de Genetique Humaine in Montpellier, France. NIAID is a component of the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health

and Human Services. NIAID supports basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose and treat infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria and illness from potential agents of bioterrorism. NIAID also supports research on transplantation and immune-related illnesses including autoimmune disorders, asthma and allergies.  

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