Agnet July 3

Agnet July 3/06

China may lift ban on modified rice

Iowa State plant scientists tweak their biopharmaceutical corn research project

FAO: Helping developing countries make better use of biotechnology tools

New German GMO liability law carries lessons for NZ

Pest threatening vineyards, citrus crops is back

Canola set to bloom in low-trans fat world: Researchers creating ever healthier strains

Eco-friendly bug sucker: Pest control without the use of toxic agents

Potato blight pathogenicity explained by genome plasticity

Puerto Rico provides new ornamental options

National Organic Program (NOP); Proposed amendments to the national list of allowed and prohibited substances (crops and livestock)

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Iowa State plant scientists tweak their biopharmaceutical corn research project
03.jul.06
International Academy of Life Sciences
http://www.plantpharma.org/ials/index.php?id=410
A biopharmaceutical corn created at Iowa State University is getting a makeover. Researchers are developing the corn into a variety that keeps the therapeutic protein, but eliminates the pollen. And they're using traditional breeding to do it.
ISU researchers have had promising results using the biopharmaceutical corn to treat bacterial diarrhea in pigs.
Now they are shifting their focus. They are developing a male sterile corn that carries the transgene. Because male sterile corn plants do not produce pollen, the new biopharmaceutical variety could be grown in corn-producing states without risk of pollinating traditional corn varieties.
"Pollen movement is the issue," said Kendall Lamkey, interim chair of agronomy and Pioneer Distinguished Chair in Maize Breeding. "And that's the most controllable part of the corn production system."
Lamkey, who also directs the Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding, leads the breeding portion of the research. Kan Wang, the principal researcher, who successfully transformed the corn, is professor of agronomy and director of the Center for Plant Transformation. Both centers are part of Iowa State's Plant Sciences Institute, which initiated the research. The ongoing project is supported by the institute and the College of Agriculture.
Lamkey and Wang say it will take about five growing seasons to make all the breeding crosses needed. The first season took place last winter in the Plant Sciences Institute's Roy J. Carver Co-Laboratory biosafe greenhouse. The biopharmaceutical corn was crossed with the non-transgenic, male-fertile corn line to produce a transgenic F1 hybrid.
Seeds from that cross are being used this summer in a field trial on remote land owned by Iowa State.
The breeding process in the field trial will not shed transgenic pollen. The transgenic crop will be detasseled. It will be surrounded by rows of non-transgenic corn, which will pollinate the detasseled transgenic plants.
Iowa State received permit approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and from the state for the research.
The research plot is located on less than one-half acre of university land in Marshall county. It is about a half mile away from and was planted 28 days later than the nearest commercial corn. A fence will keep out wildlife. The research exceeds APHIS requirements for field trials of regulated plants.
The seed harvested in the fall will be used in the winter again in the high containment greenhouse. Another field trial is expected to take place next summer.
The 2006 field trial is the latest in a series of transgenic corn experiments led by Iowa State researchers. All have received federal and state approval. The trials have taken place three times in Iowa and once in Colorado.
The research is part of Iowa State's work to evaluate the safe use of plants for the production of proteins for pharmaceuticals and industrial products.
Wang engineered the corn to produce LT-B, a protein subunit produced by some strains of E. coli. Research has shown the ability of the protein to stimulate protective immune antibodies. Other Iowa State scientists have been evaluating grain from previous years' studies to understand how the corn-based pharmaceutical can help protect livestock from bacterial infections.
The system being developed in corn will work with other proteins. Corn is the preferred plant for producing proteins for non-food products.
"It's so easy to manipulate from a breeding perspective, and the pollen can be controlled," Lamkey said. "You can't control the pollen easily in self-pollinating crops like soybeans."
"And from a molecular biology and biochemistry point of view, we know so much about corn," Wang said. "Corn seed is such a good reservoir for foreign protein. And the grain, from a pharmacological standpoint, is the grain best tolerated by humans and animals both. Almost nobody is allergic to corn protein."
Lamkey said Iowa State is uniquely qualified to pursue this research because of access to germplasm and "not many places have the genetic transformation capabilities that Iowa State has."
Lamkey and Wang are considering breeding the transgene into a higher yielding, better seed producing, transformable corn inbred line.
"The line that has been used for this corn is really hard to work with in terms of pollination and seed production. It was bred for the purpose of transformation not the field," Lamkey said.
"The best part of this project is that finally conventional breeders like me are now working with molecular biologists like Dr. Wang," Lamkey said. "We're trying to get something that's mutually beneficial. This hasn't happened enough in the public sector."

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FAO: Helping developing countries make better use of biotechnology tools
03.jul.06
FAO Press Release
http://www.fao.org/
ROME - Developing countries should be enabled to fully exploit biotechnology tools, when appropriate, in order to stop the decline of agricultural biodiversity and to use their wealth of genetic resources in a sustainable way, according to FAO.
Many of these agricultural genetic resources are endangered for reasons such as overexploitation, replacement of local crops and livestock with foreign species or breeds and habitat change and destruction.
The need to conserve genetic resources for food and agriculture is essential and was recently highlighted at the first meeting of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Madrid, 12 – 16 June 2006).
Crop, forest, animal and fish genetic resources represent an insurance against future changes in production and climatic conditions or in market needs. They are also a source of material for scientific research as well as a cultural and historical part of mankind's heritage, FAO says.
Edited by John Ruane and Andrea Sonnino of FAO’s Working Group on Biotechnology, a new publication on the role of biotechnology in exploring and protecting agricultural genetic resources attempts to shed light on the potential role and importance that biotechnology tools, in particular the use of molecular markers, may have for agricultural genetic resources in developing countries.
Numerous new and old biotechnologies provide a broad collection of tools that can be applied for a range of different purposes (genetic improvement; disease diagnosis, vaccine development, etc.). They include molecular markers, cryopreservation and reproductive technologies that can be used directly for the characterization and/or conservation of genetic resources for food and agriculture.
Characterization of genetic resources goes hand in hand with their conservation since it is fundamental both for understanding what is being conserved and for choosing the genetic resources that should be conserved, the FAO publication says.
Human capacity
“The ability to apply these biotechnologies in developing countries is currently limited by the lack of sufficient funds, human capacity and adequate infrastructure,” according to the publication.
The capacities of developing countries can be strengthened through greater collaboration among research institutions in different developing countries and also between industrialized and developing countries.
The FAO and the centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) as well as other organizations and NGOs could help to coordinate these collaborative efforts and support capacity-building activities.

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New German GMO liability law carries lessons for NZ
03.jul.06
Sustainability Council of New Zealand News Release
http://www.sustainabilitynz.org/news_item.asp?sID=159
Germany’s approach to setting new GMO liability law provides an important example for New Zealand, states a paper released today by the Sustainability Council.
The German Government has sought to explicitly allocate liability for the financial risks arising from the cultivation of GMOs and to protect non-GM farmers. This is in sharp contrast to New Zealand’s law that leaves major gaps and implicitly allocates risk and costs to innocent parties.
New Zealand law specific to GMOs imposes strict liability only if an activity is carried out contrary to an ERMA approval. There is no statutory liability for damage arising from unexpected effects or inadequate regulatory control of known risks.
Internationally, liability law is emerging as the crux issue for regulation of GMO cultivation. Wider recognition of the costs and difficulties involved in keeping GM crops separate from conventional plantings have reinforced the importance of a clear allocation of liability.
Austria and Norway were early leaders in establishing a strict liability standard for damage arising from GMOs in the mid 1990s. More recent reviews by the Governments of Denmark, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom have also determined that conventional farmers should not bear the costs of GMO contamination.
Germany’s recently revised law addresses key issues for non-GM farmers, including:
Details of any GMO planting must be made available in advance on a publicly accessible register;
There is no requirement for harm to have been foreseeable for a claim to succeed;
Following ‘good practice’ (for example, efforts by GM adopters to limit the flow of GMOs beyond the farm boundary) is of itself not a defence.
A second stage of law reform, including the proposed creation of a compensation fund, is scheduled to proceed during the northern summer.
Germany’s Liability Law for GMO Cultivation was written by Anja Gerdung and commissioned by the Sustainability Council in order to provide a clear English language description of the influential German law reforms.
Read the full report at http://www.sustainabilitynz.org/docs/GermanLiabilityLawforGMCultivation.pdf

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Pest threatening vineyards, citrus crops is back
02.jul.06
Knight Ridder Tribune
The Sun, Yuma, Ariz.
Gov. Janet Napolitano has, according to this story, declared a state of emergency in Arizona agriculture because of the glassy-winged sharpshooter, a pest found recently in Sierra Vista. The declaration includes $200,000 to trap and eradicate the pest.
The glassy-winged sharpshooter is the primary carrier of Pierce's Disease, an infection of the grapevine that has no cure and has the potential to wipe-out the $18 million wine growing industry in Arizona. In addition, the pest stands to threaten one of A rizona's key landscaping ornamentals -- the oleander -- as well as citrus and nut crops.
The $200,000 will allow the placement of several thousand traps around the state, for egg mass searches, better preparation for control programs and eradication funding.

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Canola set to bloom in low-trans fat world: Researchers creating ever healthier strains
03.jul.06
The Edmonton Journal
Sharon Adams
Canada's $2.5-billion canola industry is, according to this story, awaiting approval from the U.S. Federal Drug Administration for a health claim on canola products similar to that given olive oil -- that consumers can cut their risk of heart disease by replacing two tablespoons of saturated fat daily with monounsaturated canola oil.
The industry is also poised to take advantage of the need for a low-trans fat alternative to current shortening and deep fat frying oils to meet recommendations proposed last week by a federal panel on trans fats.
Wilf Keller, research director at the National Research Council's Plant Biotechnology Institute, based in Saskatoon, was cited as saying that researchers have been tweaking canola for about a decade to bring out traits that would make the oilseed more competitive in the global marketplace, adding, "Emerging developments in the biosciences allow much broader investigation of the genes involved in the plant's life cycle."
Among the results of this research is a new strain that can be used to cut saturated and trans fats used by restaurants and some food manufacturers by as much as 85 per cent.
Dr. Dave Hickling, the Canola Council of Canada's vice-president of canola utilization, was quoted as saying, "Canola oil is healthier than olive oil."
The story says that the canola oil available on grocers' shelves today has a monounsaturated fat content only slightly lower than olive oil, but with half the saturated fat and 10 times the omega-3 fatty acids.
Researchers have also developed a high-stability canola oil that has a longer shelf life and keeps many of those healthful properties when heated. Some is exported to Asia and some is used in high-end snack and restaurant operations in North America. It is particularly prized in Japan for its light taste and nutritional profile.
'Right place at right time'
But the market for high-stability canola oil, now 15 per cent of the crop, is poised to mushroom, as restaurants and food manufacturers look for a lower-trans fat alternative to shortening and deep fat frying oils.

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Eco-friendly bug sucker: Pest control without the use of toxic agents
02.jul.06
Society of Chemical Industry
A new sterilisation method for fruit and vegetables has been developed, which quite literally sucks the life out of bugs. This method could be used in place ozone-depleting chemicals, like methyl bromide, which are currently used to sterilise fresh produce.
The technique, called metabolic stress disinfection (MSDD), was developed by Manuel Lagunas-Solar and his team at University of California, Davis (Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture DOI 10.1002/jsfa2538).
Tim Essert, the Principle Electronics Engineer on the project, explains that MSDD works by subjecting insects on fruit and vegetables to alternating vacuum and carbon dioxide. This effectively suffocates organisms because they require oxygen to live. Ethanol gas is also used to kill fungi and bacteria.
The technique could replace the use of post harvest pesticides, and may complete the phasing out of ozone depleting methyl bromide. In 1997 160 governments promised to phase out its use by 2005 as part of the Montreal Protocol, but some exceptions were granted for the food and farming industries.
"The initial hardware cost of an MSDD system is higher than methyl bromide, but the cost of chemicals is much cheaper, so that eventually it would pay for itself", Essert told Chemistry & Industry. Around $20 - $40 worth of methyl bromide is needed to fumigate one pallet of fruit, whereas Carbon Dioxide and Ethanol used to treat with MSDD, assuming no recovery, would cost about $10.00.
MSDD also has additional benefits to the environment, as the gasses can be recovered and recycled.

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Potato blight pathogenicity explained by genome plasticity
02.jul.06
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Wageningen, The Netherlands – A team of researchers from Wageningen University report in this month's issue of Genome Research that they have identified a unique genetic fingerprint in the pathogen responsible for potato blight. Some strains of the pathogen possess multiple copies of a specific gene, while other strains possess only a single copy. Certain potato plants do not recognize strains of the pathogen with only the single gene copy, making them susceptible to infection. This is the first report of gene amplification in a non-bacterial organism that is associated with pathogenicity, and it provides insight into how plant pathogens tailor their genomes to adapt to their environments.
The potato late blight pathogen, known to scientists as Phytophthora infestans, is a fungus-like organism that was responsible for the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and continues to cause devastating agricultural losses worldwide today. Infected plants are characterized by dark lesions on the stems, leaves, and tubers; damage to the tuber surface allows other fungi and bacteria to enter and destroy the core, often resulting in a foul odor. P. infestans is related to approximately 65 other pathogens that cause similar damage to commercial crops as well as natural vegetation.
In the potato-Phytophthora system, the host-pathogen response has evolved in a highly specific way: resistance (R) genes from wild species, which are introduced into cultivated potato by breeding, are matched by avirulence (Avr) genes in Phytophthora. While many such gene matches are predicted, only a few have been confirmed by molecular and functional studies. Avr genes are thought to undergo rapid changes to evade detection by plants that possess R genes, which means that many strains of Phytophthora and potato are likely to be evolving at the present time.
"P. infestans is notorious for its ability to change in response to R genes," says Dr. Francine Govers, the principal investigator on the project. "These changes are probably facilitated by its underlying genomic plasticity. Field isolates of P. infestans are known to be genetically highly variable."
Govers, along with colleagues Rays Jiang, Rob Weide, and Peter van de Vondervoort, set out to identify the genetic basis for the virulence of specific Dutch P. infestans strains. The outcome of their efforts was the identification of single gene, called pi3.4, that was present as a single, full-length copy in both the virulent and avirulent strains. They also identified multiple copies of pi3.4 only in the avirulent strain – but, interestingly, these copies represented only part of the pi3.4 gene.
The authors speculate that the partial gene copies could function as a source of modules for generating new genes. These new genes could be produced by unequal crossing-over, or exchange of genetic material, during development. The partial copies may also serve as alternative protein-coding units, which allow the pathogen to produce a diverse array of proteins and, consequently, to adapt to its environment.
"Surprisingly, the pi3.4 gene does not code for an effector – a small protein that elicits a defense response in plants," adds Govers. "Effectors are quite common in fungal and bacterial plant pathogens, including Phytophthora. But in our case, the gene appears to produce a large regulatory protein that exerts its effect by regulating the expression of other genes, possibly effector genes."
While the exact mechanism by which these partial gene copies function as a source of modular diversity remains to be resolved, this study highlights the importance of genome plasticity in evolution. Understanding genome plasticity as a mechanism for environmental response and ecological adaptation in pathogenic organisms has important implications. "The efforts of plant breeders to obtain resistant varieties by introducing R genes, either by classical breeding or by genetic modification, may be a waste of time and resources when the genome dynamics of the pathogen population is not understood," says Govers. "Monitoring field populations of plant pathogens at the genome level will be instrumental for predicting the durability of R genes in crop plants."

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Puerto Rico provides new ornamental options
03.jul.06
ARS News Service
The boldly-colored, long-lasting flowers and foliage of the rare Puerto Rican evergreen known as roble cimarron, Tabebuia haemantha, could one day grace parks and gardens in subtropical U.S. regions. That's thanks to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists who've been conducting domestic plant explorations since 2003, including in Puerto Rico, part of the U.S. commonwealth.
Commercial and home gardeners are always eager for new varieties, making the U.S. horticultural market one of the world's largest, with more than $45 billion in sales in 2005. But since only limited funding has been available for developing cost-effective alternatives to current U.S. nursery offerings, the ornamental germplasm of nearby Puerto Rico offers breeders rich, new possibilities.
Horticulturist Tomás Ayala-Silva and plant geneticist Alan Meerow work at the ARS Subtropical Horticulture Research Station in Miami, Fla., where Ayala-Silva also curates a National Germplasm Repository (NGR). As one of 18 such facilities preserving seeds and other reproducible plant parts under the National Plant Germplasm System, the Miami repository maintains U.S. clonal collections of a variety of tropical crops. The researchers also evaluate new tropical and subtropical species for possible introduction to the United States.
In several collection trips, Ayala-Silva and Meerow have collected seed from multiple populations of T. haemantha throughout its limited range in southwestern Puerto Rico, where it's native. This evergreen shrub or small tree is bold in color, with red to bronze new growth forming a narrow crown and deep-red flowers blooming for much of the year. The researchers hope to eventually breed and select specimens with the best form and largest flowers--from this, and other, unusual species.
Samples of all of the germplasm collected by ARS in Puerto Rico will be deposited at the NGR-Miami for use by plant breeders interested in developing improved T. haemantha and other potential new ornamentals.
Read more about the research in the July 2006 of Agricultural Research magazine, available online at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul06/island0706.htm

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National Organic Program (NOP); Proposed amendments to the national list of allowed and prohibited substances (crops and livestock)
03.jul.06
[Federal Register: (Volume 71, Number 127)]
[Page 37854-37857]
[DOCID:fr03jy06-13]
7 CFR Part 205
[Docket Number TM-06-04]
RIN 0581-AC61
AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
SUMMARY: This proposed rule would amend the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's (USDA) National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances
(National List) regulations to reflect recommendations submitted to the
Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary) by the National Organic Standards
Board (NOSB) on August 17, 2005. Consistent with the recommendations
from the NOSB, this proposed rule would add two substances, along with
any restrictive annotations, to the National List.
DATES: Comments must be received by August 2, 2006.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons may comment on this proposed rule using
the following procedures:
Mail: Comments may be submitted by mail to: Bob Pooler,
Agricultural Marketing Specialist, National Organic Program, USDA-AMS-
TMP-NOP, 1400 Independence Ave., SW., Room 4008-So., Ag Stop 0268,
Washington, DC 20250.
E-mail: Comments may be submitted via the internet to:
National.List@usda.gov.
Internet: http://www.regulations.gov.
Fax: Comments may be submitted by fax to: (202) 205-7808.
Written comments on this proposed rule should be
identified with the docket number TM-06-04. Commenters should identify
the topic and section number of this proposed rule to which the comment refers.
Clearly indicate if you are for or against the proposed rule or some portion of it and your reason for it. Include recommended language changes as appropriate.
Include a copy of articles or other references that support your comments. Only relevant material should be submitted.
It is our intention to have all comments to this proposed rule, whether submitted by mail, e-mail, or fax, available for viewing on the NOP homepage. Comments submitted in response to this proposed rule will also be available for viewing in person at USDA-AMS, Transportation and Marketing, Room 4008--South Building, 1400 Independence Ave., SW., Washington, DC, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday (except official Federal holidays). Persons wanting to visit the USDA South Building to view comments received in response to this proposed rule are requested to make an appointment in advance by calling (202) 720-3252.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bob Pooler, Agricultural Marketing
Specialist, Telephone: (202) 720-3252; Fax: (202) 205-7808.

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