WASHINGTON - Over the past three years, there have been significant advances in industrial biotechnology and bioprocessing of agricultural feedstocks.

The third annual World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing, to be held July 11-14, 2006 at the Toronto Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, will bring together scientists, business leaders, and policy makers to address the role of agriculture and the farming community in sustainable industrial development.

The Congress is hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), American Chemical Society, the National Agriculture Biotechnology Council, the Agri-Food Innovation Forum, the Chemical Institute of Canada, BIOTECanada and EuropaBIO.

Sessions focusing on agricultural sources of feedstocks for the energy and chemical industries include:

- The Importance of Agricultural Feedstocks for Bioenergy Production -- Wednesday, July 12 at 1:45 p.m.

Representatives of Canadian and U.S. companies, including Anna Rath, Ceres; Joe Bouton, Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation; and Maurice Hladik, Iogen, look at the latest genetic improvements in traditional energy crops and new crops, such as switch grass, designed to boost biofuels production.

- Biomass Harvesting and Soil Nutrients -- Thursday, July 13 at 10:15 a.m.

What will be the impact of cellulosic biomass collection on soil quality and the environment? Steven Fales, Iowa State University; Wallace Wilhelm, USDA Agricultural Research Service; Luca Zollo, Cargill; and John Sheehan, NREL review the latest research.

- Enhanced Utilization of Corn -- Thursday, July 13 at 1:45 p.m.

Corn is likely to be one of the first crops used for production of ethanol from cellulose. Thomas Robb, Abengoa; Qu Yinbo, Shandong University; and Neal Jakel, Renessen look at the latest technologies for turning corn stalks into ethanol.

- The Potential of Energy Crops -- Friday, July 14 at 8:30 a.m.

David Bransby of Auburn University, Emily Heaton of the University of Illinois, and Edward Richard of USDA examine the potential of switch grass, miscanthus and other dedicated energy crops to meet the transportation fuel demands of the United States.

- America's Energy Future: Role of the Agricultural and Forestry Community -- Friday, July 14 at 10:15 a.m.

Economic and environmental aspects of using agriculture as the feedstock for energy production will be discussed by Ernest Shea, Natural Resource Solutions; Bill Richards, 25x'25 Campaign; Bill Horan, Grower; and Peter Nelson, Biodimensions.

- Genetic Improvement of Energy Crops and Associated Benefits -- Friday, July 14 at 8:30 a.m.

Ken Vogel, USDA; Steven Thomas, Ceres; and Steve Strauss, Oregon State University will review the latest developments in agricultural biotechnology for energy crops.

Copyright © 1996-2003 PR Newswire Association LLC

Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) President & CEO Jim Greenwood today announced that global energy group BP has become the first fully integrated energy company to become a member of BIO.

"BP joins a growing list of forward-looking companies in BIO's Industrial and Environmental Section, all of whom recognize the key role industrial biotechnology will play in transforming how we produce fuels and consumer products in the 21st century. BIO's Industrial and Environmental Section member companies are all committed to renewable energy production and sustainable industrial development and they recognize industrial biotechnology is a key driver for a cleaner, greener and more secure future," Greenwood stated.

"BP is the first major integrated energy company to join BIO, signaling an important shift in fuels production that will couple biotechnology with the use of renewable agricultural feedstocks. Twenty years of research in genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics is now paying off, and industrial biotechnology is the enabling technology behind this shift," Greenwood continued.

Steve Koonin, BP's Chief Scientist said: "BP and its more than 100,000 employees operating across some 100 countries are pleased to become members of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. We have joined because we believe that biotechnology will be an important route to new sources of secure and sustainable energy in the coming decades. We are investing substantially in alternative energy and have just launched a dedicated biofuels business to exploit advances in the biosciences -- it will be a very exciting part of BP's future."

BP's membership in BIO follows their announcement today of a $500 million investment to establish an Energy Biosciences Institute, as part of its continuing drive to find longer term commercial alternatives to oil and gas. This research institute will add to BP's investment in alternative energy and sustainable development, which already includes introduction of E10 at its fueling stations throughout the world and production of ethanol.

Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO's IES, stated: "Industrial biotechnology has reached a tipping point as biological processes add tremendous value to industries utilizing biotech processes to make fuels and chemicals. BP's membership in BIO is a clear sign of the importance of biotech as an enabling technology. Renewable energy and chemical production is now leading the way in this new industrial revolution that is based on evolution and prevention of pollution."

BIO's Industrial and Environmental Section (IES) is one of four sections within BIO's governance structure; the others are Health, Food and Agriculture, and Emerging Companies. The IES comprises companies that develop and utilize biotech-improved microbes or enzymes to convert agricultural crops and crop residues to biofuels, biocatalysis to produce a host of chemical and industrial goods, and enzymes for cleaner manufacturing processes.

BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and 31 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.
Copyright BIO

WASHINGTON and MADRID - Representatives of 100 countries gathered on June 13 in the Spanish capital for a ceremony inaugurating the first-ever meeting of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, promoted by FAO.

The event was attended by Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, Spain's First Deputy Prime Minister, Elena Espinosa, Spain's Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf and other dignitaries.

"This is a historic event, crowning many years of hard work. A treaty of crucial importance to humanity has been brought into being," said Diouf, describing the treaty as "the first major international instrument of the 21st century and the third millennium."

Negotiated under the aegis of FAO, it entered into force as a legally- binding instrument in June 2004 after a long negotiation process that began in the 1970s. Currently the treaty has 104 signatory States.

"The conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources for food and agriculture are sine qua non conditions for food security and poverty eradication, particularly in the rural world," Diouf said, noting that currently some 854 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition worldwide, with a resulting annual death toll of 15 million human lives.

In his comments the FAO chief stressed that combating hunger and poverty should be the primary goals of international policies related to plant genetic resources. "This is an ethical imperative -- access to adequate food is a basic human right," he said.

From theory to practice

Diouf called on the governments present at today's inaugural to cooperate in order to ensure that the treaty lives up to its full potential as a tool for increasing food production and improving food quality. He added that the agreement allows for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from crop diversity and also serves as a mechanism for strengthening North-South cooperation.

At this first meeting of the treaty's governing body a number of major decisions regarding its implementation are on the table, including financial strategies, access to plant genetic resources and the rights of farmers to a share of the benefits deriving from their use.

Diouf also appealed to delegates attending the "Ministerial Segment" of the meeting, which starts on Tuesday 13 June, to marshal "the political will to make it possible to build up a productive and innovative future for the treaty," urging them to ensure that their national plans, programs and legislation reflect its objectives and provisions as well as development assistance priorities.

The improvement of genetic modified seeds cultures would reduce agriculture defensives consumption by 20% in Brazil during the next years, according to the agrochemicals industry association Andef and estimates the 2006 market at R$8bil (10% less than 2005).

Cristiano Simon, president Andef says that defensives agriculture costs could reduce by US$231 mil for each 1 5mil ha of transgenic soybeans planted area.

The slash of agrochemicals to soybeans would be 70% from the current US$330mi1 sales. According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), during 2005 the transgenic soy planted area in Brazil grew by 88%, from 4,4mil to 9,4mil ha. and is expected to raise by 34% in the 2006/2007 harvest up to 12,6mil ha.

Cristiano believes the agriculture defensive industries will invest in agro-chemicals directed to diseases not treated by biotechnology, and products destined to small cultures by investing in acquisition of seeds-bench corporations.

For the 2006/2007 harvest, Andef estimates that sales of agriculture defensives should fall by 10%, totaling R$8bil. In equal period, the seeds market was estimated at R$5,2bil, against R$5,9bil on the previous harvest. Sales of certified seeds dropped by 6%, to R$3,1 bil. Currently, transgenic seeds account for 14% of the total seeds registered on the Ministerio da Agricultura, and increased by 32% this year.
Copyright Valor Economico S.A

BANGALORE - Private research and development in biotechnology should be undertaken in public spirit and investments made for sustainable growth in the agricultural sector, India's Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh has said.
Copyright © 2006, The Hindu

The improvement of genetic modified seeds cultures would reduce agriculture defensives consumption by 20% in Brazil during the next years, according to the agrochemicals industry association Andef and estimates the 2006 market at R$8bil (10% less than 2005).

Cristiano Simon, president Andef says that defensives agriculture costs could reduce by US$231 mil for each 1 5mil ha of transgenic soybeans planted area.

The slash of agrochemicals to soybeans would be 70% from the current US$330mi1 sales. According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), during 2005 the transgenic soy planted area in Brazil grew by 88%, from 4,4mil to 9,4mil ha. and is expected to raise by 34% in the 2006/2007 harvest up to 12,6mil ha.

Cristiano believes the agriculture defensive industries will invest in agro-chemicals directed to diseases not treated by biotechnology, and products destined to small cultures by investing in acquisition of seeds-bench corporations.

For the 2006/2007 harvest, Andef estimates that sales of agriculture defensives should fall by 10%, totaling R$8bil. In equal period, the seeds market was estimated at R$5,2bil, against R$5,9bil on the previous harvest. Sales of certified seeds dropped by 6%, to R$3,1 bil. Currently, transgenic seeds account for 14% of the total seeds registered on the Ministerio da Agricultura, and increased by 32% this year.
Copyright Valor Economico S.A

"With the release of AlleleID version 3, PREMIER Biosoft International has taken a step further in making a universal pathogen identification system available." says Kay Brown, V.P. Business Development and Marketing. "We are pleased with how well AlleleID has been received by researcher all over the world. We are proud to have organizations such as FDA, CDC, and USDA as our customers."

AlleleID helps design microarrays and real time PCR diagnostic assays for rapid bacterial or pathogen identification. AlleleID can be effectively used in developing assays for biodefense, environmental monitoring, prevention/control of infectious diseases, development of surveillance tests and biodiversity studies.

To design species identification assays, AlleleID aligns sequences using ClustalW and analyzes conserved and species specific regions to design molecular probes for microarrays and TaqMan®/molecular beacon real time PCR assays. The assays are designed to detect only the strain or species of interest from the mix. For cross species assays, AlleleID identifies conserved regions of related organisms that can be used with samples from any of the organisms. This powerful functionality can also be used for detection, identification, quantification of contaminants for environmental monitoring.

"Minimal Set", one of the most innovative features in AlleleID, helps design the fewest number of primers and probes that uniquely identify each of the desired species/strain/taxa from the mix, lowering assay costs. For taxa or cross species assays, this feature is especially useful when the group or taxa is highly dissimilar. For a partial set of pre-designed or published set of primers, AlleleID can design compatible primers and probes for the rest of sequences for species or taxa specific assays.

AlleleID employs a sophisticated algorithm to assure assay success. Highly specific oligos are designed by avoiding regions of significant homology found by automatically interpreting BLAST search results. The oligos designed can be BLAST searched, to verify their specificity. Primer efficiency is enhanced by automatically avoiding template secondary structures.

BANGALORE - The Empowered Group of Ministers on Biotechnology has cleared proposals to relax norms for the biotechnology sector in agriculture and health in order to encourage entrepreneurship, innovation and greater participation from small investors, Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said here on Wednesday.

Inaugurating the Bangalore Bio 2006, the sixth edition of the annual biotechnology show, Mr. Sibal said post-liberalisation, India was poised to be in the forefront of growth of the knowledge economy. It ought not miss the bus in trying to provide affordable biotechnology solutions to the growing food insecurity and demand for affordable healthcare solutions.

Though it was laudable that India's turnover in the sector had crossed $1.45 billion and one per cent of the revenue was being pumped back into research and development, it was not enough, he said. Mr. Sibal said Indian biotechnology solutions should be relevant to the Indian context, where answers were being sought to diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, water-borne infections and AIDS.

Much of the profit came from export of bulk drugs, he pointed out, and urged the pharmaceutical sector to make the most of the opportunity and the potential. "What takes $2 billion to produce a drug in the U.S. can be done in India for $500 million. So why should India have to depend on expensive drugs it can ill afford to treat endemic diseases and provide quality healthcare," he asked.

Mr. Sibal, however, conceded that the Government too had the responsibility of creating infrastructure and the environment required for the sector to quickly transfer technology and solutions. "Begin now to invest in tackling diseases confronting our poor, and together we can truly make India a biotech giant," he said.

Soon 3.5 million hectares of land would be under Bt cotton, while Bt brinjal and other crops were ready to move forward past the field trials stage, he said.

Turnover

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson of the Vision Group on Biotechnology and chairperson of the Biocon Group, said the biotechnology sector turnover for 2005-06 crossed Rs. 6,521 crore ($1.45 billion), of which the biopharma sector's share was Rs. 4,708 crore. The industry grew at 37 per cent during the year and investment was Rs. 1,650 crore.

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy released the `Report on Bioclusters,' a special supplement brought out by Biospectrum magazine. He said the State Cabinet had cleared the Rs. 103-crore Bangalore Helix Biotechnology Park project. The Government was keen on retaining Bangalore's reputation as the information technology and biotechnology capita.

Though Bangalore continued to be the top biotechnology destination, this time the western region had claimed first place with a total turnover of Rs. 3,234 crore. The South followed with Rs. 2,367 crore and the North had notched up Rs. 920 crore, he said. However, Karnataka continued to be home to 55 per cent of the industry, with 175 companies opened during the year. Of this, 158 were in Bangalore.

Ms. Mazumdar-Shaw said that at this rate, crossing the target of $5 billion in turnover by 2010 would be easy.

British High Commissioner to India Sir Michael Arthur, French Ambassador Dominique Girard, the Netherlands Ambassador E.F. Charles Niehe and Swedish Ambassador Inga Eriksson Fogh were present.

These countries had pavilions showcasing the biotechnology industry in their respective countries at the three-day conference and exhibition.
Copyright © 2006, The Hindu

The Centre for Research in Biosafety (INBI) is urging the food standards agency to reconsider its draft recommendation to approve a new type of GM corn.

INBI has recommended that Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) should not approve Monsanto’s genetically modified high-lysine LY038 corn until further safety studies have been conducted.

FSANZ is the agency responsible for protecting the safety and integrity of food sold in Australia and New Zealand.

Monsanto has applied to FSANZ for LY038 to be permitted in the food supply, but has declared that its intention is to market LY038 as animal feed. INBI believes LY038 is the first genetically modified crop plant substantially different in its nutritional profile to be considered for approval as a human food. INBI recommends that safety studies be conducted using GM corn that has been cooked and processed as it is in human food.

“The key difference between the use of corn as an animal feed and a human food is cooking and processing, and FSANZ has made no attempt to assess food hazards resulting from cooking or processing of LY038,” said INBI Director and University of Canterbury Associate Professor Jack Heinemann.

He said LY038 corn was substantially different to conventional corn in that it has high concentrations of compounds that are known to produce food hazards when heated with the sugars found in corn.

“We’ve carefully examined the risk assessment done by FSANZ and its supporting materials, and we can’t understand why FSANZ does not ask for the obvious scientific studies that would establish the safety of this product when it is cooked and processed, the way people—and not chickens—eat it,” Heinemann said.

While the FSANZ assessment assumes that LY038 would enter the food supply only in small amounts and inadvertently, the INBI submission identifies a number of realistic pathways, both deliberate and inadvertent, through which the amounts of LY038 in the food supply could be much more significant.

In its submission to FSANZ, INBI makes over 90 major recommendations, most of which identify deficiencies in the supporting scientific studies and in the analysis conducted by FSANZ. INBI also notes ways in which the FSANZ standards deviate from those recommended by international food safety bodies such as Codex Alimentarius and the World Health Organisation.

“FSANZ is obligated to use the best scientific evidence available and conduct a caseby- case assessment. From our point of view, it hasn’t consistently done either,” said Heinemann. INBI has called on FSANZ to explain how it weighs competing costs and benefits when coming to its decisions.

“FSANZ is charged with maintaining public confidence in the quality and safety of food,” said Billie Moore, an INBI researcher. “This is impossible without public confidence in FSANZ and its decision-making processes, which must therefore be transparent and open to public scrutiny and evaluation. It cannot expect the public to have confidence in unsubstantiated assertions and unexplained reasoning.”

WASHINGTON - A lawsuit filed on Wednesday seeks to force the U.S. government to conduct mandatory reviews of genetically engineered foods and require labeling of such foods once they are approved

The Center for Food Safety's suit against the Food and Drug Administration comes after years of lobbying by environmental and consumer groups for more stringent regulation and labeling of biotech crops, which biotech opponents fear can harm human health.

"We think the FDA should be the gatekeeper and should require ... a mandatory process that has rigorous science behind it and public involvement and an actual approval process," said CFS legal director Joseph Mendelson. "And we're asking that once these products are on the market that they be labeled."

The FDA had no immediate comment on the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Genetically modified crops, such as soybeans, corn, and canola, are grown widely throughout the United States, and the world leader in development and marketing of the gene-altered crops is St. Louis, Missouri-based Monsanto Co (MON.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

Yet the United States requires no independent testing of these crops or the food products they are used in, does not mandate what data companies must submit for review, and does not require that foods that contain biotech crops be labeled, CFS said.

Indeed, the United States has been pushing Europe, through complaints with the World Trade Organization, to open its markets to genetically modified food crops, despite widespread consumer opposition there.

"There has been a conscious effort on the part of the FDA and the administration not to create any kind of regulatory burden for agricultural biotechnology," Mendelson said. "They view this purely as an issue of economics rather than of human health."

CFS and more than fifty consumer and environmental groups, filed a legal petition with the FDA in March 2000, asking the agency to adopt a more rigorous approach to biotech food regulation, but the CFS said Wednesday that the FDA had ignored the petition.

At various times over the last several years, different scientists, including some within the FDA, have warned that altering the genetic makeup of a food plant by inserting genes from one organism into another, sometimes from an animal into a plant, for instance, could trigger unexpected food allergies, create toxins in food, or spread antibiotic-resistant disease.

Last year in Australia, scientists found that genes from a bean engineered into pea plants created a potentially dangerous allergen in the biotech peas.

CFS said the tests that exposed that potential hazard have not been conducted on any of the genetically modified foods currently marketed in the United States.

The FDA is one of three government agencies that monitor genetically modified crops. The U.S. Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service oversees bio-crop trials and the Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for regulating plants engineered to produce pesticides.
© Reuters 2006

While modern biotechnology, including genetic engineering, has made an unprecedented impact on agricultural practice due to its efficiency and environmental sustainability, the uptake of this technology in forestry is lagging behind. This delay is due mainly to the long generation times of forest trees and the difficulties originally experienced with the development of tissue culture and genetic modification technology. In recent years, however, routine genetic transformation has successfully been developed for major plantation forest trees including conifers, and genetically modified conifers are at the stage of field testing and pre-commercial evaluation.

Some groups voice strong criticism and concern about the safety of genetically engineered forests, and significant protest has been mounted against the use of such technology. One of the main concerns is the potential spread of genetically modified material through pollen flow. Conifer pollen can transfer over huge distances, and while it is not viable for long periods of time, it has the potential to transfer engineered genes into wild interfertile populations.

Various risk mitigation strategies have been proposed and tested to address this problem, mainly focusing on male reproductive sterility, which can be induced by two strategies:

1. Cell ablation in which either the tapetum or pollen is directly influenced by the expression of a cytotoxic gene, causing abnormal pollen development, or ideally, complete absence of pollen formation. For example, the barnase gene codes for an RNAase which degrades RNA in cells targeted through expression from a cell specific promoter (1). Plants engineered with such a construct usually fail to produce fertile pollen. However, this kind of approach can potentially be problematic since leaky promoters could lead to damage of non-reproductive tissue, with potentially deleterious consequences for plant health and production. This is particularly serious when the long generation times of conifers are considered.

2. Suppression of genes specific to pollen development, which can be achieved through the targeted antisense- or RNAi downregulation of a pollen specific gene (2,3). A potential problem with this strategy is that full suppression of a target gene is often difficult to achieve, even when RNAi is used.

A cytotoxic approach, as published recently by Höfig et al. (2006) (4), combines the use of a tissue specific promoter isolated from the target species (Pinus radiata7) with a cytotoxic gene that is predicted to be non-toxic to non-target cells. The grapevine stilbene synthase (STS) has been shown to compete with the enzyme chalcone synthase (CHS) for the substrates malonyl-CoA and coumaroyl-CoA. STS-induced sterility in tobacco is believed to result from a reduced or abolished flavonol biosynthesis. This has been confirmed by experiments where STS-sterile tobacco plants were regularly sprayed with flavonols (5) and where fertility was partially restored.

STS, when expressed in non-tapetal cells, is not expected to have a toxic impact since there is no competing CHS present. Further, expression of STS in somatic cells of plants may have the additional benefit of providing resistance against fungal attack, through synthesis of the antifungal agent resveratrol. This makes STS an ideal sterility approach with inherent biological and operational safety.

Höfig et al. first isolated a P. radiata promoter expressed specifically in male reproductive tissues and fused it to the Vitis vinifera sts gene. Testing the sterility construct in radiata pine would be time consuming, since this species usually takes (7) – 8 years to reach sexual maturity, and also a field test with plants producing male reproductive structures would require considerable time to obtain regulatory approval. Consequently, the sterility construct was initially tested in the model system Nicotiana tabacum. It was expected that the P. radiata male cone-specific promoter would be conserved between species and hence express in a tapetum-specific manner in tobacco. This hypothesis was further supported by the fact that a P. radiata male cone specific promoter-uidA construct expressed specifically in male organs of transgenic Arabidopsis (6).

Expression of the sterility construct in tobacco led to almost complete ablation of pollen formation. Ten independent transgenic lines were analysed for pollen fertility. Seven did not produce any pollen, and the remaining three lines produced only very small amounts, ranging from 0.03 to 2%. This pollen was not viable, as evidenced by germination experiments, and it was not capable of fertilizing the ovules of non-transgenic tobacco plants. Further cross-pollination experiments confirmed that transgenic, pollen-sterile tobacco plants produced fertile seed after fertilization of ovules with wildtype pollen grains. None of the transgenic plants showed pleiotropic effects of the transgene expression on plant growth or health.

Further studies were conducted to understand the sterility mechanism morphologically and biochemically. Microscopic examination (TEM) of transgenic tobacco plants revealed that anthers produced all tissue types found in non-transgenic control plants. However, during later stages of anther development, a failure to produce normal pollen grains became apparent. Most transgenic lines did not show any pollen development, and those few that did produced aberrant pollen. The results were further confirmed by confocal microscopy, which identified aberrant pollen as flat, flake-like structures compared to the rounded appearance of wildtype pollen. Also, as evidenced in these images, the normal sculpturing of the pollen wall, as seen with wildtype pollen, was missing in transgenic material.

To better understand the potential effect of the expression of the sts gene on flavonol production in transgenic pollen, wildtype and transgenic material was stained with diphenylborinic acid-ethanolamine ester, a flavonol specific stain. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that wildtype pollen contained significant amounts of flavonols only at very late stages of development, whereas at earlier stages, only small amounts of flavonols could be detected. Transgenic pollen also showed small amounts of flavonols at the beginning of development; however, elevated amounts could not be detected at later stages. In addition, the lack of flavonols as compared to wildtype pollen only became apparent long after other signs of aberrant development of transgenic pollen were confirmed. It was concluded that the reasons for aberrant pollen development did not appear to be related to lack of flavonol production.

TEM and pyrolysis GC-MS were applied to test the hypothesis that sterility may be a result of changes in the pollen exine, or in sporopollenin biochemistry. However, no major changes in exine morphology and no major biochemical changes were detected. From these experiments it was concluded that sterility may have arisen from a lack of malonyl-CoA or coumaroyl-CoA in the tapetum, inhibiting or slowing down other critical biochemical pathways required for fertile pollen production.

It is already known that the male cone-specific promoter used in the experiment is differentially expressed in P. radiata male reproductive tissue (7). It is expected that the sterility construct will express and produce stilbene synthase in transgenic radiata pine tapetum cells. Transgenic lines and young trees have been produced for further analysis. It has since also been demonstrated that the male cone-specific promoter expresses at low levels in embryogenic tissue of radiata pine. However, a negative effect of residual or leaky expression of the sts gene in transgenic embryogenic tissue and young plantlets has not been observed. This supports our original hypothesis that any expression of this gene in conifers may not harm, and may in fact benefit, the plant by providing some resistance against fungal attack.

STS-induced male sterility in conifers may provide a viable strategy to prevent the flow of transgenes from transgenic trees in forest plantations. This may enable both the field testing of other traits and the streamlined achievement of regulatory approval. These improvements will enable the commercial exploitation of new biotechnologies in forestry in a socially and environmentally acceptable way. In addition, the sterility strategy discussed here may provide a safeguard against potential promoter leakiness and against some decrease in gene expression levels over the rotation time. Further, it has been hypothesised that conifers that do not produce pollen may well redirect nutrient flow into growth, thereby providing a male sterile plant that is also more attractive from a forest grower's point of view. In species that have become problematic as a source of pollen-induced allergies in humans, such as experienced with the Japanese conifer Cryptomeria japonica, this strategy will also provide a mechanism to greatly reduce allergenic impacts.

Selected references

1. Burgess DG et al. (2002). A novel, two-component system for cell-lethality and its use in engineering nuclear male-sterility in plants. Plant Journal 31(1), 113-125

2. Mou Z et al. (2002). Silencing of phosphoethanolamine N-methyltransferase results in temperature-sensitive male sterility and salt hypersensitivity in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 14, 2031-2043

3. Preston et al. (2004). AtMYB32 is required for normal pollen development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Journal 40, 979-995

4. Höfig et al. (2006): Towards male sterility in Pinus radiata – a stilbene synthase approach to genetically engineer nuclear male sterility. Plant Biotechnology Journal 4, 333-343

5. Fischer R, Budde I & Hain R. (1997) Stilbene synthase gene expression causes changes in flower colour and male sterility in tobacco. Plant Journal 11, 489-498

6. Höfig K et al. (2003) Expression analysis of three Pine male cone promoters in the heterologous host Arabidopsis. Planta 217, 858-867

7. Walden AR, Walter C, & Gardner R. (1999) Genes expressed in Pinus radiata male cones include homologs to anther-specific and pathogenesis response genes. Plant Physiology 121, 1103-116

Christian Walter
Senior Scientist Genetic Engineering
Cellwall Biotechnology Center, SCION
Rotorua, New Zealand
www.scionresearch.com
Copyright ISB

The variation in the biochemical composition of plants is to a large extent determined by their hereditary characteristics. This is the conclusion of a publication by Wageningen UR researchers appearing in Nature Genetics- on line on 4 June.

The study brought together researchers from the Wageningen UR departments Wageningen University, Plant Research International and RIKILT - in a joint project within the research programme of the NGI Centre for BioSystems Genomics - and the state university of Groningen.

The findings make clear that plant breeders will be able to use crossbreeding to develop new plant varieties faster in the future, thanks to a combination of large-scale analyses of content substances, knowledge of the genetic background of plants and use of bioinformatics. Higher content of health-promoting substances and improved taste are examples of traits that could be bred for.

Until now, many scientists assumed that it would be extremely laborious to study the direct contribution of genetic background to biochemical composition. The influence of the environment on the composition of metabolites (content substances) was expected to be too large for this.

The new research showed that the presence of metabolites is to a large extent determined by the genetic composition of the plant. This was demonstrated in a population of Arabidopsis plants by using fast and extremely accurate equipment for analysing metabolites, good genetic maps and powerful bioinformatics and statistics tools. The researchers found that the hereditary characteristics played an important role for around 75% of the hundreds of examined metabolites.

Due to this proven importance of the genomic natural variation and thanks to recent technological developments, plant breeders will be able to use targeted crossbreeding in their breeding programmes and select for the desired metabolite composition already in the seedling stage. This makes it possible to develop plants with more health-protecting substances, for instance, or better taste, even if this involves multiple genes.

The researchers subsequently combined the results of different, related metabolites. They found it relatively easy to confirm a number of previously known biochemical pathways, and were able to clarify new steps within those pathways.

The combination of metabolite analyses and genetic maps is expected to become a key tool for the relatively young scientific field of system biology.
Copyright Wageningen University and Research Centre

Bangalore - The biotechnology industry in the country is growing at an exponential rate and is expected to touch business worth over $5 billion by 2010 and generate over a million jobs in agriculture and pharmaceutical and allied sectors, according to Biocon India Chairperson and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

National brand

Dr. Shaw, who is also the Chairperson of the Karnataka Vision Group on Biotechnology, told presspersons here on the eve of the sixth edition of Bangalore Bio that the potential of this sector could be gauged by the number of countries participating and it becoming a national brand.

She said despite lack of infrastructure and skilled labour, the biotechnology industry in the country was poised to make big strides.

Opportunities

There were opportunities in clinical research, clinical services, research and development and development of medicines. The industry was growing at the rate of over 30 per cent per annum, she said.

While thanking the State Government for taking the initiative to set up the country's first biotech park in Bangalore at a cost of Rs. 103 crore, she said that it would have a cascading effect. "Bangalore Bio has been growing from strength to strength. It has earned a huge national brand for us, as it is being evident from the growing number of visiting delegates to the event. This year, delegates from the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands, France and Germany are coming in a big way. We are also conducting a unique B2B conference, which has attracted national and international delegates," she said.

Supportive role

Anup K. Pujari, Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Biotechnology, Science and Technology, said, "The Government is keen to play a supportive role to the biotech sector, which is poised for the future. To maintain its leadership position in cutting edge research and to keep its flag flying high, the Government has taken two important steps: setting up of a venture capital fund for IT and BT projects and setting up of a biotech park, which will go a long way in supporting the biotech sector."

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy will inaugurate Bangalore Bio 2006 on Wednesday.

Union Minister for Science and Technology and Ocean Development Kapil Sibal will be the chief guest.

International speakers

Bangalore Bio, which has a focal theme on "Discover, Nurture and Accelerate," will be attended by more than 60 international and national speakers and 500 delegates from industry, academia and research and development organisations.

`Agri Biotech Day'

President of the Association for Biotech Led Entrepreneurs (ABLE) K.K. Narayanan said June 9 had been earmarked as "Agri Biotech Day" in which experts would deliberate on kharif crop and prices of BT cotton, among others.

"Globally, the growth of GM crop is pegged at 11 percent, where as in India it grew by 160 per cent which shows the relevance of the technology," he said.

Trade show

The three-day event will comprise a trade show, "The Market Place," with participation from over 150 organisations, an international conference with deliberations on important issues, special networking events such as the CEO conclave "Confluence of Bio Titans," BYB Forum - Buzz of Biz, Awards Nite and Bio Banquet.

The exhibition will be held at the Bangalore Palace grounds.
Conferences and poster session will be held at the J.N. Tata Auditorium.

Farm ministers the week of May 22 sent a clear message to the European Commission to come up with labeling thresholds for the adventitious presence of transgenic material in seed lots, reported Food Chemical News.

Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has been resisting moves to set thresholds despite pressure from seed producers, the biotech industry and even fellow commissioners. Member-states weighed in on the issue at a May 22 Agriculture Council meeting in Brussels. The ministers were nearly unanimous in urging the commission to set limits, with only Greece abstaining. Dimas served as a minister in the Greek government before taking up his post in Brussels in 2004.

According to Food Chemical News, the question now is whether Dimas will finally yield to the pressure and produce a proposal — either for the 0.1 percent limit favored by green advocacy groups, a 0.3 percent threshold seen as middle ground, or the 0.5 percent limit backed by industry. The Agriculture Council stressed that the threshold “should not create a disproportionate burden for any group of operators.”

Currently seed producers must comply with the 0.1 percent detection limit by default, because the lack of a threshold means a product with the slightest trace of transgenic material has to be labeled as containing GMOs (genetically modified organisms). A 0.9 percent adventitious presence threshold applies to food and animal feed under the EU’s traceability and labeling regulation, reported Food Chemical News.

The council also called on the commission to beef up 2003 guidance on coexistence that member-states use to draft national rules. The council backed the commission’s view that geographic, climatic and farming conditions in the 25 member-states are too varied to allow harmonized EU rules. However, the council said national governments need more in-depth technical guidance, and the EU should consider adopting common principles on coexistence as well as providing advice on practical crop-specific coexistence measures that take into account costs as well as technical effectiveness.

The council made clear that farmers should be able to choose biotech crops, and consumers should have a choice among biotech, conventional or organic foods. The council acknowledged strong consumer demand for organic and traditional products but added that it is in Europe’s economic interest to avoid lagging behind in biotechnology.

According to Food Chemical News, the council’s conclusions triggered a furious response from Friends of the Earth Europe, which said the ministers would “allow irreversible contamination of Europe’s food and environment.” For its part, the trade association EuropaBio welcomed the conclusions, noting that successful coexistence partly depends on seed limits.
Copyright 2006 © Agra Informa, Inc

MANURE-TO-CRUDE OIL: University of Illinois agricultural and biological engineer Yuanhui Zhang developed a system that uses thermochemical conversion to transform swine manure into crude oil.

He has teamed with private industry to design a pilot plant to develop the process. Zhang says much more research is needed to make the process commercially viable.

CORN-TO-BUTANOL: UI microbiology professor Hans Blaschek has developed a genome of a microorganism that causes fermentation of corn co-products to create butanol. With the genome, Blaschek says, a second-generation strain of the organism can be developed that should be even more effective. He also plans to examine distillers' grains and other corn fiber for their potential in butanol production.

BIOMASS: A fermentation biotechnology research unit at the USDA's National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria is working on converting agricultural commodities or biomass materials - switchgrass, wheat straw, miscanthus, rice straw, rice hulls, corn fiber, corn stover - into alcohol that could be used as fuel. A team of scientists at Argonne National Laboratory near Lemont is experimenting with numerous projects in efforts to determine what single microorganism can be used make all forms of biomass into cellulosic ethanol.

GENOMICS AND SUSTAINABLE FUELS: Advances in the field of genomics, the study of genetic structure, have helped UI researchers learn more about how microorganisms degrade plant materials. Animal sciences professor Bryan White says genomics has shown there are at least 200 enzymes that could be involved in the process.
Copyright 2006 Knight Ridder

DUBLIN, Rueters - German chemicals firm BASF has decided against planting genetically modified potato crops in Ireland this year, the country's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Wednesday May 24.

Ireland, Europe's biggest per capita consumer of potatoes, gave the go-ahead earlier this month for BASF to grow varieties of the crop modified with improved resistance to late potato blight, which brought famine to Ireland in the 19th century.

"We've just been told they they are not going to go ahead this year," a spokeswoman for the EPA, which awarded the licence, said.

BASF Plant Science said in a statement that the EPA's consent had contained a number of conditions and that it had been looking for clarification in certain areas.

"Due to the limited time restrictions of the planting season, it has been decided not to conduct the field trials in 2006," the company said.

Having tested blight-resistant potatoes in Sweden in 2005, it would perform field trials in Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany this year, BASF's plant biotechnology unit added.

Previous trials of GM foods in Ireland have been disrupted by environmentalists.

Ireland's Green Party called on the EPA to reverse its decision to allow GM trials.

"The EPA...must not give in to any demands from BASF," Green Party Leader Trevor Sargent said in a statement.

"Now is the opportunity to ensure that Ireland remains a GM-free producing island. Ireland's traditional GM-free food status is a key selling point for Irish food exports and must be protected."

The EPA said the licence would remain in place but would not be altered in any way.

"The licence is set now," the spokeswoman said.

Blight-resistant GM potatoes were first developed in 2003 after scientists discovered a wild potato in Mexico that is naturally resistant to the disease.

The field trials were to be have been carried out at a one hectare site in County Meath.

The licence gave BASF the right to conduct trials for five years from 2006 to 2010, with monitoring continuing until 2014.

Six science and technology platforms across Canada will receive more than $18.6 million in funding from Genome Canada over the next 15 months.

The platforms provide the tools and expertise to analyze genomes in various ways and include services such as DNA sequencing, mapping, genotyping, microarrays, genetic analysis, proteomics and bioinformatics.

“The Government of Canada is committed to supporting scientific innovation and discovery,” said the Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry. “The funding for these science and technology platforms gives researchers funded by Genome Canada, as well as other funding agencies, access to the tools and equipment they need to conduct successful science that will benefit Canadians.”

“The science and technology platforms have produced many important scientific achievements, including successfully sequencing the genome of a virulent strain of C.difficile prevalent in Quebec and genotyping chromosomes that were key components of Canada’s participation in the International HapMap Consortium,” said Dr. Martin Godbout, President and CEO of Genome Canada. “The platforms offer world-class services that provide the science and leading edge technology that enable Canadian researchers to compete on the international stage.”

Genome Canada-funded projects and platforms require the most up-to-date technology to be internationally competitive, and in some cases require new tools and devices that are not available from commercial vendors, often because they represent very specific applications with a limited market. In response to this need, science and technology platforms were established to allow the mutual sharing of equipment, expertise, and engineering resources. Though the primary mandate of the platforms is to provide genomic, proteomic and bioinformatic technology services for all Genome Canada-funded projects and platforms, a minimum of 20 per cent of their activities are also dedicated to collaborations with researchers funded by other agencies. The funded platforms are located in Vancouver (2), Victoria, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

Genome Canada is a not-for-profit corporation that acts as the primary funding and information resource relating to genomics and proteomics in Canada. Dedicated to developing and implementing a national strategy in genomics and proteomics research for the benefit of all Canadians, it has received $600 million in funding from the Government of Canada, which when combined with funding from other partners, totals $1.25 billion in more than 100 innovative research projects and sophisticated science and technology platforms.

Most EU nations already have their own labeling to identify organic products grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers and without being genetically altered.

Germany's deputy agriculture minister, Gert Lindemann, said the plan posed too many problems. "It is too bureaucratic," he said, adding that organic farmers in his country preferred sticking with national rules and guidelines on labels.

Several nations, including Belgium, Austria, Italy and Greece, demanded that any new rules on what constitutes organic should ensure that biotech content of the product be near zero, and not the proposed 0.9 percent limit, which EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel argued was needed to account for accidental contamination.

"There are different views on this," Fischer Boel told reporters. "It's quite clear that a majority of member states do really see this as a growing market and therefore it is important that we have common rules, so that we can give consumers certainty of the quality of the product that they buy."

Fischer Boel said that forcing the limit lower would cost farmers too much and would harm sales of organic goods, which have grown in popularity over the last decade.

EU officials said they hope to get a deal on the new labels by the end of the year.

Under the current proposal, at least 95 percent of the final product has to be organic for it to get the "EU-Organic" label. Products imported from non-EU countries would also be allowed to use the logo if their products abide by the EU rules.

The debate coincided with a separate discussion on how the EU could ensure that non-biotech crops are not contaminated by neighboring genetically modified crops.

Austrian Farm Minister Josef Proell, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said EU ministers agreed they "are keen on protecting the farmers that wish to stick to GMO-free methods."

Several EU nations, including Poland, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Hungary, and Germany, have voiced concern over the lack of rules on that issue.

Those countries have also instituted bans on EU approved biotech crops and products in recent years and some, like Poland and Greece, want a total ban on the growing of biotech crops in certain regions or within their entire territories.
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