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Berkeley Journalism
Autumn 2002
Prof. Martina Newell-McGloughlin Director, UC
Systemwide Biotech Research and Education
Program www.biotech.ucdavis.edu/
http//ucsystembiotech.ucdavis.edu
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• Of the 90 million pop added each year, more than
  95 are born in the developing countries. Asia's
  growth of 58 million pa largest Africa's of
  2.9, is the steepest.
• Losing about 3,000 square meters of forest and
  1,000 tons of topsoil every second arable land
  shrinks by 20,000 hectares yearly. Erosion made
  billion hectares of soil unusable for
  agriculture.
• More than 25 of the grain needed in Africa is
  imported, while up to 40 of the harvest may be
  lost due to post-harvest damage

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The Crop Agriculture Technology Timeline graph
Cultivation Selective Cross breeding Cell
culture Somaclonal variation Embryo rescue
Polyembryogenesis Mutagensis and selection
Anther culture Recombinant DNA Marker assisted
selection Genomics Bioinformatics ---omics Systems
Biology
2,000 BC 19thC Early 20th C Mid 20th
C 1930s 1940s 1950s 1970s 1980 1980s 1990s 2
000 2000 21st C
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Gamma Field for radiation breeding
100m radius 89 TBq Co-60 source at the
center Shielding dike 8m high
Institute of Radiation Breeding Ibaraki-ken,
JAPAN http//www.irb.affrc.go.jp/
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Pear radiation bred
CA
http//www.irb
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Radish
Cabbage
A Russian scientist named Karpechenko promised
Stalin that he could double productivity by
crossing a cabbage with a radish
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Radish
Cabbage
Raphanobrassica
Instead Karpechenko introduced a brand new
species to science and went to Siberia for his
efforts!! (Traditional crossbreeding selection,
mutation breeding, somaclonal selection and wide
crosses allow no control at the genome level and
it may take years of backcrossing to remove
unwanted effects)
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Lycopersicon esculentum
Lycopersicon chmielewskii
Back- cross series
Tomato Cultivar
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Crop Biotechnology

• Agronomic Traits
• Biotic Stress
• Insect Resistance Bt, cystatin
• Disease Resistance
• Viral- coat protein protection (Papaya ringspot
  virus)
• Bacterial, Fungal, Nematode (Rice blight, rice
  blast)
• Weed- herbicide tolerance (Striga, orobanchia)
• ABiotic Stress
• Drought, Cold, Heat
• Poor soil
• Salinity tomatoes with transport protein
• Aluminum -Citric acid
• Yield
• Nitrogen Assimilation nodulation by rhizobia,
  GDH metab eng
• Starch Biosynthesis, O2 Assimilation,
  photosynthesis/Rubisco
• Quality Traits
• Processing
• Post harvest loss reduction
• Reproduction sex barriers, male sterility,
  seedless fruit

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• Agriculture in developing countries is confronted
  with three major challenges in decades to come
• To increase the availability of nutritious food
  to an increasing population,
• To use natural ecosystems (including marginal
  lands) more efficiently and environmentally
  sustainable in food production, and
• To make a contribution to economic development.

• Important Crops
• Cereals Rice the staple food for 2.4 billion
  people, sorghum, millet, maize
• Root veg Cassava the staple food for 500
  million people, Sweet potato/yam
• Legumes Cowpea, beans

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50 million hectares/ 125 million acres, world
wide 2001. This is more than a 10 year-on-year
growth compared with 2000.
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• Avg. Bt cotton farmer in China
• reduced sprayings for Asian bollworm
• - Down from 20 to 6 times per year
• produces a kg. of cotton for 28 less cost than
  farmers using non-Bt varieties.
• Same Mexican and South African Bt cotton farmers
  increased yields at the same time that they
  reduced their costs.
• The reduction in pesticide use saves farmers cost
  of insecticides also reduced the incidence of
  insecticide poisonings

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Roundup Ready Soybeans
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Benefits for the Farmer and the Environment
Improves Weed Control Fewer apps, less risk,
weather
Improves Farm Efficiency Less labor, time, use of
machinery
Herbicide-tolerant crops
Encourages Adoption of No-till
Losing about 3,000 square meters of forest and
1,000 tons of topsoil every second arable land
shrinks by 20,000 hectares yearly. Erosion made
billion hectares of soil unusable for agriculture.

• Reduces CropInjury
• crop rotation

Sources National Center for Food and
Agricultural Policy, 2000, Kalaitzandanakes,
2001,
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Decrease in application to soybean of herbicides
with groundwater advisory labeling
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12
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Million Kg active ingredient
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1996
1997
1998
1999
Source Doane Market Research Groundwater
advisory herbicides registered for use on
soybeans acifluorfen, alachlor, bentazon,
dimethenamid, metolachlor, s-metolachlor,
metribuzin, flumetsulam, and fomesafen.
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Percentage of Illinois water monitoring samples
containing major corn herbicides, 1999
Watershed planted to
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Glyphosate-tolerant corn
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Percentage of water samples contaminated
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Conventional corn
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2
0
gt4PPB
2-4PPB
Data of Acetochlor Registration Partnership (ARP)
of Monsanto and Zeneca corn herbicides
alachlor, metolachlor, atrazine, EPTC, butylate,
2,4-D, and acetochlor (provided by David
Gustafson) NOTE named herbicides cause no
detected contamination in most watersheds in
which they are used
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Papaya ringspot virus in Hawaii
Aerial view of transgenic field trial in Puna
that was started in October 1995. The solid block
of green papaya trees are 'UH-Rainbow' while the
surrounding papaya trees that are nearly dead are
nontransgenic papaya trees severely infected by
PRSV.
Field trial of transgenic 'UH Rainbow' and 'UH
SunUp' was established in Puna in October 1995.
Slides show the progress of the disease caused by
PRSV in rows of nontransgenic papaya (left in
picure) as compared to the resistance in rows of
'UH Rainbow' (right in picture).
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COWPEA AND BEAN
"Man cannot live by bread alone"... we
need beans and lentils too!
While cereal
production worldwide has largely kept
pace with population growth,
figures from FAO
suggest that the production of
legumes has scarcely increased
over the past three
decades. Legumes are
important because they provide essential
protein and vitamins,
complementing
starchy staple foods. They are especially
important for low-income
consumers in
developing countries who do not normally
have access to animal
proteins. Dr M. Tamo, IITA SP-IPM Task
Force led by ICRISAT
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Objectives
Major constraints to be addressed in this project
Cowpea
Beans
Insects
Maruca
Insect
Ophiomyia
podborer, cowpea aphids
bean fly or stem maggot
Diseases Common bacterial blight, Angular
Parasitic weed
Striga
leafspot, Anthracnose
Viruses potyviruses
Viruses potyviruses
Nematodes root-knot nematodes
Nematodes root-knot nematodes
Breeding system
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STRIGA

• Striga (Scrophulariaceae) is a
• genus of obligate root-parasitic
• flowering plants.
• All of the cultivated food-crop
• cereals in Africa are parasitized
• by one or more Striga spp.
• Striga spp. in the savanna
• regions alone account for
• 7 billion and are
• detrimental to the lives of over
• 100 million African people.

Host plants release factors required by parasitic
plants Striga causes massive losses to crops in
Africacontrol strategy to inactivate host
recognition factors - John Yoder, UC Davis,
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• Crop production is limited by salinity on 40
  world's irrigated land and on 25 USA about 1/5
  California.
• Blumwald and Zhang genetically engineered tomato
  plants that produce higher levels of a "transport
  protein.
• Plants grow and produce fruit even in irrigation
  water that is gt 50X saltier than normal. gt 1/3
  salty as seawater.
• Nature Biotech, July 31, 2001

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.

• Fungal diseases destroy 50 million metric tons of
  rice per year varieties resistant to fungi could
  be developed through the genetic transfer of
  proteins with antifungal properties.
• Insects cause a 26 million tons loss of rice per
  year the genetic transfer of proteins with
  insecticidal properties would mean an
  environmentally friendly insect control.
• Viral diseases devastate 10 million tons of rice
  per year transgenes derived from the Tungro
  virus genome allow the plant to develop defense
  systems.
• Bacterial diseases cause comparable losses -
  transgenes with antibacterial properties are the
  basis for inbuilt resistance.

Rice the staple food for 2.4 billion people

• Cassava the staple food for 500 million
  people
• African Mosaic Virus causes immense damages in
  cassava Anti-sense RNA Hyper-sensitive Response

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A Moral Dilemma
The cassava mottle virus is causing losses of
over 40 of the crop in Africa. Resistant
varieties are being developed using
biotechnology. Is it moral to have a solution to
this disease and withhold it from those who need
it?
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Increased b-Carotene in Rice Grains
Over 120 million children worldwide are deficient
in vitamin A. Rice has been engineered to
accumulate b-carotene, Incorporation of this
trait into rice cultivars and widespread
distribution could prevent 1 to 2 million deaths
each year.
Normal rice
(bacteria)
Ferritin, an iron-rich bean storage
protein, Phytase, an enzyme that breaks down
phytate making Fe available, reabsorption of
iron, a gene for a cystein-rich
metallothionein-like protein has been engineered
into rice
(daffodil)
Ye et al. (2000) Science 287 303-305.
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United Nations -- Developing countries should
consider adopting agricultural biotechnology,
which can improve crop yields and safely provide
more nutritious food at a lower cost. Sponsored
by the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in
Africa, the U.N. Development Program, and the
U.S. Mission to the United Nations, September 19,
2002 panel featured leading biologists,
scientists and economists. The great potential
of biotechnology to increase agriculture in
Africa lies in its packaged technology in the
seed, which ensures technology benefits without
changing local cultural practices Florence
Wambugu director of the International Service for
the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications
(ISAAA) in Kenya Wambugu, 1999
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What top international Scientists have to say

• The National Academy of Sciences, joined by six
  other academies from around the world (Royal
  Society of London, Third World Academy of
  Sciences and national academies of Brazil, China,
  India and Mexico) issued a report in 2000
  declaring that biotechnology
• should be used to increase the production of main
  food staples,
• improve the efficiency of production,
• reduce the environmental impact of agriculture
  and provide access to food for small-scale
  farmers.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization of the
  United Nations and the World Health Organization
  also issued a joint report approving the method
  we use to assess the safety of biotech crops.
• Declaration signed by over 3,500 scientists
  including 13 Nobel Laureates states that biotech
  methods are not only safe but have tremendous
  potential to improve the quality and quantity of
  sustainable food production word wide

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What Other Have to Say
American Medical Association, December 2000
The AMA recognizes the many potential benefits
offered by genetically modified crops and foods,
does not support a moratorium on planting
genetically modified crops, and encourages
ongoing research in food biotechnology." EU
Commission Report Results from 400 teams over
15 years Research on GM plants and derived
products so far developed and marketed, following
usual risk assessment procedures, has not shown
any new risks to human health or the environment,
beyond the usual uncertainties of conventional
plant breeding. Indeed, the use of more precise
technology and the greater regulatory scrutiny
probably make them even safer than conventional
plants and foods. If there are unforeseen
environmental effects - none have appeared as yet
- these should be rapidly detected by existing
monitoring systems.
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• We cannot turn back the clock on agriculture and
  only use methods that were developed to feed a
  much smaller population. ..
• This cannot be done unless farmers across the
  world have access to current high-yielding
  crop-production methods as well as new
  biotechnological breakthroughs that can increase
  the yields, dependability, and nutritional
  quality of our basic food crops. We need to bring
  common sense into the debate on agricultural
  science and technology, and the sooner the
  better! - Norman E. Borlaug, Plant Physiology,
  October 2000, Vol. 124, pp. 487490

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"Responsible biotechnology is not the enemy
starvation is." President Jimmy Carter
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Although humans make sounds with their mouths
and occasionally look at each other, there is no
solid evidence that they actually communicate
among themselves
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