Bi Board
Glyphosate-Resistant Crop Trait
Developed
Dupont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred International and Maxygen Inc.’s Verdia have
developed a novel glyphosate1-resistant crop trait by developing enzymes
exhibiting glyphosate N-acetyltransferase (GAT) activity, which confers
glyphosate tolerance to plants.2
A commonly used herbicide on both food and non-food crops, glyphosate
is popular for its effectiveness, low cost and low environmental impact. It
effectively detoxified by N-acetylation, hence, glyphosate acetylation provides
an alternative strategy for supporting the use of glyphosate on crops. Herbicide
tolerance is the most widely planted transgenic crop trait (75%), and glyphosatetolerant crops marked as Roundup Ready occupy the greatest acreage.
1
A white compound, C3H8NO5P, that is soluble in water, used as a broad-spectrum
herbicide.
2
Discovery and Directed Evolution of a Glyphosate Tolerance Gene, Science 304:1151–
1154 (2004).
French Government Accedes to
Scientists’ Demands
After tense weeks of dramatic protests by scientists, the French government
acceded to the researchers’ demands on 7 April. Researchers gathered outside
the Sorbonne to celebrate their victory.
Unhappy with cost-cutting decisions made by the government, French
scientists have banded to form Sauvons la recherche (“Let’s save research”)
(see APBN, 8(6): 338–339). The movement led a series of protests, including a
mass resignation of more than 2000 research directors on 9 March.
The move came after French president Jacques Chirac’s statement on 1
April, when he disowned the research policies of his previous government and
declared the scientists’ protests “justified”. François Fillon, minister for education,
higher education and research, and François d’Aubert, junior minister for
research, moved quickly to put Chirac’s words into action.
Study Advocates
WaterConserving GM
Crops
Food production and agriculture
are causing the rapid depletion of
water resources across the world —
they are by far the largest consumers
of water, requiring 1,000 times more
than we use to drink and 100 times
more that we use to meet basic
personal needs. Agriculture alone
accounts for an alarming 70–90%
of available freshwater supplies in
developing countries.
The report, titled “Water — More
Nutrition Per Drop,” was initiated by
the Swedish Government and
released at a UN development
summit in New York. It further
advocated the cultivation of drought
resistant and genetically modified
crops to combat the crisis.
The report further explained that
with globalization and an increase
in purchasing power, consumers are
becoming more selective about their
food, driving an increasing demand
for meat and dairy products that
involve water-intensive production
procedures. Stressing that the
conservation of water should be a
combined global effort, the report
advised the cultivation and export
of crops in regions where they can
give the best yield with the least
amount of water.
Following negotiations last week with representatives of the scientific
community, Fillon and d’Aubert announced a series of emergency measures
for research, including the scientists’ key demand of 550 new full-time research
posts for young scientists. The government also agreed to a further 1,050
university posts — 300 immediately and 750 in January 2005.
Alain Trautmann, leader of Sauvons la recherche, was ecstatic. “It’s a
great day for French science. We got exactly what we demanded.”
APBN • Vol. 8 • No. 12 • 2004
651
www.asiabiotech.com
Biotechnology
Boosts Nutritional
Value of Food
With the global demand for food
increasing at a staggering rate, the
improvement of food quality through
modern biotechnology remains the best
solution to cope with the current situation
of a rapidly growing world population
worsened by a decline in availability of
arable land.
This was the chief observation made
in a paper prepared by a Task Force of the
ILSI (International Life Sciences Institute)
International Food Biotechnology
Committee, entitled “Nutritional and
Safety Assessments of Foods and Feeds
Nutritionally Improved through
Biotechnology”.
While traditional modes of agriculture
will continue to contribute toward meeting
the demand for food around the world,
the staple foods that are being consumed
in the developing world are often lacking
in essential nutrients. The bid to obtain
more nutrients from food is not a new
phenomenon in the developed world as
well, where the demand for “functional
foods” is growing among the affluent.
Modern biotechnology is playing an
important role to help complement
traditional plant breeding methods.
Agricultural biotechnology involves the
application of cellular and molecular
techniques to transfer DNA that encodes
a certain desired trait to food and feed
crops. Through modern genetic and
transgenic sciences, biotechnology does
provide access to a broad array of traits
that can help meet the need for
nutritionally improved cultivars. New
varieties of crops can then be developed
and produced in developing countries —
in order to boost the nutritional value of
staple foods and help consumers
supplement their daily diet.
652
APBN • Vol. 8 • No. 12 • 2004
Bi Board
Ingredient in Common Cold
Medicine Could Cause Strokes
Pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in over-the-counter
decongestants, may increase blood pressure and the risk of lifethreatening or disabling strokes in susceptible patients. This warning
came from researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“At the usual doses, (pseudoephedrine) is probably safe for
most people,” says Italo Biaggioni, M.D., professor of Medicine
and Pharmacology and Director of the Vanderbilt Clinical Trials
Center. People at potential risk may include those with high blood
pressure, a history of previous strokes, and diabetes — a disease
that can damage the nerves that help maintain normal blood
pressure.
Biaggioni recommends that people check their blood pressure
an hour after taking a decongestant containing pseudoephedrine,
stopping the medication if blood pressure was found to have
increased.
Plants in Industrial Cleanups
Plants may soon replace earthmovers and landfills in cleaning
contaminated industrial sites.
Biochemists Joe Jez and Tom Smith, Donald Danforth Plant
Science Center, are looking into a method of phytoremediation —
the usage of green plants to absorb or break down contaminants
in soil, sludge, sediment and groundwater — to clean up brownfield.
Brownfields are abandoned or underused industrial sites where
environmental contamination hinders redevelopment.
Jez has identified a gene that allows certain plants to thrive in
soil contaminated with cadmium, which is normally toxic. Smith
has found another gene that helps some bacteria capture and
transport zinc, which is important for nutrition but harmful at
high concentrations.
Their plan is to augment and transfer both traits to large, fastgrowing plants and trees, enabling them to store various heavymetal pollutants absorbed from the ground. The plants then could
be harvested and incinerated, leaving a relatively small amount of
ash for proper disposal.
Phytoremediation methods are gaining popularity as an
ecologically sound and relatively low-cost way to deal with
brownfields. Scientists aim to develop a toolbox of plants and
trees that can be matched with specific cleanup needs at the sites,
and while some of these qualities do occur naturally, it is most
probable that this goal can only be achieved through genetic
modification, despite the controversy of GM techniques.