GM crop developments aid biotech acceptance

Fear of the unknown

22 April 2008 10:23  [Source: ICB]

Consumers, particularly in Europe, remain wary of genetically modified (GM) crops. Could this change with the next wave of biotech products?

Anna Jagger/London

VEGETABLE OILS with added omega 3. Edible plant-based vaccines. Drought-resistant crops. Biotech players believe that such products, promising direct benefits to the consumer and the environment, will lead to greater public acceptance of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Advancements in genetic analysis are expected to lead to a new wave of genetically modified (GM) crops. While today's GM crops involve simple, single gene traits providing herbicide tolerance and insect resistance, second-generation GM crops are being developed with multigene characteristics, with the potential for a wide range of benefits to consumers and the environment.

"The better we understand the plant at the molecular level, the better we are able to make changes that benefit our customers," says Steve Daugherty, biotechnology affairs director at seed company Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a subsidiary of US-based DuPont.

In particular, researchers are combining marker-assisted breeding with transgenics, involving the insertion of genes, to develop new crop varieties. Marker-assisted ­breeding allows researchers to use genetic analysis to identify genes associated with particular traits and then scan crop ­relatives for the presence of these genes. "The technology is accelerating, it's being ­compressed and it's moving into the laboratory," Daugherty remarks.

But opponents of the GM movement remain skeptical about the claims made about the next generation of GM crops and question whether they will ever come to fruition. "We've been hearing for many years about these new types of crop being just around the corner, but we've still only got these two traits [herbicide tolerance and insect resistance] in a limited number of crops," says Clare Oxborrow, GM campaigner at UK environmental group Friends of the Earth. "It's simply PR, with very little evidence to back up the claims."

Drought resistance, for example, is extremely complicated, she says. "Biologists don't even know how it works in nature."

Swiss agrochemicals group Syngenta says it has identified the genes necessary for water optimization, and expects to launch a corn variety with improved drought resistance in 2011. US-based Monsanto, the world's largest producer of GM seeds, expects to launch a drought-resistant crop by the middle of the next decade.

DROUGHT RESISTANCE ADVANCES

Researchers at Syngenta are using native corn genes as well as genes derived from arid land plants to develop water optimization traits. "[The research] will put us very much in the forefront of bringing new corn varieties to market that have been selected for their ability to withstand drought," says Davor Pisk, chief operating officer for seeds at Syngenta. "This is important in today's agriculture, where water is becoming increasingly scarce."

As well as reducing the risks associated with growing corn, which is a water-intensive crop, drought-resistant varieties will enable farmers to use less irrigation and therefore improve their economics and conserve water for their communities, notes Pisk.

Improving the efficiency of a crop's nitrogen uptake could also bring major environmental benefits, by cutting the fertilizer use and hence the carbon footprint associated with crop production. Monsanto says field trials have demonstrated that nitrogen efficient oilseed rape (or canola) can maintain normal yield while using 30-50% less nitrogen fertilizer. Alternatively, yield can be increased by 10-15% by using conventional quantities of fertilizer, says Colin Merritt, head of external affairs and new business development at Monsanto UK.

Monsanto is collaborating with US research biotech company Arcadia Biosciences to improve nitrogen use efficiency in oilseed rape, and expects the product to reach commercialization in the next decade, Merritt says. Pioneer is also collaborating with Arcadia Biosciences to improve nitrogen use efficiency in corn.

Researchers are also developing crops that produce oils enriched with healthy dietary components, such as omega 3. Enriching crops with omega 3, a long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), could become a practical means for adding omega 3 to the food chain without damaging fragile fish stocks, according to a major EU-funded study. Omega 3, which has been found to protect against heart disease, diabetes and hypertension, is found mainly in oily fish. The fish source the fatty acids from the algae they eat.

The development of products enriched with long-chain PUFAs is one of the goals of the EU-funded Lipgene project, which is exploring the relationship between diet, genes, obesity and related diseases. "The production of long-chain PUFAs in transgenic plants should provide a safe, sustainable and environmentally benign source of these important fatty acids for either human nutrition or as an animal feed," says Jonathan Napier, a scientist involved in the Lipgene project.

HEALTH BENEFITS COULD SWAY PUBLIC OPINION

"Using transgenic plants to synthesize health-protective dietary components may help persuade the public of the benefits of GM technologies to deliver functional nutrition and reduced environmental impact," adds Napier, who is based at Rothamsted Research, one of the UK's largest agricultural research institutes.

Monsanto says it already has GM plants in the field producing omega 3. But it will be several years before the research has been completed and regulatory approvals granted, notes Merritt.

Pioneer is also researching the production of oils with added health benefits. The company says it is developing a GM soybean oil with a high oleic acid content which, combined with a low-linolenic content, means the oil will have negligible levels of trans fats, reduced levels of saturated fats and increased levels of monounsaturated fats.

While the low-linolenic content eliminates the need for hydrogenation, which has been linked to raised blood cholesterol levels and heart disease, the high-oleic content increases the oil's stability when used for frying and food processing, broadening the applications in which low-linolenic soybean oil can be used.

Pioneer says its research into the high oleic soybean trait brings it a step closer to developing its first biotech product with direct consumer benefits. It expects to introduce the oil, which will have an oleic acid content of at least 80%, in the US in 2009, pending regulatory approvals.

Genetic engineering could also lead to the development of plant-based vaccines, which can be administered orally rather than by injection. Researchers at the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at the Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, US are designing crops that will accumulate novel proteins in edible tissues, and say their first priority will be hepatitis B.

While biotechnology companies and academic institutes continue to pursue the next generation of GM crops, recent surveys indicate that public acceptance of GMOs is improving. Only 20% of Europeans are worried about GMOs, compared with 24% in 2004, according to a European Commission Eurobarometer survey published in March.

But the GM debate remains highly polarized. Friends of the Earth says biotech farming is not delivering on its promises. Most of the main GM food crops - corn, oilseed rape and soy - are destined for animal feed, so are not tackling hunger or poverty, says Oxborrow. "And there isn't really a market for GM food, except in those countries, including the US, where labeling is required."

The pro-GM camp maintains that with rising food prices, the benefits of biotech crops have never been more important. World food prices rose by almost 40% in 2007, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

With a growing population, and the land available on which to grow crops diminishing, improving productivity becomes critical, argues Daugherty. "We lose ground every year and we gain mouths every year. The only way we're going to sustain our system is to produce more on the same bit of ground. You've got to be more productive in a sustainable way, and the technology allows us to do this."

BIOTECHNOLOGY TIMELINE

1850s and 1860s: by breeding pea plants, Austrian monk Gregor Mendel shows that characteristics are inherited in the form of discrete elements (later known as genes)

1953: James Watson and Francis Crick publish the structure of DNA, the molecule that carries the genetic code

1980s: scientists discover how to transfer genes from one organism to another

1985: production of the first insect-resistant plant, using a Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) gene

1994: the first GM food, the Flavr Savr tomato, is approved in the US

1995-1996: Monsanto's Roundup Ready herbicide tolerant soybean first grown commercially

1997-1999: further GM crops approved in the US, Canada and South America, including Roundup Ready and Bt varieties of maize, cotton and rapeseed

2000: GM crops grown on over 100m acres (40.5m ha) worldwide

2001: first complete genetic map (genome) of a food plant - rice - unveiled

2002: first draft of the human genome published

Disclaimer: dates will vary, according to dates of discovery/publication and usage

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