Space Industry and Business News  
A Crop Containment Strategy For GM Farms

There has been serious opposition to genetically modified agriculture both in the United States and abroad, coming from concerns about "foreign genes" escaping from GM crops, crossing with and contaminating other crops and wild species, and disrupting the ecosystem. Photo courtesy AFP.
by Staff Writers
New Brunswick NJ (SPX) Jun 11, 2007
Plant geneticists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, may have solved one of the fundamental problems in genetically engineered or modified (GM or GMO) crop agriculture: genes leaking into the environment. In a recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Rutgers Professor Pal Maliga and research associate Zora Svab advocate an alternative and more secure means of introducing genetic material into a plant.

In GM crops today, novel genes are inserted into a cell nucleus but can eventually wind up in pollen grains or seeds that make their way out into the environment.

The two researchers at Rutgers' Waksman Institute of Microbiology argue for implanting the genes into another component of the cell - the plastid - where the risk of escape is minimized. Plastids, rarely found in pollen, are small bodies inside the cell that facilitate photosynthesis, the basic life process in plants.

"Our work with a tobacco plant model is breathing new life into an approach that had been dismissed out-of-hand for all the wrong reasons," said Maliga. "Introducing new agriculturally useful genes through the plastid may prove the most effective means for engineering the next generation of GM crops."

Skeptics had claimed that the approach was ineffective, based on 20-year-old genetic data showing that 2 percent of the pollen carried plastids. In the new study, Svab and Maliga found plastids in pollen 100- to 1000-times less frequently. This is well below the threshold generally accepted for additional containment measures.

The agricultural community worldwide seems to be embracing GM crops because the technology has the potential to deliver more healthful and nutritious crops, and increase crop yields with less use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

A "News Focus" story in the May 25 issue of the journal Science reported that genetically modified crops are flourishing worldwide, including in six European Union countries. "Last year (2006), 10 million farmers in 22 countries planted more than 100 million hectares with GM crops," it said.

There has been serious opposition to genetically modified agriculture both in the United States and abroad, coming from concerns about "foreign genes" escaping from GM crops, crossing with and contaminating other crops and wild species, and disrupting the ecosystem.

Pursuing the approach elucidated and advocated by the Rutgers researchers' findings may allay some of these fears and deflate the more vociferous arguments.

Svab and Maliga acknowledge that different strains of tobacco may produce plastid-carrying pollen at different frequencies, possibly accounting for some of the discrepancy between the old genetic data and the new. They emphasize that it will be important that any new crops that are developed be selected for low plastid pollen.

"We expect that there are nuclear genes which control the probability of plastids finding their way into pollen, but we have the tools that can be used to identify those genetic lines in every crop that will transmit plastids only at a low frequency," Maliga said.

Related Links
Rutgers
Farming Today - Suppliers and Technology



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Compost Reduces P Factor In Broccoli, Eggplant, Cabbage Trial
Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jun 05, 2007
Broccoli, eggplant, cabbage and capsicum grown with compost made from recycled garden offcuts have produced equivalent yields to those cultivated by conventional farm practice, but without the subsequent build up of phosphorus. NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) scientists have found very high levels of phosphorus and low levels of organic carbon in vegetable growing soils, during a major research project designed to help Sydney Basin vegetable growers significantly improve soil quality and productivity.







  • Rockwell Collins And ARINC Sign Agreement For Broadband Offering
  • Academic Group Releases Plan To Share Power Over Internet Root Zone Keys
  • Satellite Enables Mobile Wireless Broadband Services To Conventional Devices
  • Singapore Airlines Selects Rockwell Collins Satellite Communications

  • Delta 2 Launch To Launch COSMO-SkyMed Satellite
  • Russia Launches Four Satellites Into Orbit For Globalstar
  • Proton-M Carrier With US Telecom Satellite To Lift Off In June
  • Arianespace Maintains Launch Campaign Pace As Another Ariane 5 GEO Truck Takes Form

  • Airlines Pledge Emissions Cuts But Warn EU Curbs Could Jeopardise Sector
  • Sandia And Boeing Collaborate To Develop Aircraft Fuel Cell Applications
  • Australia Fears Jet Flight Guilt Could Hit Tourism
  • Nondestructive Testing Keeps Bagram Aircraft Flying

  • Northrop Grumman To Begin Developing New Satellite Communications System For B-2 Bomber
  • Boeing Demonstrates Integrated Voice, Data And Video Services With TSAT Tests
  • Boeing Completes Critical Wideband Global SATCOM Satellite Tests
  • Lockheed Martin Completes Significant System Design Milestone On TMOS Program

  • Tether Origami
  • Scientists Create Fire-Safe, Green Plastic
  • Canon And Toshiba Delay Launch Of New SED Televisions
  • Quasicrystals: Somewhere Between Order And Disorder

  • Hall Appoints Feeney To Top GOP Position On Space And Aeronautics Subcommittee
  • Dodgen Joins Northrop Grumman As Vice President Of Strategy For Missile Systems Business
  • Townsend To Lead Ball Aerospace Exploration Systems In Huntsville
  • NASA Nobel Prize Recipient To Lead Chief Scientist Office

  • Kalam Calls For Development Of Satellite Systems For Entire Humanity
  • Boeing Launches Italian Earth Observation Satellite
  • Envisat Captures First Image Of Sargassum From Space
  • US Experts Predict Nine Atlantic Hurricanes This Season

  • Albertis Seeks Share In Galileo Partner Hispasat As Surrey Welcomes EU Support
  • EU Agrees Galileo Needs Public Bailout
  • EU To Back Galileo Bailout And But Faces Tough Talks On New Funds
  • Latest AeroAstro Asset Tracking Satellite Downlink Decoder Ready For Deployment

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement