How Genetics Affects What Plants We Grow and How We Grow Them Peggy G. Lemaux Cooperative Extension Specialist UC Berkeley

CELLS

Cell Wall Nucleus

Dividing cell Chromosomes

Chromosome Genes

Triticum aestivum Modern bread variety Triticum monococcum Ancient variety How is a new plant variety created by classical breeding?

Chemical units represented by alphabetic letters

Random retention of information from each parent of wheat

Yield Increase by year

Used for Marker- Assisted Breeding wheat 1700 books (or 1.7 million pages) Genomics

SOURCE: “Body announces plan to develop drought-tolerant maize for Africa”, April 1, 2008, Checkbiotech.org Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) uses marker-assisted breeding and biotechnology to develop African maize varieties

equivalent to a gene Inserts randomly in genome Genetic Engineering Methods

GMO Genetically Modified Organism GEO Genetically Engineered Organism LMO Living Modified Organism rDNA Recombinant DNA Biotechnology TERMS USED

Classical Breeding Uses plant machinery in plant Uses plant machinery in laboratory Genetic Engineering compared to Gene exchange is random involving entire genome Gene exchange is specific, single or a few genes Only between closely related or within species Source of gene from any organism When/where genes expressed not controlled by breeder When/where gene expressed can be controlled precisely

SOURCE: NCFAP; USDA GE Corn 73% of 2007 acreage (Insect Resistant: 25% Herbicide resistant: 21% Stacked gene: 15%) 1% of corn with Bt (ECB) + Bt (rootworm) + herbicide GE Canola 75% of 2004 acreage GE Cotton 87% of 2007 acreage (Insect Resistant: 18% Herbicide resistant: 26% Stacked gene: 39%) GE Soybean 91% of 2007 acreage (Herbicide resistant: 89%) GE Alfalfa ~1.5% of 2007 acreage

SOURCE: /

Global Area of Biotech Crops, 1996 to 2007: Industrial and Developing Countries (Million Hectares) Total Industrial Developing Source: Clive James, industrial and developing countries in order of acreage: US, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India, China, Paraguay, South Africa, Uruguay, Philippines, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, France, Honduras, Czech Republic, Portugal, Germany, Slovakia. Romania, Poland. 282 million acres worldwide: comparable in size to combined areas of CA and TX

Estimated 75% of Processed Foods Have GE Ingredients

GE Papaya GE Squash Only a few whole foods on the market are genetically engineered GE Sweet Corn

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE?

SOURCE: Arcadia Biosciences develops canola that uses 50% less nitrogen fertilizer

SOURCE: Rivero, R.M., Kojima, M., Gepstein, A., Sakakibara, H., Mittler, R., Gepstein, S. and Blumwald, E Delayed leaf senescence induces extreme drought tolerance in a flowering plant. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104: Engineered drought tolerance leads to vigorous growth of plants after prolonged drought while control plants died

Mitigating food allergies, like peanut, soy and wheat, through engineering of plants

SOURCE: Niederberger et al., Vaccination with genetically engineered allergens prevents progression of allergic disease. PNAS early edition (August 13, 2004) Genetically engineered pollen reduces allergy symptoms in sufferers

SOURCE: Fierobe et al Action of Designer Cellulosomes on Homogeneous Versus Complex Substrates: CONTROLLED INCORPORATION OF THREE DISTINCT ENZYMES INTO A DEFINED TRIFUNCTIONAL SCAFFOLDIN. J. Biol. Chem. 280: Genetic engineering used to improve breakdown of global wastepaper glut

SOURCE: Doty, S.L., James, C.A., Moore, A.L., Vajzovic, A., Singleton, G.L., Ma, C., Khan, Z., Xi, G., Kang, J.W., Park, J.Y., Meilan, R., Strauss, S.H., Wilkerson, J., Farin, F. and Strand. S.E Enhanced phytoremediation of volatile environmental pollutants with transgenic trees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104: Engineered poplar removes environmental pollutants through roots and air Removal of carbon tetrachloride

ENERGY FARMS

What is the U.S. regulatory process that governs these engineered plants?

Field testing -Permits -Notifications Determination of non-regulated status U.S. Regulatory Agencies (based oversight on existing regulations) USDAFDAEPA Food safety Feed safety Pesticidal plants -tolerance exemption -registrations Herbicide registration

Safety of engineered food: Is it as safe as a conventional food? Concept of substantial equivalence: Modified food has essentially all characteristics of nonmodified food with respect to food and feed value except SOURCE: Safety of Genetically Engineered Foods: Aproaches to Assessing Unintended Health Effects Natl Acad Press for the introduced genetic material and the products made from it. These products have to be tested and analyzed separately. Regulators look at, for example, specificity and mode of action of protein, source of protein, its stability during digestion and processing

Substantial

SOURCE: Catchpole et al Hierarchical metabolomics demonstrates substantial compositional similarity between genetically modified and conventional potato crops. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 105: “… apart from targeted changes, these GM potatoes in this study appear substantially equivalent to traditional cultivars. ” Hierarchical metabolomics demonstrates substantial compositional similarity between genetically modified and conventional potato crops

Precautionary principle The assumption that experimentation should only proceed where there is a guarantee that the outcome will not be harmful.