What are Genetically Modified Crops and how are they Made?

1. What are Genetically Modified Crops and how are they Made? Professor Idah Sithole-Niang Department of Biochemistry, UZ GMASSURE - UZ

2. Outline • Definitions • Concept of Genetic Modification • Agricultural context • Why biotech? • Challenges/Opportunities • Status & specific opportunities in Africa • Non-GM products

3. Definitions • Biotechnology is the use of biological systems to create goods and services • Gene manipulation • Genetic engineering • Genetic modification • Transgenesis • LMOs: living modified organisms • GMOs: genetically modified organisms

4. Concept of Genetic Modification through plant transformation • Identify genes of interest for a trait(eg. insect resistant genes) • Insert into an organism of interest(eg. Insert insect resistance gene into a susceptible plant to make it resistant) – very common with crop plants • Genes can come from a variety of sources: • From the same plant species • From wild relatives • From another crop • From bacteria or another organism When genes come from different sources, there are concerns.

5. Agricultural context Cross breeding and induced mutation are important tools of plant breeding, they also have limitations: Cross breeding only works between related plants. For some species cross breeding is extremely difficult. Cross breeding can take very long. ‘Linkage drag” Mutation is very undirected and unpredictable, HORIZONS sprl

6. Traditional plant breeding x Related variety “elite” variety Genetic Modification  any gene source Genetic Modification of Plants HORIZONS sprl

7. Genetic Modification of Plants Technical advantages: Specific Faster Possible with plants that do not cross sexually Much greater reservoir of genes HORIZONS sprl

8. Generating Varieties of Agricultural Plants and Animals • Conventional breeding • Crossing of two varieties with useful characteristics • Hybrids • Tissue culture • Cloning • Chemical mutagenesis • Irradiation • In vitro fertilization • Artificial insemination

9. Using Radiation to Create Mutant Varieties of Plants X Rays Gamma Rays Grapefruit Rice Wheat Peppermint

10. Breeders, geneticists, and genetic engineers work with genes Genes carry the information that is passed from generation to generation. They are the blueprint of life Anything that is alive has genes. The information of genes is carried in the form of DNA molecules. The ‘language’ of DNA, is the same regardless of the organism – A key point for genetic engineering DNA molecule

11. Breeders, geneticists, and genetic engineers work with genes Genes carry the information that is passed from generation to generation. They are the blueprint of life DNA molecule

12. Breeders, geneticists, and genetic engineers work with genes Anything that is alive has genes. The information of genes is carried in the form of DNA molecules. DNA molecule

13. Breeders, geneticists, and genetic engineers work with genes The ‘language’ of DNA is spelt out in a simple alphabet of 4 letters A, C, G, T DNA molecule

14. Breeders, geneticists, and genetic engineers work with genes The ‘language’ of DNA, is the same regardless of the organism – A key point for genetic engineering DNA molecule

15. You and Your DNA How much of your DNA sequence do you share with a banana? A: None B: 1% C: 10% D: 50% E: 90% Do you know that humans share about 50% of their DNA with a banana! Good grief!: I’m a banana! Sigma ad 8/2008

16. Getting genes into cells – plant transformation 2. Put the engineered gene into cells of the desired plant

17. Step X step Dr. Mufandaedza

18. Regulation of GM crops moves through different stages of crop development and deployment General release Full safety assessment Confined Field Trials Growth Chamber or greenhouse Approval General Release Application Lab CFT Application

19. 1. Why biotechnology? • World population will reach 9 billion by 2040 • Some undernourished either in terms of both quantity or quality • Arable land shrinking due to erosion, pollution, and other forms of land use • Increasing shortage of fresh water for drinking and irrigation • Climate change will increase the need for keeping up with well adapted crops

20. 2. Why biotechnology ? • Increasing demand for fuels and chemicals from renewable sources as oil reserves become depleted and oil-based commodities more expensive • 80% of world caloric intake comes from only 4 crops • Not a silver bullet but can contribute significantly to finding solutions to these challenges

21. 1.Challenges • Need to produce: • More crops per hectare • More crop per liter of water • Marginal- • Arid- or Saline land

22. 2. Challenges Enhance: • Nutritional value of crops • Crop diversity Reduce: • Dependency on pesticides & fertilizers • Post-harvest losses during storage & transport • Soil erosion

23. Do these challenges apply to Zimbabwe? What are the Opportunities'?

24. 1. Opportunities/pipeline Biotic stress: Disease resistance • Fungal resistance – Banana/Black sigatoka • Virus resistance – banana, cassava, yam, papaya, groundnut, sweetpotato & tomato • Bacterial resistance – rice, cassava, banana & potato • Pest resistance/field & storage

25. 2. Opportunities/pipeline Abiotic stress tolerance • Drought tolerance –maize (WEMA), wheat rice sorghum etc • Salinity tolerance- maize, wheat, tobacco, sorghum, rice etc (NUWEST)

26. 3. Opportunities/pipeline Enhanced nutrition: rice, cassava & sorghum –(pro-vitamin A, Fe, Zn, Vit E) • Banana- pro-vitamin A & Fe, wheat- Fe • Maize, potatoes, sorghum & cassava (protein quality). Mustard pro-vitamin A • Others: reducing cyanogenic compounds in cassava & changing available P by reducing phytates

27. You mean there are all these wonderful Opportunities!!!!?? Why the controversy? What are the issues?? Mr Dhlamini

28. Any Good examples in the BRICS? BRAZIL, CHINA & INDIA Prof CJC

29. What would it feel like if the DR & SS had $1 billion budget? What would it feel like if the NBA reviewed, 14 applications annually???

30. Whos Who In Africa? and where are they with their regulation? Dr. Mufandaedza

31. Figure 7. Pod damage by M. vitrata Developing high quality Pod-borer-resistant cowpea varieties • Problem • Insect damage in the field and in storage • Losses can be up to 80%. • Frequent insecticide sprays required • Host plant resistance is a low-cost and environmentally friendly control measure for the farmer • Product • High yielding cowpea varieties with increased resistance to insect pests - Bt-Cowpea • (Pod borer- Resistant Cowpea)

32. Resistance to Banana Bacterial Wilt for East African Highland Bananas Constraint: Banana bacterial wilt (BBW) disease caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum (Xcm)

33. Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) • Africa drought-prone • Maize is the most widely grown staple crop in Africa – affected by drought • In 2003 WFP spent $0.57b on food emergency due to drought in Africa Recorded droughts between 1971 and 2000, and the number of people affected

34. Drought tolerant Maize

35. Is there a drought in Zimbabwe?? Do some of these solutions apply??

36. Confined Field Trial to Evaluate Transgenic Cassava for Resistance to Cassava Mosaic Disease - D3/2/NBC/4/08 Susceptible (without the gene) Gene silencing line (with gene to control CMD)

37. Symptoms of CBSD at Harvest: CBSD Study Symptomless leaves and stems of best test line (1-718-001) Severe streaking and dieback on control line without gene

38. What will you have for dinner???

39. Symptoms of CBSD at Harvest: CBSD study Best test line; No rotting of the storage roots Control line without the gene; severe rotting of roots

40. Eggplant (Brinjal or Talong) Fruit and Shoot Borer This damage is prevented by Bt.

41. Bt cotton CFT in Malawi 2013Mr. Mhandu

42. Biotech crops on trial in Africa • RSA: potatoes, sugarcane, maize • WEMA : RSA, Kenya, Uganda • Kenya: cotton, maize, SP, cassava • Egypt: cotton, potato, wheat, cucumber, melon • Uganda: banana, cotton ,cassava ,maize, rice • Nigeria - cowpea, cassava, sorghum • Burkina Faso: cowpea, rice • Malawi – cotton, cowpea , banana

43. New Breeding TechnologiesNon- GM Technologies Need we even dream???

44. Non-GM: Genome editing technologies • CRISPRs: clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats • ZFNs: Zinc finger nucleases • TALENs : transcription activator-like effector nucleases

45. Zinc Finger Nucleases • Successfully used to introduce herbicide tolerance = WEED CONTROL

46. TALENs • Used to delete and cut out a gene in rice that confers susceptibility to bacterial blight disease

47. CRISPRs • Chinese Academy of the Sciences developed a powdery mildew-resistant wheat through advanced gene editing • Example of modification of a food crop without using insertion foreign genes

48. Three Requirements for growth of GM crops in Africa • Political will and support from lead countries, governments and institutions • Establishment of responsible and efficient regulatory systems, that are appropriate for Africa given the limited resources • Communication with Society transparently and accurately

49. Thank you for your attention

50. Acknowledgments • Clive James, ISAAA • Cholani Weebadde, Michigan State University • Peter Davies, Cornell University • Program for Biosafety Systems • African Biosafety Network of Expertise • GMASSURE • African Agricultural Technology Foundation