How Genetics Affects What Plants We Grow and How We Grow Them

1. DNA in your GARDEN How Genetics Affects What Plants We Grow and How We Grow Them Peggy G. Lemaux Cooperative Extension Specialist UC Berkeley

2. Tour d'Onion

5. CELLS

6. Cell Wall Nucleus

7. Dividing cell Chromosomes

8. Chromosome Genes

9. How is a new plant variety created by classical breeding? Triticum monococcumAncient variety Triticum aestivum Modern bread variety

10. Chemical units represented by alphabetic letters

11. of wheat Random retention of information from each parent

12. Yield Increase by year

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

14. Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) uses marker-assisted breeding and biotechnology to develop African maize varieties SOURCE: “Body announces plan to develop drought-tolerant maize for Africa”, April 1, 2008, Checkbiotech.org http://www.checkbiotech.org/green_News_Genetics.aspx?infoId=17403

15. Genetic Engineering Methods Inserts randomly in genome equivalent to a gene

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

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

18. 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 Alfalfa ~1.5% of 2007 acreage GE Soybean 91% of 2007 acreage (Herbicide resistant: 89%) GE Cotton 87% of 2007 acreage (Insect Resistant: 18% Herbicide resistant: 26% Stacked gene: 39%) SOURCE: NCFAP; USDA

19. SOURCE: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/BiotechCrops/

20. 140 120 Total Industrial 100 Developing 80 60 40 20 0 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Global Area of Biotech Crops, 1996 to 2007: Industrial and Developing Countries (Million Hectares) 282 million acres worldwide: comparable in size to combined areas of CA and TX 23 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. Source: Clive James, 2008

21. Estimated 75% of Processed Foods Have GE Ingredients

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

23. WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE?

24. Arcadia Biosciences develops canola that uses 50% less nitrogen fertilizer SOURCE: http://archives.foodsafety.ksu.edu/agnet/2007/4-2007/agnet_april_10.htm#story0

25. Engineered drought tolerance leads to vigorous growth of plants after prolonged drought while control plants died SOURCE: Rivero, R.M., Kojima, M., Gepstein, A., Sakakibara, H., Mittler, R., Gepstein, S. and Blumwald, E. 2007. Delayed leaf senescence induces extreme drought tolerance in a flowering plant. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104: 19631-19636.

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

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

29. Genetic engineering used to improve breakdown of global wastepaper glut SOURCE: Fierobe et al. 2005. Action of Designer Cellulosomes on Homogeneous Versus Complex Substrates: CONTROLLED INCORPORATION OF THREE DISTINCT ENZYMES INTO A DEFINED TRIFUNCTIONAL SCAFFOLDIN. J. Biol. Chem. 280:16325-16334.

30. Removal of carbon tetrachloride Engineered poplar removes environmental pollutants through roots and air 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. 2007. Enhanced phytoremediation of volatile environmental pollutants with transgenic trees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104:16816-16821.

31. ENERGY FARMS

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

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

34. Concept of substantial equivalence: Modified food has essentially all characteristics of nonmodified food with respect to food and feed value except Safety of engineered food: Is it as safe as a conventional food? 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 SOURCE: Safety of Genetically Engineered Foods: Aproaches to Assessing Unintended Health Effects 2004. Natl Acad Press

35. Substantial

37. Hierarchical metabolomics demonstrates substantial compositional similarity between genetically modified and conventional potato crops “…apart from targeted changes, these GM potatoes in this study appear substantially equivalent to traditional cultivars.” SOURCE: Catchpole et al. 2005. Hierarchical metabolomics demonstrates substantial compositional similarity between genetically modified and conventional potato crops. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 105: 14458-14462.

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