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Plants help clean up toxic soils
trends in plant science Headlines
Arabidopsis genome nearly sequenced
Exhaust fumes seriously damage crops
Ninety percent of the Arabidopsis genome has been sequenced and should be completed well ahead of the original 2004 target date. The practical payoff will come when its sequence is used as a template for sequencing the four times larger rice genome, which should be completed in the next 3 years.
John OllerenshawÕs (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) results from a 10-year study show that because of the effect of exhaust fumes and ozone, the annual UK wheat yield is dropping by ~13% a year, oil seed rape (Brassica napus) yield is falling by ~14% a year and white clover by ~33% a year. Ozone pollution is caused primarily by road traffic and power stations. Nitrogen oxide emissions react with oxygen in the air to create ozone.
Farmer denies canola fraud Monsanto (St Louis, MO, USA) has used private investigators to check on farmers it suspected were using its herbicide-resistant seed without permission and also asked other companies to supply seed samples of canola (Brassica napus) from farmers being investigated. In a court case in Canada, a Saskatchewan farmer, Percy Schmeiser, is now accused of growing MonsantoÕs Roundup Readyª canola without paying the licence fees. In his defense, it was argued that Monsanto lost the exclusive rights to its patent on the Roundup resistance gene once pollen from canola plants containing the gene escaped into the fields around them. Also it was argued that the simple presence of Roundup Ready canola in SchmeiserÕs field does not constitute a patent infringement because he did not spray his crop with the herbicide.
Climate changes leads to unstable agriculture Fluctuations in crop yields, prices and farm income over the past 30 years can be linked to global warming according to a study by researchers at Columbia Earth Institute and Harvard Medical School (USA). It is believed that the earth has been warming for a century, and this trend has accelerated over the past 30 years. Although higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide associated with global warming could help increase crop yields, climate change also poses risks. Droughts and floods not only harm plants directly, but also increase the spread of insects and crop diseases.
Plants help clean up toxic soils
Fig. 1. Alpine pennycress (Thlaspi caerulescens) cleans up soils by removing the excess zinc and cadmium. Photograph by Keith Weller, courtesy of USDA, USA.
Leon V. Kochian (Agricultural Research Service, Ithaca, NY, USA) studies plants such as alpine pennycress (Thlaspi caerulescens; Fig. 1), which thrives on soils contaminated with high levels of zinc and cadmium, and Amaranthus retroflexus, which removes up to 40 times more radiocesium from soil than other plant species tested. A typical plant can accumulate ~100 parts per million (ppm) zinc and 1 ppm cadmium. Thlaspi can accumulate up to 30 000 ppm zinc and 1500 ppm cadmium in its shoots while exhibiting few or no toxicity symptoms. A normal plant can be poisoned with as little as 1000 ppm of zinc or 20 to 50 ppm of cadmium in its shoots. Rufus Chaney and colleagues (USDA, Beltsville, MD, USA) have patented a way to use plants to sequester nickel, cobalt and other metals. Alpine pennycress take up metals through their roots and store them in their leaves to protect themselves from chewing insects and plant diseases. Ashes of plants grown on a high-zinc soil yield 30Ð40% zinc, the equivalent of highgrade ore. (http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jun00/ soil0600.htm).
1360 - 1385/00/$ Ð see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Canadian GM tree projects Canadian government scientists are testing the first GM spruce (Picea) engineered to be pest-resistant, to find out what happens to the implanted genes as the tree grows. This work is part of studies leading to GM varieties that will not interbreed with wild trees. Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. (Alberta, Canada) is running a field test with hybrid poplars (Populus) that are resistant to herbicides.
Scientists endorse biotech crops In a resolution passed by its membership, the Society for In vitro Biology (SIVB), an organization of ~1200 scientists, endorsed the commercialization of genetically engineered crops at its annual meeting in San Diego (USA). The Society identified a Ôtop sixÕ list of facts about which the public should be aware: (1) the vast majority of the crops used worldwide are the product of genetic modification and selection. (2) Genetic engineering extends the plant breeding techniques used during the past century. (3) The first generation of genetically engineered crops has provided several environmental benefits. (4) Additional research on genetic engineering is leading to a significant improvement in quality of life for people around the world. (5) Every commercial product of genetic engineering needs to be evaluated based on its unique merits and any potential risks to the consumer or to the environment. (6) The SIVB supports the current science-based approach for the evaluation and regulation of genetically engineered crops (http://www.sivb.org).
Arabidopsis polymorphism data released The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) offers a comprehensive list of more than 39 000 polymorphisms via a Web site (http://www. arabidopsis.org/cereon). The data, originating from Cereon Genomicsª (Cambridge, MA, USA) should facilitate the isolation of genes by map-based cloning.
Internet news media, edited by Gert E. de Vries.
September 2000, Vol. 5, No. 9
367
Arabidopsis genome nearly sequenced
Exhaust fumes seriously damage crops
Ninety percent of the Arabidopsis genome has been sequenced and should be completed well ahead of the original 2004 target date. The practical payoff will come when its sequence is used as a template for sequencing the four times larger rice genome, which should be completed in the next 3 years.
John OllerenshawÕs (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) results from a 10-year study show that because of the effect of exhaust fumes and ozone, the annual UK wheat yield is dropping by ~13% a year, oil seed rape (Brassica napus) yield is falling by ~14% a year and white clover by ~33% a year. Ozone pollution is caused primarily by road traffic and power stations. Nitrogen oxide emissions react with oxygen in the air to create ozone.
Farmer denies canola fraud Monsanto (St Louis, MO, USA) has used private investigators to check on farmers it suspected were using its herbicide-resistant seed without permission and also asked other companies to supply seed samples of canola (Brassica napus) from farmers being investigated. In a court case in Canada, a Saskatchewan farmer, Percy Schmeiser, is now accused of growing MonsantoÕs Roundup Readyª canola without paying the licence fees. In his defense, it was argued that Monsanto lost the exclusive rights to its patent on the Roundup resistance gene once pollen from canola plants containing the gene escaped into the fields around them. Also it was argued that the simple presence of Roundup Ready canola in SchmeiserÕs field does not constitute a patent infringement because he did not spray his crop with the herbicide.
Climate changes leads to unstable agriculture Fluctuations in crop yields, prices and farm income over the past 30 years can be linked to global warming according to a study by researchers at Columbia Earth Institute and Harvard Medical School (USA). It is believed that the earth has been warming for a century, and this trend has accelerated over the past 30 years. Although higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide associated with global warming could help increase crop yields, climate change also poses risks. Droughts and floods not only harm plants directly, but also increase the spread of insects and crop diseases.
Plants help clean up toxic soils
Fig. 1. Alpine pennycress (Thlaspi caerulescens) cleans up soils by removing the excess zinc and cadmium. Photograph by Keith Weller, courtesy of USDA, USA.
Leon V. Kochian (Agricultural Research Service, Ithaca, NY, USA) studies plants such as alpine pennycress (Thlaspi caerulescens; Fig. 1), which thrives on soils contaminated with high levels of zinc and cadmium, and Amaranthus retroflexus, which removes up to 40 times more radiocesium from soil than other plant species tested. A typical plant can accumulate ~100 parts per million (ppm) zinc and 1 ppm cadmium. Thlaspi can accumulate up to 30 000 ppm zinc and 1500 ppm cadmium in its shoots while exhibiting few or no toxicity symptoms. A normal plant can be poisoned with as little as 1000 ppm of zinc or 20 to 50 ppm of cadmium in its shoots. Rufus Chaney and colleagues (USDA, Beltsville, MD, USA) have patented a way to use plants to sequester nickel, cobalt and other metals. Alpine pennycress take up metals through their roots and store them in their leaves to protect themselves from chewing insects and plant diseases. Ashes of plants grown on a high-zinc soil yield 30Ð40% zinc, the equivalent of highgrade ore. (http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jun00/ soil0600.htm).
1360 - 1385/00/$ Ð see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Canadian GM tree projects Canadian government scientists are testing the first GM spruce (Picea) engineered to be pest-resistant, to find out what happens to the implanted genes as the tree grows. This work is part of studies leading to GM varieties that will not interbreed with wild trees. Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. (Alberta, Canada) is running a field test with hybrid poplars (Populus) that are resistant to herbicides.
Scientists endorse biotech crops In a resolution passed by its membership, the Society for In vitro Biology (SIVB), an organization of ~1200 scientists, endorsed the commercialization of genetically engineered crops at its annual meeting in San Diego (USA). The Society identified a Ôtop sixÕ list of facts about which the public should be aware: (1) the vast majority of the crops used worldwide are the product of genetic modification and selection. (2) Genetic engineering extends the plant breeding techniques used during the past century. (3) The first generation of genetically engineered crops has provided several environmental benefits. (4) Additional research on genetic engineering is leading to a significant improvement in quality of life for people around the world. (5) Every commercial product of genetic engineering needs to be evaluated based on its unique merits and any potential risks to the consumer or to the environment. (6) The SIVB supports the current science-based approach for the evaluation and regulation of genetically engineered crops (http://www.sivb.org).
Arabidopsis polymorphism data released The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) offers a comprehensive list of more than 39 000 polymorphisms via a Web site (http://www. arabidopsis.org/cereon). The data, originating from Cereon Genomicsª (Cambridge, MA, USA) should facilitate the isolation of genes by map-based cloning.
Internet news media, edited by Gert E. de Vries.
September 2000, Vol. 5, No. 9
367