Suchergebnisse

There is no doubt that soybean is the most important crop for Argentina, with a planted surface that rose 11,000,000 hectares and a production of around 35,000,000 metric tons. During the 1990s, there was a significant agriculture transformation in the country, motorize by the adoption of transgenic crops (soy-bean, maize, and cotton) under the no-tillage system. The expansion of this model has been spread not only in the Pampas but also in very rich areas with high biodiversity, opening a new agricultural border to important eco-regions like the Yungas, Great Chaco, and the Mesopotamian Forest. Transgenic cropping is a powerful technology. This produced relevant transformations over the environment and society where it is allowed. Migration, concentration of agribusiness, and loss of food sovereignty are some of the social results. Landscape transformation in the rural sector is evident, and the appearance of tolerance weeds to glyphosate is a reality. Nutrient depletion, soil-structure degradation, potential desertification, and loss of species are other consequences on the environmental level.

In the European Union (EU), anti-GMO (genetically modified organisms) groups have a strong presence. The EU market is not favorable to GM products. Retailers are hesitant to sell products with GM labelling. Conventional and organic farmers, environmentalists, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are working to enlarge GM-free zones. Although there are scientific societies arguing for the benefits of biotechnology or GMOs, many major EU member states like Italy, France, and Germany have banned GM maize crop for cultivation.

Banana (Musa sp.) represents one of the most important world food crops after maize, rice, wheat and cassava. Many pests and diseases have significantly affected banana cultivation. Banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW), caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum, is one of the most important diseases and currently considered as the biggest threat to banana production in the Great Lakes region of Africa including Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi. The pathogen is highly contagious and its spread has endangered the livelihood of millions of farmers who rely on banana for food and income. The development of disease resistant bananas remains a high priority since farmers are reluctant to employ labor-intensive disease control measures and there is no host plant resistance among banana cultivars. The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in partnership with the National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO), Uganda and the African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF), have developed hundreds of transgenic bananas constitutively expressing the Hypersensitive Response Assisting Protein (Hrap) or Plant Ferredoxin Like Protein (Pflp) gene originated from sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum). These transgenic lines have exhibited strong resistance to BXW in the laboratory and screen house tests. The best 65 resistant lines were planted in a confined field trial in October 2010 at NARL, Kawanda, Uganda after approval from the National Biosafety Committee. This is a significant step toward development of transgenic banana cultivars resistant to BXW, which will boost the available arsenal to fight this epidemic disease and save livelihoods in Africa. These transgenic lines are under evaluation for disease resistance and agronomic performance in field conditions. This technology may also provide effective control to other bacterial diseases such as moko or blood disease of banana occurring in other parts of the world. ; Peer Review

This review aims to provide an overview of the next generation transgenic plants with improved nutritional composition, their application and need to assess the nutritional value by comparison with their conventional types. Synthetic biology is a rapidly growing research area, including a variety of disciplines - engineering, chemistry, physics, computer science and bioinformatics. Can products of synthetic biology to be considered as genetically modified organisms, and fall within the scope of this definition? What are the challenges associated with assessing their safety? ; BG; en; EFSAfocalpoint@mzh.government.bg

Alzheimer's disease (AD) constitutes the most prominent form of dementia among elderly individuals worldwide. Disease modeling using murine transgenic mice was first initiated thanks to the discovery of heritable mutations in amyloid precursor protein (APP) and presenilins (PS) genes. However, due to the repeated failure of translational applications from animal models to human patients, along with the recent advances in genetic susceptibility and our current understanding on disease biology, these models have evolved over time in an attempt to better reproduce the complexity of this devastating disease and improve their applicability. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview about the major pathological elements of human AD (plaques, tauopathy, synaptic damage, neuronal death, neuroinflammation and glial dysfunction), discussing the knowledge that available mouse models have provided about the mechanisms underlying human disease. Moreover, we highlight the pros and cons of current models, and the revolution offered by the concomitant use of transgenic mice and omics technologies that may lead to a more rapid improvement of the present modeling batter ; This research was funded by INSTITUTO DE SALUD CARLOS III (ISCiii) of Spain, cofinanced by FEDER funds from European Union, through grants PI21/00915 (to AG) and PI21/00914 (to JV); by JUNTA DE ANDALUCIA CONSEJERÍA DE ECONOMÍA Y CONOCIMIENTO through grants UMA18-FEDERJA-211 (to AG), UMA20-FEDERJA-104 (to IMG), P18-RT-2233 (to AG) and US-1262734 (to JV) co-financed by Programa Operativo FEDER 2014–2020 and CONSEJERIA DE SALUD grant PI-0276-2018 (to JAGL); by SPANISH MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND INNOVATION grant PID2019-108911RA-100 (to DBV), BEATRIZ GALINDO PROGRAM BAGAL18/00052 (to DBV), Alzheimer Association AARG-22-928219 (to DBV), grant PID2019-107090RA-100 (to IMG) and RAMON Y CAJAL PROGRAM RYC-2017-21879 (to IMG); and by MALAGA UNIVERSITY grant B1-2019_07 (to ESM), grant B1-2020_04 (to JAGL), grant B1-2019_06 (to IMG) and NASARD grant 27565 2018 (to ...

Discrimination of genetically modified organisms is increasingly demanded by legislation and consumers worldwide. The feasibility of a non-destructive discrimination of glyphosate-resistant and conventional soybean seeds and their hybrid descendants was examined by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy system combined with chemometrics. Principal component analysis (PCA), least squares-support vector machines (LS-SVM) and PCA-back propagation neural network (PCA-BPNN) models with the first and second derivative and standard normal variate (SNV) transformation pre-treatments were applied to classify soybean seeds based on genotype. Results demonstrated clear differences among glyphosate-resistant, hybrid descendants and conventional non-transformed soybean seeds could easily be visualized with an excellent classification (accuracy was 88.33% in validation set) using the LS-SVM and the spectra with SNV pre-treatment. The results indicated that THz spectroscopy techniques together with chemometrics would be a promising technique to distinguish transgenic soybean seeds from non-transformed seeds with high efficiency and without any major sample preparation.

A carboxyl-terminally modified firefly luciferase, encoded as a gene fusion to the neomycin phosphotransferase gene (which confers kanamycin resistance), was found to be enzymatically active for both enzymes when expressed in bacteria and in transgenic plants. A military-type starlight vision system was used to conveniently analyze the pattern of gene expression in transgenic tobacco plant leaves. Transgenic tobacco plants which expressed luciferase uniformly in all areas of the leaf, and assays for luciferin, demonstrated that luciferin rapidly penetrates all regions of a tobacco leaf in at least two dimensions. Depending on the test gene structure or, presumably, on the transferred DNA (T-DNA) insertional context, other transgenic plants were obtained that expressed luciferase with a wide range of nonuniform patterns from nominally the same cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter. For instance, the veins can be dark, while only the interveinal regions of the leaf lamina glow, or only the small capillary veins glow, or only the major veins glow. Local and/or systemic induction in response to wounding was also demonstrated.

The potential for genetically modified (GM) crops to threaten biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture is substantial. Megadiverse countries and centers of origin and/or diversity of crop species are particularly vulnerable regions. The future of sustainable agriculture may be irreversibly jeopardized by contamination of in situ preserved genetic resources threatening a strategic resource for the world—s food security. Because GM crops are truly biological novelties, their release into the environment poses concerns about the unpredictable ecological and evolutionary responses that GM species themselves and the interacting biota may express in the medium and long term. One of the consequences of these processes may be a generalized contamination of natural flora by GM traits and a degradation and erosion of the commonly owned genetic resources available today for agricultural development. GM plants carrying pharmaceutical and industrial traits will pose even more dangerous risks if released in the environment.

With the increase of glyphosate tolerant transgenic soybean cultivation areas, this substance has become the main herbicide for this crop, its use may interfere in the metabolism and nutritional aspects of transgenic plants. In this scenario, the objective of this work was to verify concentrations of amino acid valine and in glyphosate tolerant soybean cultivar. Comparing the averages between protein and total amino acid levels in transgenic soybean exposed and not exposed to glyphosate, it was found that there was no significant difference by Tukey test at 5% probability. In conclusion, the data indicate that although the transgenic event affects some routes, amino acid synthesis was not affected nor in nutritional terms at the glyphosate doses studied.

Background: The safety issues regarding foods derived from genetically modified (GM) plants are central to their acceptance into the food supply. The potential allergenicity of proteins newly introduced in GM foods is a major safety concern. Objective: We sought to monitor, in potentially sensitive human populations, the allergenicity effects of 5 GM materials obtained from sources with no allergenic potential and already under commercialization in the European Union. Methods: We have performed skin prick tests with protein extracts prepared from transgenic maize (MON810, Bt11, T25, Bt176) and soya (Roundup Ready) samples and from nontransgenic control samples in 2 sensitive groups: children with food and inhalant allergy and individuals with asthmarhinitis. We have also tested IgE immunoblot reactivity of sera from patients with food allergy to soya (Roundup Ready) and maize (MON810, Bt11, Bt176) samples, as well as to the pure transgenic proteins (CryIA[b] and CP4 5-enolpyruvylshikimate- 3-phosphate synthase). Results: None of the individuals undergoing tests reacted differentially to the transgenic and nontransgenic samples under study. None of the volunteers tested presented detectable IgE antibodies against pure transgenic proteins. Conclusion: The transgenic products under testing seem to be safe in terms of allergenic potential. We propose postmarket testing as an important screening strategy for putative allergic sensitization to proteins introduced in transgenic plants. ; Supported by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, research project SDH.SP.I.01.11 and by Comissão de Fomento da Investigação em Cuidados de Saúde, research project no. 186/01

The books on "Safety Assessment of Transgenic Organisms" constitute a compilation of the OECD Biosafety Consensus Documents. When published, Volume 1 and 2 contained the documents issued before 2006; Volume 3 and 4 are a continuation of the compilation up to 2010. The OECD Biosafety Consensus Documents identify elements of scientific information used in the environmental safety and risk assessment of transgenic organisms which are common to OECD member countries and some non members associated with the work. This is intended to encourage information sharing, promote harmonised practices, and prevent duplication of effort among countries. These books offer ready access to those consensus documents which have been issued on the website thus far. As such, it should be of value to applicants for commercial uses of transgenic organisms (crops, trees, microorganisms), to regulators and risk assessors in national authorities, as well as the wider scientific community. More information on the OECD's work related to the biosafety of transgenic organisms is found at BioTrack Online ( http://www.oecd.org/biotrack )

The books on "Safety Assessment of Transgenic Organisms" constitute a compilation of the OECD Biosafety Consensus Documents. When published, Volume 1 and 2 contained the documents issued before 2006; Volume 3 and 4 are a continuation of the compilation up to 2010. The OECD Biosafety Consensus Documents identify elements of scientific information used in the environmental safety and risk assessment of transgenic organisms which are common to OECD member countries and some non members associated with the work. This is intended to encourage information sharing, promote harmonised practices, and prevent duplication of effort among countries. These books offer ready access to those consensus documents which have been issued on the website thus far. As such, it should be of value to applicants for commercial uses of transgenic organisms (crops, trees, microorganisms), to regulators and risk assessors in national authorities, as well as the wider scientific community. More information on the OECD's work related to the biosafety of transgenic organisms is found at BioTrack Online ( http://www.oecd.org/biotrack )

Crop scientists and government regulators are interested in mediating pollen flow from transgenic crops to other crops and weed species. To this end, a multi-year, multilocation series of experiments was conducted in eastern Colorado by the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Colorado State University. These experiments were done to estimate the distance required between plots of transgenic corn and wheat and plots of the respective non-transgenic crop to obtain at most a regulated limit of cross-pollination. The experiments involved planting a rectangle of transgenic crop in the middle of a non-transgenic field and measuring the proportion of cross-pollinated crop at various distances along transects radiating in multiple directions. Gene flow to the non-transgenic crop was evaluated in wheat using herbicide tolerance and in corn using kernel color. An initial Generalized Linear Mixed Model with binomial response and logit link was estimated with independent variables: a square root transformation of distance, an additional covariate, and a random location effect. For corn, the additional covariate was transect orientation; for wheat, it was the relative heading time of the recipient variety. An enhanced model that included additional sources of variation was also examined. The analysis for both of these assumed models addresses two problems: 1) an Upper Tolerance Limit on the binomial probability of cross-pollination, which includes 100c% of the locations with 100d% confidence, at set values of the independent variables; and 2) an Upper Tolerance Limit on the distance at which 100c% of the locations will have binomial probability of cross-pollination less than a specified value, with 100d% confidence, at set values of the other independent variables. The problems are addressed using Frequentist and Bayesian methods.