GM Crops

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a gram positive soil bacteria was first identified and named by Japanese microbiologist Shigetane Ishiwata in 1901. During sporulation Bt produces proteinaceous parasporal crystal proteins called δ-endotoxins, or Cry proteins, which are insecticidal. Numerous Cry proteins have been isolated and characterized from different Bt strains with activity against insects, mites and nematodes. Sprayable formulations containing these Cry proteins as active ingredients have contributed significantly in the field of insect pest management...

Transgenic herbicide-resistant varieties of Brassica napus, or oilseed rape, from which canola oil is obtained, are imported into Japan, where this plant is not commercially cultivated to a large extent. This study aimed to examine the distribution of herbicide-resistant B. napus and transgene flow to escaped populations of its closely related species, B. rapa and B. juncea. Samples were collected from 12 areas near major ports through which oilseed rape imports into Japan passed--Kashima, Chiba, Yokohama, Shimizu, Nagoya, Yokkaichi, Sakai-Senboku, Kobe, Uno, Mizushima, Kita-Kyushu, and Hakata--and the presence of glyphosate- and/or glufosinate-resistant B...

Cassava is one of the most important crops in the tropics. Its industrial use for starch and biofuel production is also increasing its importance for agricultural production in tropical countries. In the last decade cassava biotechnology has emerged as a valuable alternative to the breeding constraints of this highly heterozygous crop for improved trait development of cassava germplasm. Cassava transformation remains difficult and time-consuming because of limitations in selecting transgenic tissues and regeneration of transgenic plantlets...

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata spp unguiculata) is adapted to the drier agro-ecological zones of West Africa where it is a major source of dietary protein and widely used as a fodder crop. Improving the productivity of cowpea can enhance food availability and security in West Africa. Insect predation--predominately from the legume pod borer (Maruca vitrata), flower thrips (Megalurothrips sjostedti) and a complex of pod-sucking bugs (e.g., Clavigralla spp)--is a major yield-limiting factor in West African cowpea production...

Transgenic science and technology are fundamental to state-of-the-art plant molecular genetics and crop improvement. The new generation of technology endeavors to introduce genes 'stably' into 'site-specific' locations and in 'single copy' without the integration of extraneous vector 'backbone' sequences or selectable markers and with a 'predictable and consistent' expression. Several similar strategies and technologies, which can push the development of 'smart' genetically modified plants with desirable attributes, as well as enhance their consumer acceptability, are discussed in this review...

The objective of this paper is to analyze the way of Portugal is addressing the issue of the coexistence between conventional, organic and Genetically Modified (GM) crops production. In the EU, no form of agriculture, be it conventional, organic or transgenic, should be excluded. Farmers are free to choose the production type they prefer, without being forced to change patterns already established in the area and without spending more resources. Farmers' choice of growing GM or non-GM crops depends not only on technical aspects related to the productivity gains and agronomic benefits to be gained from adopting this technology, but also on consumers' preferences...

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an important oil crop in many tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world, yet has received little attention in applying modern biotechnology in its improvement due to regeneration and transformation difficulties. Here within, we report the successful production of transgenic fertile plants of sesame (cv Sohag 1), after screening several cultivars. Agrobacterium tumefaciens- carrying the pBI121 plasmid {neomycin phosphotransferase gene (NPTII) and a β-glucuronidase gene (GUS)} was used in all experiments...

In the last three decades, a number of attempts have been made to develop reproducible protocols for generating transgenic cowpea that permit the expression of genes of agronomic importance. Pioneer works focused on the development of such systems vis-à-vis an in vitro culture system that would guarantee de novo regeneration of transgenic cowpea arising from cells amenable to one form of gene delivery system or another, but any such system has eluded researchers over the years. Despite this apparent failure, significant progress has been made in generating transgenic cowpea, bringing researchers much nearer to their goal than thirty years ago...

Broiler chickens are a fast growing monogastric animal commonly used to evaluate the equivalence between transgenic and non-transgenic grains as part of the human safety assessment process. While commonly viewed like other livestock feeding trials, such studies are performed with transgenic crops with input traits (that are not designed to improve nutrition) to aid regulatory authorities in evaluating safety. Studies of this type are actually more similar to toxicology studies in purpose, with sensitive endpoints like growth used to detect metabolic perturbations...

A survey of 10 producers of conventional corn (Hybrids PAC 105 and Maximus) and 10 producers of transgenic corn (Pioneer Hybrid 30T17) was carried out in the municipality of Valle de San Juan in the territorial division of Tolima (Colombia), in order to analyze the differences in production costs and environmental impacts of these two agricultural technologies.  The environmental impacts were determined by calculating the field "Environmental Index Quotient" (EIQ). In the production cost analysis, a difference of 15% was found in benefit of the transgenic technology...

A major challenge for regeneration of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) plants is the difficulty of in vitro root induction. In the present study, in vitro rooting and its architecture have been studied. Adventitious root formation was successfully induced from regenerated faba bean shoots of four Egyptian cultivars, i.e., Giza 461, Giza 40, Giza 834 and Giza 716 on hormone free MS medium supplemented with 5 mg/l silver nitrate. Among the four cultivars, Giza 461 and Giza 40 were recorded as the highest root formation response (75 % and 65) followed by cultivars Giza716 and Giza843 (20%, and 10%)...

One way of enhancing and broadening resistance of plants to different biotic and abiotic stresses is to combine transgenes expressing several genes into a single line. This can be done using different strategies such as crossing, single vector with multiple genes, co-transformation, sequential transformation and IRES elements. In the present study conventional crossing method was used. Parental transgenic lines transformed via Agrobacterium tumefasciens-mediated gene transformation with pGreenII binary vector harbouring a bar gene as selectable marker in combination with the family 19 chitinase gene from Streptomyces olivaceoviridis for one line and 1,3-β-glucanase from barley (Hordeum vulgare) for the other line were used for crossing...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Plant regeneration protocols for sugarcane GT54-9(C9) cultivar were developed for direct organogenesis and indirect somatic embryogenesis, using young leaf segments as explants by studying the influence of different concentrations and types of cytokinin and auxin hormones. For the callus formation from young leaves, a medium containing 4mg/l 2,4-D was found very effective. For embryo formation, MS medium supplemented with 1mg/l Kin and 0.5 mg/l 2,4-D was used. While in the case of direct organogenesis protocol, the medium containing 1mg/l BAP and 2mg/l NAA was the best for direct shoot formation...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Immunoassays' a sensitive technique has a wide application for detection of antigen, especially for the detection of growing genetically modified crops, which are underwent field trial. Here, we have developed for the quantitative detection of Cry2Ab protein expressed in GM crops. A Cry2Ab-rabbit-IgG act as capture antibody and Cry2Ab mouse monoclonal antibody behave as a detecting antibody, which is employed in sandwich ELISA. A 2% polyvinylpyrrollidone and 1% dithiothritol was utilized in protein extraction from cotton seed to avert interfering agents...

.Using immature zygotic embryos as explants, we have developed an efficient method for somatic embryogenesis in three germplasm accessions collected from China, India and Indonesia. Indirect somatic embryogenesis was achieved when endosperm tissue and immature embryos between 0.5-1.0 cm in length were cultured in a medium with 2,4-D, preferably at 5-10 mg/l, followed by a shift to a hormone-free medium supplemented with glutamine and asparagine. Production of secondary embryos was improved by supplementing KNO3, glutamine and asparagine...

Brinjal occupies the major proportion amongst all vegetable crops in India and is vulnerable to many diseases caused by insect-pests, fungus, bacteria and virus. Brinjal production is extensively affected by the insect brinjal fruit and shoot borer. Use of conventional chemical pesticides not only damage environment including the biotic and abiotic components but, also affect human health. Bt Brinjal was developed to combat brinjal fruit and shoot borer that has an advantage minimizing use of chemical pesticides...

Site-specific and adaptable DNA binding domains are essential modules to develop genome engineering technologies for crop improvement. Transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs) proteins are used to provide a highly specific and adaptable DNA binding modules. TALE chimeric nucleases (TALENs) were used to generate site-specific double strand breaks (DSBs) in vitro and in yeast, Caenorhabditis elegans, mammalian and plant cells. The genomic DSBs can be generated at predefined and user-selected loci and repaired by either the non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) or homology dependent repair (HDR)...