Mini-stacking brings
new hybrids to producers faster
Source: Farm&Ranch Guide
September 12, 2008
CheckBiotech
FLOYD,
“It is very
exciting,” she says. “It is a culmination of a lot of research and business
development.”
Mini-chromosome stacking allows several new traits to be
stacked on a single chromosome. The latest development will bring about savings
for companies and corn growers.
For companies, mini chromosomes can decrease the time it
takes to develop a product, Johnson says.
One of the biggest challenges from the marketing standpoint
in developing any new biotechnology is in the transformation, ensuring the gene
gets to the plant efficiently and without disrupting the systems currently in
place.
Before this technology was available, companies could go
through literally 1,000 transformations to get the right expression.
“It usually takes 7-10 years,” says Johnson, a Floyd
producer. “Now, they can cut that by two to three years.”
Farmers also will benefit from the increased interest in the
new technology by multiple companies.
“Many of the tech providers have access to this technology,”
Johnson says. “So, for farmers this means more competition in the marketplace,
which is good for us.”
Right now, triple stacks, quad stacks and even eight-stack
hybrids are what the marketplace and producer wants, notes
Korff, a member of the NCGA
Biotechnology Working Group, says mini chromosome stacking should allow for an
even greater number of genes to be inserted without disrupting the current
plant systems.
Korff has to look no further than
the University of Missouri-Columbia for some of the latest advances in gene
stacking technology.
MU professor of Biological Sciences Jim Birchler
and fellow researchers found a way to fashion an existing chromosome to create
a miniature chromosome.
In corn, there is an extra chromosome called a B chromosome
that does not have any genes located on it. Bircher and his team whittled this
chromosome down and engineered it so new genes could be added in the future.
“It is a natural corn chromosome that we engineered that can
stack all the traits on it,” he says.
The concept of stacked traits exists in the research
community, however, not nearly at this level of precision.
For years, scientists have been placing genes and traits
into the plant randomly.
The traditional method inserts the material into the plant.
However, where it ends up is anybody's guess.
“Many times when that happens, the gene won't work,” Birchler says.
The new process allows scientists to insert genes directly
onto the mini chromosome in a plant. By introducing the gene exactly in the
right place, Birchler expects a better expression in
the finished hybrid.
“The hope is that targeting it to a mini chromosome, where
the environment is already known, that it will be more reliably expressed and
that will facilitate the introduction of new traits into the field much
faster,” he says.
Birchler adds while much research
is still needed, the hope of scientists, such as himself,
is these little chromosomes will hold any gene trait companies, producers and
the marketplace wants.
Currently, people have stacked traits in the market for
insect and herbicide resistance, he explains.
Those companies are most interested in expanding the stack
trait so that they not only have insect and herbicide resistance, but they
would also have drought resistance and nitrogen utilization improvement.
“Theoretically, how many genes you can put on a mini
chromosome is unlimited,” Birchler says. “Reality is
that it has not been put into practice yet.”
Nathan Fields sees even greater applications for this new
mini chromosome technology.
As director of NCGA's Research and
Business Development, Fields says new mini chromosomes do “change the game” in
hybrid development.
“Basically it is like writing a new operating system for a
computer,” he explains. “You are giving the plant a whole new platform to work
from.”
Looking forward, Fields says this new technology can be used
to tag crops for identification. Certain kinds of tagging could create a system
for separating genetically modified (GM) crops from non-GM crops.
Fields also sees the potential of applying gene switches to
these mini chromosomes.
For instance, if there is a mini chromosome for rootworm
protection in the plant and a producer experiences higher than normal pressure,
an outside agent would be used to activate the gene inside.
“It would be like spraying a foliar application, but once it
hits the leaf of the plant it could turn the gene on inside the plant,” he
explains.
“It is equivalent to going out and spraying the crop, but would
have zero environmental impact. All you would be doing is turning the gene on
inside the plant.”
It will be a few years before the first product using this
new technology enters the marketplace. Then, it will need to pass the single
most important test - yield.
“Yield is the No. 1 thing we look at,” says Korff of Norborne,
Source: Farm&Ranch Guide
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