institute of plant biotechnology for developing countries
TRANSCRIPT
Emeritiforum Leuven – January 28, 2010
GMO’s We hebben ze broodnodig.
Prof. Em. Marc Van Montagu
Institute of Plant Biotechnology
For Developing Countries
Prof. Em. Marc Van MontaguChairman, IPBO
Websites: http://www.ipbo.ugent.behttp://www.psb.ugent.behttp://www.efb-central.orghttp://www.pubresreg.org
E-mail : [email protected]
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Plants for Life
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
Plants for Life
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Population growth
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1945 2 billion
1998 6 billion
2008 6.7 billion
Urban Population exceeds rural population
2050 9-10 billion
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Thomas Malthus:(13 February 1766 – 23 December 1834)
The rise in human
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
population will outrun the growth in food supplies.
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
The Millenium Development Goals
• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality & empower women
• Reduce child mortality
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diesases
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Develop a global partnership for development
www.UN.org
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Challenge
�We need GM agriculture to:
�Increase agricultural productivity
�Provide income for the rural poor
In 2015 the Millennium Goals will not be met if we stay
with business as usual
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�Provide income for the rural poor
�Not extend the amount of arable land used
�We need substantial investment in international agriculture
�We need to assure that emerging and developing countries can
create SMEs and a seed industry to bring GM crops to the market
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Major arguments against GM crops
• It is unnatural• Nobody needs it• It is bad for health and environment
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
• It is a privilege of the multinational agrochemical companies
Answer: NO, we cannot afford not to useGM crops
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
25 thousand years of genetically
modified plants
• Selection
• Crossing
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• Crossing
• Genomic Fusion
• Mutagenesis
• Cloning
The fertile crescent
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Lessons from Molecular Evolution
• The living world is one large gene-pool of functional and pseudogenes
• This gene-pool is permanently evolving, this is
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
permanently evolving, this is the base of evolution
• Nature is one big genetic laboratory
• It is very misleading to talk about human gene, pig gene, rat gene etc.
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
THE GREEN REVOLUTION
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GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Resources for food production: arable land
availability
0.350.4
0.45
hect
ares
per
cap
ita
40% of arable land is seriously
degraded or infertile:
• 75% of land in Central America;
• 20% of land in Africa;
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
00.050.1
0.150.2
0.250.3
0.35
1961 1997 2050
hect
ares
per
cap
ita • 20% of land in Africa;
• 11% of land in Asia
Source: UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Biotech crop history
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1904, Agrobacterium
tumefaciens1974, Ti
Plasmid, Gent
1990’s
genomics
1996
Commercial
launch
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
PGS: Insect resistance
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GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
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Plants for Knowledge
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Success of Plant BiotechnologyRelies on efficient interaction between
fundamental, strategic and applied research
Making the products our planet needs depends on:
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InnovativeBiotechnology
The Best ofPlant Breeding Excel
AgronomicPractices
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Systems Biology: compressing history
•Metagenomics•Functional genomics•Transcriptomics•Proteomics
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•Metabolomics
Explosion of new information
Creation of new knowledge
Generation of new products
POLITICAL, FINANCIAL,PRIVATE SECTORSUPPORT
PUBLICSECTORVISION
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
BGI (formerly known as the Beijing Genomics Institute) has purchased 128 Illumina HiSeq2000 sequencing system, which promises to generate up to 200 gigabases of sequence data per run.
China's BGI plans to sequence the genomes of 1,000 important plant
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genomes of 1,000 important plant and animal reference species over the next two years as part of a new project that will solicit proposals from the scientific community.
Acquisition Puts Beijing Genomics Institute on Path to Become World’s
Largest Sequencing Facility
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
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China to Develop Third-Generation Genome Sequencing Instrument
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
The search for yield improvement
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GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Phenomics
The ‘phenotyping bottleneck’
has limited our ability to
capitalise on plant functional
genomics and modern
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Chlorophyll fluorescence,
and photosystem II activity
Science, August 8, 2009
genomics and modern
breeding technologies
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
The Application Gap
Molecular Biologists should interact with:• Departments of agronomy & forestry;• Departments of tropical agriculture;• Seed companies; Explosion of new information
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• Seed companies;• Curators of seed banks;• Agricultural economists• Nutritionists and food scientists;• Ecologists.
Explosion of new information
Creation of new knowledge
Generation of new products
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Drought & salinity will be the most significant constraints on productivity
Existing practicesare unsustainable
Scientific solutions:
Crop improvement:
• GM crops
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• MAS breeding
Crop choices:
- Sorghum
- Lathyrus
- Pearl Millet
Solutions to ensurefuture productivity must be designed tomeet an increasingly harsh environment
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Alternative crops:
Lathyrus sativus Chickpea
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
Cereals
Drought in Ethiopia
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Phytophthora Resistant Potatoes
• Breeding of resistant cultivars (introgression of 2 resistance genes took 35 years)
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• 17 resistance genes have been cloned
• GM potatoes expressing resistance genes show excellent disease tolerance in field trials.
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Virus resistant papaya in Hawaii
Susceptible Resistant ResistantSusceptible
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has called for the development of a global map of banan a
and plantain diseases
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
The emerging bio-economy is built on green and white biotechnology
Green biotechnology White biotechnology
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Short rotation plantations for fuel and fibre
• Wood producing plants e.g. poplar• CO2 captation in cell walls
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GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Alternative solution:Nanoparticle vaccine
Vaccines for Medicine and Husbandry
vaccine production against rapidly mutating virus is slow and costly
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production of high levels of specially designed “virus-like” nanoparticles in tobacco plantsAdvantages: less costly, time saving, easier purification, safer….
Charles Arntzen , 238th ACS 92009
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Major public concernsSafety Issues
• Human and Animal Health
� No adverse effect reported with the approved GM-crops
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
GM-crops
• Environmental
� Already a long list of beneficial effects
� No alarming scenario was confirmed
� Long term ecological effects can be lower than those of traditional agriculture
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Price Tag for Introducing GM Plants
Overregulation and unnecessary testing make that
• no Small Medium Enterprise
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
• no Small Medium Enterprise
• no Third World country
can afford to introduce a GM crop.
Only multinationals can proceed.
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
21st Century Plants will be GM-Plants
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be GM-Plants
GMO’ - We hebben ze broodnodig.
Emeritiforum Leuven – 28 January 2010
In a better Environment