Beijing, China
September 23, 2005
Chinese researchers say they have
developed genetically modified (GM) cotton that yields up to 25
per cent more than current GM varieties.
The new variety was announced
last week (19 September) when the
Chinese Academy of Agricultural
Sciences (CAAS) revealed in a press release that the
research had passed a key Ministry of Agriculture evaluation
late last month.
Guo Sandui, who led the
research, told SciDev.Net that he expects the ministry to
approve sales of the new variety within one year. He adds that
his research team is applying to patent their new invention and
will publish the relevant papers soon.
The GM plants contain a
bacterial gene called Bt, which produces a chemical that kills
bollworms — major insect pests that feed on cotton.
Guo says the new strain is
unusual, as although existing varieties Bt cottons kill
bollworms, they do not improve outputs significantly.
He says this is because, until
now, researchers had not identified the genes needed to restore
the fertility that is usually lost while developing hybrid
varieties of cotton.
Guo claims that his team has
found such ‘restoration genes’. The researchers then crossed
plants with the genes with other breeds of cotton to develop
their hybrid GM variety.
The CAAS news release said that
if Guo’s new variety were planted on all Chinese land now
growing GM cotton, farmers could earn an extra US$1.2 billion a
year.
China first commercialised GM
cotton in 1997, and two main varieties are being grown there —
one developed by US biotech company Monsanto and a Chinese
variety developed by Guo’s team.
By 2004, more than 3.3 million
hectares in China were planted with GM cotton. That represents
not only more than half of China’s total cotton fields, but also
five per cent of the global area planted with GM crops,
according to a 2005 report by the International Service for the
Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications.
Xue Dayuan, a GM safety
scientist at Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, fears
that bollworms could develop resistance to the Bt gene, which
has been used now in Chinese cotton for eight years.
But Guo says that because Chinese
farmers always rotate cotton with — and grow cotton alongside —
other, non-GM, crops, the insects have a natural refuge nearby,
and are thus unlikely to develop resistance.
by Hepeng
Jia, SciDev.Net
Related
release:
Chinese agronomists grow new super rice with
record high yield |
