High throughput functional genomics of perennial ryegrass
Shivendra Bajaj, Zac Hanley, Kieran Elborough & Sathish
Puthigae
Perennial ryegrass (Lolium
perenne L.) is the most important pasture grass for
meat, dairy and wool production in New Zealand, covering
more than seven million hectares (Siegal et al., 1985). It
is an out-crossing, wind pollinated and highly
self-incompatible species and, for these reasons, the pace
of genetic improvement has been slow through conventional
breeding methods. Biotechnology can be a tool to accelerate
the improvement of perennial ryegrass traits such as drought
tolerance that are recalcitrant to conventional breeding
techniques. High frequency genetic transformation of
perennial ryegrass and other Lolium spp. has been
achieved using biolistic bombardment (Altpeter et al., 2000;
Takahashi et al., 2005) but Agrobacterium-mediated
transformation of Lolium spp. has proven difficult,
and only a few transformed lines have been produced (Wu et
al., 2005). We have developed a high-frequency
Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of perennial
ryegrass (Bajaj et al., 2006) for candidate gene analysis.
We have produced more than 1,000 independent transformed
lines from several constructs selected using our SAGE™
analysis of gene expression in ryegrass taken from on-farm
pastures
Complete article:
pdf:
http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2006/aug06.pdf
web:
http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2006/news06.aug.htm#aug0601
Gene flow from GE to conventional maize using real-time
PCR
Maria Pla, Joaquima Messeguer & Enric Melé
Worldwide commercialization
and increasing acreage of genetically engineered organisms
(GEO) have propitiated the approval of labeling regulations
in several countries to protect the consumers' right to
information. As an example, EEC regulations (Commission
Regulation (EC) No 258/97, 1997; Commission Regulation (EC)
No 49/2000, 2000; Commission Regulation (EC) No.50/ 2000,
2000; Commission Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003, 2003
Commission Regulation (EC) 1830/2003, 2003) established the
compulsory labeling of foods containing more than 0.9% GE
ingredients. In order to harmonize the necessary coexistence
between GE and non-GE crops grown in parallel, standards,
which strongly benefit from experimental gene flow data, are
being established or prepared in many countries. It is
important to take into consideration the extent of pollen
dissemination from transgenic to conventional crops under
field conditions to properly establish containment
strategies to minimize the adventitious presence of
transgenes in conventional or organic crops. Of particular
concern is maize, of which there are an increasing number of
GE varieties cultivated worldwide.
Complete article:
pdf:
http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2006/aug06.pdf
web:
http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2006/news06.aug.htm#aug0602
Transgenic plants that make non-transgenic pollen
Ludmila Mlynarova & Jan-Peter Nap
A major challenge in the
agronomy of genetically engineered (GE) crops is to prevent
gene flow to non-GE crops to wild relatives. GE material
should not enter the food production chain or the
environment when and where this is not desired and/or not
sufficiently controlled. This challenge requires the design
of GE crop management protocols that generate added value to
agriculture, while coexistence of organic, non-GE and GE
crops satisfies the desire of consumers and/or markets. A
major route for unwanted mixing of GE crops and non-GE
plants is gene flow by pollen. Together with Dr. A. J.
(Tony) Conner, Crop & Food Research Institute, New Zealand,
we have demonstrated that gene flow by pollen can be
effectively eliminated in a new approach that incorporates
transgene removal into the biology of pollen formation.
Complete article:
pdf:
http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2006/aug06.pdf
web:
http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2006/news06.aug.htm#aug0603
