PARTIAL TABLE OF CONTENTS, relevant to seed professionals (links are to the ISB News Report website)

PLANT RESEARCH NEWS

Cyanobacterial flavodoxin provides multiple stress tolerance
Matías Zurbriggen, Vanesa B. Tognetti, Estela M. Valle and Néstor Carrillo

Photosynthetic microorganisms respond to adverse environments by eliciting a replacement strategy, which involves substitution of sensitive enzymes and proteins by resistant isofunctional versions. Most conspicuous among them is the induction of flavodoxin expression to take over the functions of the ubiquitous iron-sulfur protein ferredoxin, whose levels are down-regulated under conditions of environmental stress or iron starvation.

Complete article:
pdf: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/artspdf/sep0701.pdf
web: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/news07.sep.htm#sep0701

Cleaning-up crop genomes through intragenic modification
Caius Rommens

Awareness that fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of nutrients gradually evolved during the last three centuries and is currently reinforced through USDA-backed promotion programs such as "5 A Day."
However, there are still many issues associated with today's food crops.
Two recent reviews discuss the importance of removing lingering toxins and allergens while enhancing the levels of health-promoting antioxidants. Such improvements may be accomplished efficiently through intragenic modification, a new approach to genetic engineering that transforms plants with native genetic elements only.

Complete article:
pdf: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/artspdf/sep0702.pdf
web: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/news07.sep.htm#sep0702

REGULATORY NEWS

Cultivar cultivates disaster for soybean patent while supremes throttle patent test
Phill Jones

Thirteen years after the European Patent Office (EPO) granted Monsanto’s patent EP301749B1, the agency revoked it. The EPO’s decision—released on 07/07/07—hinged upon a definition. Monsanto argued that their patent claim focused on seeds that contained a "foreign gene"—that is, a gene from a source other than the plant species transformed with that gene. The claimed soybean seeds, therefore, could not include seeds of the Bedford cultivar.
The EPO’s Technical Board of Appeal disagreed with Monsanto.

Complete article:
pdf: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/artspdf/sep0703.pdf
web: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/news07.sep.htm#sep0703

CONFERENCE NEWS

Gene flow among transgenic plants and their wild relatives: Implications for Risk Assessment
Dates: December 12 & 13, 2007
Location: The Hyatt Regency, St. Louis, Missouri.

The purpose of the meeting is to bring together academic, industry, government, and other interested scientists to discuss recent and ongoing research on topics related to gene flow from transgenic plants. The meeting will focus on: 1) within-species gene flow; 2) hybridization and gene introgression between transgenic plants and their sexually compatible relatives; 3) consequences of gene flow from transgenic and non-transgenic plants; 4) approaches to managing gene flow; and 5) modeling gene flow.

Complete article:
pdf: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/artspdf/sep0704.pdf
web: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/news07.sep.htm#sep0704