Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
August 8,  2001

Earlier today at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center President Roger N. Beachy and U.S. Senator for Missouri Christopher “Kit” Bond announced that the St. Louis-based Danforth Center will re-institute collaboration with the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) on a rice tungro disease research project thanks to a contribution of $50,000 USD provided by the Boeing Company.

The project will allow a scientist from MARDI to travel to St. Louis and work with researchers at the Danforth Center. The scientist will then return home to continue laboratory and greenhouse testing in Malaysia. Dr. Roger N. Beachy, president of the Danforth Center, will travel to Malaysia to consult with scientists from MARDI and participate in a mid-term project review. It is anticipated that this work will lead to the development of improved varieties of rice that will reduce the impact
of rice tungro disease in Malaysia. In addition, both parties expect that this collaboration will serve as a catalyst for future and ongoing interactions between researchers in Malaysia and researchers in Missouri.

What is rice tungro disease and why is it a problem?

Rice tungro disease (RTD) is one of the most destructive diseases in rice. In the early 1990's RTD was targeted as the number one problem in rice to which biotechnology could make a contribution. The disease can destroy up to 90 percent of the rice crop during growing seasons in which the disease reaches epidemic proportions. RTD is endemic to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast
Asia, and is a serious problem for farmers because it is difficult to forecast, difficult to control and can cause high yield losses. The vector for the disease is the green leafhopper, which transmits the two viruses that cause the disease. Spraying insecticides to control the green leafhopper does not always result in effective management of RTD. Furthermore, insecticides can be harmful to
human health and the environment and the indiscriminate use of certain compounds has been shown to cause outbreaks of secondary pests.

What has been accomplished in the work between Dr. Roger Beachy and MARDI to date?

In the mid 1990's scientists in Dr. Beachy's laboratory, in collaboration with scientists from MARDI, began working to determine how to block either one of the two viruses that cause RTD, knowing that this would likely prevent transmission of RTD between plants. Researchers in Dr. Beachy’s lab developed transgenic (genetically modified) rice plants with copies of genes that contained segments of genes of the two viruses. These genes included sequences that compromise the ‘corpus' of the virus or of virus replication machinery.

In 1997, researchers at MARDI began growing the new transgenic plants in greenhouses, and exposed them to green leafhoppers carrying the virus. Their studies demonstrated that some of the plants were resistant to the disease and remained healthy while the non-transgenic rice succumbed to RTD.

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