What is Biotechnology?

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What is Biotechnology?

Phil McCleanDepartment of Plant Science

North Dakota State University

Biology 600Biotechnology: Principles and ProductsDelivered Live and via Videoconference

June 1-2, 2005

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The Latest Biotech News

ND GMO Planting Decisions (Winter 2005) • New law enacted during 2005 legislative session• Only the ND state government has the authority to ban plantings of GMO crops• Response to laws passed at county level in other states

EU Approving GMO-free Zones (May 2005)• European Union GMO regulations permit regions• to declare themselves GMO• Otherwise approved GMO products can be grown• 162 regions or provinces (=US states) have asked to be GMO free• 4500 total government units have made the request

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What is Biotechnology?

How about some definitions

General DefinitionThe application of technology to improve a biological organism

Detailed DefinitionThe application of the technology to modify the biological function of an organism by adding genes from another organisms

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• An organism showing a novel trait not normally found in the species

What is the Result of Biotechnology?

Extended shelf-life tomato (FlavrSavr Tomato)

Herbicide resistant soybean (Roundup Ready Soybean)

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Biotechnology Terms You Probably Heard

Transgene – the foreign gene added to a species

Ex. – modified EPSP synthase gene (encodes a protein thatfunctions even when plant treated with Roundup)

Transgenic – an organism containing a transgene introduced by technological (not breeding) methods

Ex. – Roundup Ready Crops

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Biotechnology Develops

GMOs - Genetically modified organisms

• GMO - an organism that expresses traits that result from the introduction of foreign DNA

• Also called transgenic organism

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Important Terms

• Breeding

• Transformation

Source: USDA

Source: USDA

Beneficial gene added from the same species Gene delivered by mating within the species

Beneficial gene added from another species Gene delivered by plant genetic engineering

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Let’s Be Up Front

• Breeding Biotechnology Breeding only exchanges genes found in the species Breeding can transfer the transgene to other breeding materials BUT it is not the same as biotechnology

• Biotechnology adds traits not available in the species Soybean does not have a gene to breakdown Roundup The gene comes from bacteria

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Wheat Rye

Triticale

X

Interspecific Cross

New species, but NOT biotechnology products

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ATTCGA

ATTGGA

SusceptibleNormalGene

ResistantMutantGene

MutagenesisTreatment

Mutagenesis: New Trait, No Foreign Gene

Mutagenesis changes the sequence of a gene New, useful traits can be obtained

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BASF Clearfield Products

Herbicide resistance•imidazolinones

Mutant AHAS enzyme•developed by mutagenesis

Crops• Canola, Corn, Rice, Sunflower, Wheat

In US• Not considered GMOs by USDA regulators• A Major marketing advantage• When some stacked with GMOs, the advantage lost

Mutagenesis Crops

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The Crop Biotech Market Is Dominated By Five Countriesa

58.8%/118 ma(63%/106 ma)

Top Five Countries = 96% of market20 % increase in biotech acreage from 2003

a2004 growing season data. http://www.isaaa.org/Press_release/Briefs30-2003/press/b30_english.htm 2003 in parentheses.

6.7%/13 ma(6.0%/10 ma)

20.0%/40 ma(21%/36 ma)

6.2%/12 ma(3%/7 ma)

4.6%/9 ma(3%/7 ma)

http://www.isaaa.org/Press_release/Briefs30-2003/press/b30_english.htm

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Crop Biotechnology Grew WorldwideIn 2004

• 200 million acres (20% growth)• 8.3 million farmers (18% growth)• 17 mega-producing countries (>120,000 acres) • Up from 16 countries in 2003

• US, Argentina, Canada, Brazil, China, Paraguay, India South Africa, Uruguay, Australia, Romania, Mexico, Spain, Philippines, Colombia, Honduras, Germany

• Germany new in 2004

Historically, biotechnology is the most rapidlyadopted new agricultural technology

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Soybean: 120.0 million acres (17% annual growth)

Corn: 30.6 million acres (25% annual growth)

Canola: 16.8 million acres (12 % annual growth)

Biotechnology Crops:Worldwide Acreage 2004

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Economic Effect of Bt CottonIn China

$200/acre increase in income

$750 million increase nationally

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Benefits to Hungarian Farmers

TraitTotal

benefitFarmer realized

Industry realized

Bt corn (european cornborer 3 mill 76% 24%

Bt corn (Western corn rootworm) 16 mill 65% 35%

Herbicide tolerant maize 14 mill 73% 27%

Herbicide tolerant sugarbeet 3 mill 50% 50%

From: Demont et al. 2005. Potential impact of biotechnology in eastern Europe: transgenic maize, sugar beet, andoilseed rape in Hungary.

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Transgenic Crops Increasing In the USa

Crop (% total acreage)Soybeanb Cornc Canolad

Year US ND SD US ND SD US ND SD

2001 68 49 80 26 25 48 61 75 -2002 74 50 86 32 18 65 64 80 -

2003 81 74 91 40 - 75 - - -

a Source: NASS Planting Reports, 2001, 2002.b2002 US acreage = 73 million; ND acreage = 2.6 millionc2002 US acreage = 79 million; ND acreage = 1.2 milliond2002 US acreage = 1.6 million; ND acreage = 1.3 million

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Impact of Transgenics onMajor Crop Production

Soybean 86 56 55

Cotton 32 28 21

Canola 23 19 16

Maize 140 14 11

Ha 2004%

2004%

2003

Transgenic versions of the big four cropsare grown on 30% of their acreage

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Impact of Transgenics onWorldwide Crop Production

Transgenic crops are grown on 5%of the 3.7 billion acres of cultivated land in the world

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Locationa

Arthur, Grandin, Northwood

Wyndmere, Mooreton, Great Bend

Soybean type Ave.Bu/A % Yield Ave. Bu/A % Yield

Conventional 46.6 (27)b 91 % 45.5 (26) 100 %

Roundup Ready

51.5 (78) 100 % 44.1 (80) 97 %

aData collected by Dr. Ted Helms, NDSUb# of varieties in trial in parenthesis

Roundup Ready SoybeanNo Yield Drag or (Advantage)

North Dakota 2002 Data

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Roundup Ready SoybeanReduces Expensesa

Soybean typeHerbicide cost

(per acre)

Conventional $27.65

Roundup Ready $15.90

aData provided by Dr. Duane Burgland, NDSU.

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Biotech Crops Can Be Environmentally(and Yield) Friendly

Cotton type

Bt Non-Bt Popular check

Yield (kg/ha) 1501* 833 802

# Bollworm sprays 0.62* 3.68 3.63

# Sucking insect sprays 3.57 3.51 3.45

Kg/ha insecticide 1.74* 5.56 5.43

Toxic class I 0.64* 1.98 1.94

Toxic class II 1.07* 3.55 3.46

Toxic class III 0.03 0.03 0.03

Table 1. Cotton yield and insecticide results from a large (157 sites) trial in India during 2001.

*Means within a row are significantly different at the 5% levelFrom: Science (2003) 299:900

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Agriculture Products On the Market

Source: USDA

Insect resistant cotton

Insect resistant corn

Normal Transgenic

Bt toxin kills the cotton boll worm toxin gene from a bacteria

Bt toxin kills the European corn borer toxin gene from a bacteria Rootworm GM approved (2/26/03)

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Virus resistance

Source: Monsanto

Herbicide resistant crops current: soybean, corn, canola coming: sugarbeet, lettuce, strawberry, alfalfa, potato, wheat (on hold) resistance gene from bacteria

papaya, squash, potato resistance gene from a virus

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Biotech chymosin

Source: Rent Mother Nature

Source: Chr. Hansen

Bacterial and Animal Biotechnology Products

enzyme used to curdle milk products gene from yeast harvested from GE bacteria replaces the calf enzyme

increases milk production gene from cow protein harvested from GE bacteria replaces cow protein originally harvested from pituitary glands of slaughtered cows

bST (bovine somatotropin)

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Next Generation of Ag Biotech Products

Source: Minnesota Microscopy Society

Golden Rice

Sunflower

Increased Vitamin A content Transgenes from bacteria and daffidol Controversory: large amount needed to solve problem

White mold resistance Resistance gene from wheat

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Turfgrass

Bio Steel

Herbicide resistance Slower growing reduced mowing = reduced pollution

Spider silk strongest known protein Protein expressed in goat milk Protein used to make soft-body, bullet proof vests (Nexia)

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Field Testing Permits Tell Us What is ComingField Trial Data: Jan 2001 – Today (n=2540)

2001-03 data; collated from: Information Systems for Biotechnology (http://www.isb.vt.edu/)

Organization # 2002-03 trials (%)Monsanto 1480 (58%)Universities 329 (13%) Scotts 84 (3%)Aventis 78 (3%)Sygenta 69 (3%)Dow 63 (2%)USDA/ARS 60 (2%)Prodigene 25 (1%)

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HA #11,437 (17)

PR #31,063 (13)

Where Are the GM Crops Tested in the US?

IL #21,292 (16)

IA #41,022 (12)CA #5

990 (12)

ND #23230 (3)

Data: 1993-present: State rank, # trials, % total trialsInformation Systems for Biotechnology (http://www.isb.vt.edu/)

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Corn is the Current Main Focus


Crop # 2002-03 Trials (%)

Corn 1424 (56%)

Cotton 193 (8%)

Rice 146 (6%)

Wheat 141 (6%)

Soybean 124 (5%)

Alfalfa 121 (5%)

Turfgrass 89 (4%)

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The Traditional Traits Predominant


Trait # 2002-03 Trials (%)Insect resistance 791 (31%)

Herbicide resistance 736 (29%)

Plant quality 400 (16%)

Pathogen resistance 171 (7%)

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But Some Novel Traits Are Being Tested


Trait # 2002-03 Trials (%)Yield 105 (4%)

Amino acid content 94 (4%)

Sugar content 44 (2%)

Oil content 42 (2%)

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What’s Coming for Wheat??


Trait % 2002-03 Wheat TrialsRoundup Ready 57%

Protein content 10%

Yield 8%

Fusarium resistance 8%

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Some Ag Biotech Products Are Discontinued

Poor Quality• FlavrSavr tomatoes (Calgene)

Negative Consumer Response• Tomato paste (Zeneca)

Negative Corporate Response• NewLeaf (Monsanto)

Universal Negative Publicity• StarLink corn (Aventis)

Why???

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Environmental Applications

Bioremediation

Indicator bacteria

cleanup contaminated sites uses microbes designed to degrade the pollutant

contamination is detected in the environment microbes sensitive to certain pollutants

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Land Mine Detection

Without this effort, that is dangerous to our military, children are maimed.

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Land Mine Detection

How biotechnology helps• Patented transgene added to plants• When metal from mine is detected

• Plant turns from green to red• Technology developed by Aresa Biodetection

Mine detected

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Biotechnology and Health

Product Use

Insulin Diabetes

Interferon Cancer

Interleukin Cancer

Human growth hormone Dwarfism

Neuroactive proteins Pain

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What is Biopharming?

Biopharming DefinitionGrowing transgenic crops that express pharmaceutical products

Examples: DrugsAntibodiesProteins

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Familiar Production Systems

Why use this technology?

• Genes introduced into field crops (mostly corn)• New productions systems not needed• Producer can use traditional growing strategies

Reduced End-Product Cost• Animal system: $1000 - $5000 per gram protein• Plant System: $1 - $10 per gram protein Source: The Roanoke Times, 2000

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Edible Vaccines – A Biopharming DreamBiotech Plants Serving Human Health Needs

• A pathogen protein gene is cloned• Gene is inserted into the DNA of plant (potato, banana, tomato)• Humans eat the plant • The body produces antibodies against pathogen protein• Human are “immunized” against the pathogen• Examples:

DiarrheaHepatitis BMeasles

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Tooth decay

Future Health-related Biotech Products

Vaccines Herpes hepatitis C AIDS malaria

Streptococcus mutans, the mouth bacteria releases lactic acid that destroys enamel engineered Streptococcus mutans does not release lactic acid destroys the tooth decay strain

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Nutritional Genomics(Nutrigenomics: a comingBiotechnology innovation)

Concepts of Nutrigenomics

Certain diets can cause severe health risks in individuals• Refined sugars, dairy products, fatty foods

Certain diets enhance disease susceptibility in individual’swith a specific genetic makeup

• Diabetes, lactose intolerance, high cholesterol

Diets based on an individuals genetic makeup are preferred• No refined sugars, minimal dairy products or fatty foods

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Nutritional Genomics(Nutrigenomics)

Goal of Nurtigenomics

Identify specific genetic makeups• What combination of genes places a person at risk?

Develop dietary recommendations• What diets are best suited for certain at-risk individuals?

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Top BiotechnologiesIn The Future

Molecular Diagnostics• Treatments exist, but diagnositic tools are lacking• Expensive, hard to implement• Cost effective diagnostic procedures needed

Recombinant Vaccines• Vaccines have effectively eradicated small pox, polio, etc• Other diseases need to be addressed• More effective and low-cost vaccines are needed• Genetic engineering can solve these problems

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Vaccine and drug delivery• Vaccine injections can cause serious infection• New delivery forms, such as slow release drugs, are needed

Bioremediation• Water, air, and soil pollution is a problem• Plants can breakdown much of these pollutants• Plants that are safe to the environment and reduce pollutants are needed


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Female Controlled Protection Against STDs• Incidence of sexually-transmitted disease is high• Women are most affected• Vaginal microbicides needed

• Topical application best solution


Nutritionally Enriched Crops• Malnutrition is widespread• Malnutrition is associated with many diseases• Modification of staple crops necessary to solve the problem

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Answers depends upon your perspective on the valueof the technology

What will support your opinion? • Economics• Safety of products• Needs of human

The Question for the Future:Should We Live A Biotech Free Lifestyle??

What is Biotechnology?

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