First biotech apple

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) approved two genetically engineered apple varieties designed to resist browning that have been developed by the Canadian company Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc.The apples are said to be identical to the others but with an added advantage of resisting browning after being sliced. Okanagan plans to market the apples as Arctic Granny and Arctic Golden.

Source: Neal Carter, Okanagan President.

The molecular mechanisms of brassinosteroids in plant breeding

Fig: Growth defects of the model research plant thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) which are induced by missing of steroid hormones (left side). With the help of gibberelline production the defects could be repaired (right side). Credit: Brigitte Poppenberger / TUM

Two growth-promoting groups of substances, or phytohormones, the gibberellins and the brassinosteroids are used independently of each other for the breeding and production of crop plants. It is discovered that without brassinosteroids, a plant is unable to produce gibberellins.

Reg: Unterholzner, 2015, Plant Cell.

DOI: 10.1105/tpc.15.00433​

'Bionic' spinach plants can detect explosives

By embedding spinach leaves with carbon nanotubes, MIT engineers have transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld device similar to a smartphone.

Credit: Christine Daniloff/MIT

 

This is one of the first demonstrations of engineering electronic systems into plants, an approach that the researchers call "plant nanobionics." In this case,  Spinach plants were designed to detect chemical compounds known as nitroaromatics, which are often used in landmines and other explosives. When one of these chemicals is present in the groundwater sampled naturally by the plant, carbon nanotubes embedded in the plant leaves emit a fluorescent signal that can be read with an infrared camera. The camera can be attached to a small computer similar to a smartphone, which then sends an email to the user.

Ref: Min Hao Wong et al., (2016), Nitroaromatic detection and infrared communication from wild-type plants using plant nanobionics, Nature materials.

Full Text
DOI: 10.1038/nmat4771

Paleobotanist identifies what could be the worlds first flower

Paleobotanists have identified a 125 million- to 130 million-year-old freshwater plant Montsechia vidalii from Spain as one of earliest flowering plants on Earth. "A 'first flower' is technically a myth, like the 'first human,'" said Dilcher, an internationally recognized expert on angiosperm anatomy and morphology. The conclusions are based upon careful analyses of more than 1,000 fossilized remains of Montsechia, whose stems and leaf structures were coaxed from stone by applying hydrochloric acid on a drop-by-drop basis. The plant's cuticles the protective film covering the leaves that reveals their shape were also carefully bleached using a mixture of nitric acid and potassium chlorate. Examination of the specimens was conducted under a stereomicroscope, light microscope and scanning electron microscope.

Ref: David L. Dilcherd et al. 2015, PNAS.

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1509241112

G-9 iron-rich banana variety

There has been growing demand for Grand Naine banana (G-9 variety) in foreign countries. The National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB) has taken up research on developing a genetically modified banana variety rich in iron content. A. P. Karuppiah, state president of the Tamil Nadu Banana Growers Federation, had brought the variety from his native farm in Theni district. He said the monthly export from Theni stood at 1,500 tonnes and it was widely exported to Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. Its color and prolonged shelf-life has been a major reason for attraction. The branch weighing 86 kg had 236 bananas, each measuring 27 cm long. He said, scientific cultivation, adaoptation of drip irrigation and proper fruit care would fetch a profit of at least Rs. 2 lakh an acre. He added, efforts were on to increase the shelf-life for which research was on by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Canadian University.

Source: NRCB, Podhavur village, Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India, 2015.

What Are We Eating?

Genetically Modified corn has been engineered in a laboratory to produce pesticides in its own tissue. GMO Corn is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency as an Insecticide, but is sold unlabeled. Unlike the strict safety evaluations required for the approval of new drugs, the safety of genetically engineered foods for human consumption is not adequately tested. The World Health Organization’s ultra-cautious International Agency for Research on Cancer recently classified 2,4-D as a “possible human carcinogen” and glyphosate as a “probable human carcinogen.” Both herbicides were linked to increases in malignant tumors at multiple sites in animals. Glyphosate was also linked to an increased incidence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in humans.

Action Alert! 

All GMO foods should be labeled

Ref: Philip J. Landrigan et al. 2015, NEJM

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Caterpillar deceives corn plant into lowering defenses against it

A caterpillar that feeds on corn leaves induces the plant to turn off its defenses against insect predators, allowing the caterpillar to eat more and grow faster. Plants are under constant threat of attack from herbivorous insects. Nearly 400,000 plant-eating insect species are known to live on 300,000 plant species. When these herbivores feed on plants, they not only cause mechanical damage but often deposit substances that can manipulate the plant's response to herbivory. These substances are analogous to the microbial-associated compounds that affect plant responses to pathogenic fungi or bacteria.

It turns out that the caterpillar frass tricks the plant into sensing that it is being attacked by fungal pathogens and mounting a defense against them, thereby suppressing the plant's defenses against herbivores. Plants cannot defend against both pathogens and insect attackers simultaneously -- they must switch on either their pathway to defend against herbivores or their pathway to defend against pathogens.

To test their hypothesis, researchers applied frass extract to the leaves of corn plants and compared the growth of fall armyworm caterpillars that fed on the leaves to the growth of caterpillars that fed on untreated leaves. They also measured the performance of a fungal pathogen in response to frass treatment of corn leaves. They inoculated the leaves with spores of a fungus that causes leaf blight in corn (Cochliobolus heterostrophus). The plant perceives that it is being attacked by a pathogen and not an insect, so it turns on its defenses against pathogens, leaving the caterpillar free to continue feeding on the plant.

Ref: Swayamjit Ray et al., 2015, J Chem Ecol

DOI 10.1007/s10886-015-0619-1

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Indian Scientists sequence Tulsi genome for medicinal properties

The plant synthesises a wide range of bioactive compounds, known for their anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-pyretic and anti-cancer properties. It is widely used for therapeutic purposes. The genome map will help in making new medicines using the plant. These compounds are metabolites, compounds that are a by-product of plant metabolism, typically used for plant self-defence. These metabolites are very poorly understood because of lack of genomic information. The sequence reveals the interesting pathways used by Tulsi to make ursolic acid, a medically important compound. If one could now use modern synthetic biology techniques to synthesise ursolic acid, it would be of great benefit.

Source: Sowdhamini Ramanathan and S. Ramaswamy, 2015, National Centre of Biological Science, Bengaluru

Paddy cum fish culture

Rice and fish culture involves farmers introducing fish into their rice fields. This technique is good for both fish and ice. Safely hidden from birds, the fish thrive in the dense rice plants, while they in turn provide a source of fertilizer with their droppings, eat insect pests and help to circulate oxygen around the rice field. Farmers report that keeping fish in rice fields can increase rice yields up to 10% additionally they have the supplies of fish.

Source: Agricultural Business Innovation-Indonesia.

Engineering Microbiomes to Improve Plant

Arabidopsis. (stock image) Credit: © Vasiliy Koval / Fotolia

Humans have been breeding crops until they're bigger and more nutritious since the early days of agriculture, but genetic manipulation isn't the only way to give plants a boost. A new study reported that the plant soil microbiome to improve plant growth, even if the plants are genetically identical and cannot evolve. These artificially selected microbiomes, which can also be selected in animals, can then be passed on from parents to offspring. Riverside, have seen microbiome engineering to be successful withArabidopsis (a close relative of cabbage and broccoli). In the Arabidopsisexperiments, bacteria from the roots of the largest plants were harvested with a filter and given to other plants growing from seed. Over time, the plants, which were genetically identical and therefore could not evolve by themselves, grew better because of their evolved and improved microbiomes.

Microbiome experiments can be tricky and affect reproducibility because of the complexity of propagating entire microbial communities between plants or between animals. The reason grasses and honeybees are attractive pilot organisms is because their microbiomes can be manipulated to be heritable. By testing this in organisms with stable genetics, it is easier to see the effects of adding specific bacterial communities.

Selecting artificial microbiomes may be a cheaper way to help curb plant and animal diseases rather than pesticides and antibiotics or creating genetically modified organisms. The methods to generate host-mediated artificial selection on root microbiomes are super simple (all you need is a syringe and a filter), and any farmer in any location could potentially do this to engineer microbiomes that are specific to the problems of the specific location where the farmer attempts to grow food.

Ref: Mueller and Sachs, Engineering Microbiomes to Improve Plant and Animal Health, Trends in Microbiology, 2015.

India has 3 diabetic friendly rice varieties

The Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRI), Hyderabad which is the part of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) system has identified three rice varieties with low glycemic index (GI) values which are considered suitable for diabetic patients. Any variety of rice with ≤ 55 glycemic index (GI) is considered as diabetic friendly. The 3 rice varieties are: Lalat (GI=53.17), BPT 5204 (GI=51.42) and Sampada (GI=51). Presently, these varieties are under cultivation in different states of India. 

Source: The minister of state for agriculture, Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan in Rajya Sabha (Upper house of Parliament) on July 31, 2015.

High starch content and low methane emission rice

After carbon dioxide methane is the second important greenhouse gas. Paddies contribute up to 17% of the global methane emission. Warm waterlogged soil and exuded nutrients from roots provide ideal condition for methanogenesis in paddies. Here, the addition of a single transcription factor gene, barley SUSIBA2 conferred a shift of carbon flux t0 SUSIBA2 rice. The altered allocation resulted in an increased biomass and starch content in the seeds and stems, and suppressed methanogenesis, possibly through the reduction in root exudates.

Ref: Su et al., 2015, Nature

Spinach can cut down on food craving especially in men

A concentrated extract of thylakoids of Spinach stimulates the release of satiety hormone, helps in controlling hunger. It is also useful for people with high blood pressure and associated weight problems.

Ref: L. Frank, 2015, Journal of the American College of Nutrition.