General Flashcards
How long have cereals been in cultivation for?
10,000 years
How long has maize been in cultivation for?
Around 5,000 years
UK population in medieval times
5 million
UK population now
60-65 million
How many % people could there be by 2050?
25-30%
As much as 50%
How much more food output do we need by 2050
x2
When was the potato famine?
1845-1849
% increase from breeding and chemical inputs
Breeding - 40%
Chemical inputs - 60%
Who led the Green Revolution?
Norman Borlaug
Plant breeding yields in Japan and China vs India
Japan and China - 4 tons per Ha
India - 2 tons per Ha
Wheat yields in China and USA
China - 4 tons per Ha
USA - 3 tons per Ha
How many species in widespread cultivation?
300
% of food from 6-8 species
85%
% food from rice, wheat and maize
50%
Wheat consumption increase vs yield increase
5% p.a.
2% p.a.
How to increase food production
Chemical inputs
More land
More intensive
More plant breeding
Time take to selectively breed an annual plant
10-15 years
What does a grower want?
High yield Higher nutrient quality Fertiliser efficient or nitrogen fixing Drought resistance Pest resistance
Photoperiod insensitivity
Modified architecture
Removal of unwanted compounds
% crops lost to pests
30%
When was Healthy Harvest published and who by?
2013/2014
National Farmer’s Union
Total area of biotech crops
189.8 million Ha
Arable area of UK
4.5-5 million Ha
Predicted global population in 2050 and how many more this is from now
- 6 billion
2. 4 billion more people
How much must global food production increase by?
60-110%
No overall increase in UK agricultural output since when?
1986
% UK food produced in UK
62%
£ of food imported
£37.6 billion
Size fragments can put into Agrobacterium T-DNA and how many genes per … kb
20 kb or more
1 gene in every 2 kb
When were the first commercial GM crops grown?
1996
% adoption of GM in USA for maize, soybean and cotton
Maize - 92%
Soybean - 94%
Cotton - 94%
How many million farmers in how many countries have planted how many Ha of GM crops?
16.7 million farmers
29 countries
160 million Ha
Increase in GM between 2010 and 2011
8%
% of GM in developing countries
90%
% of soybean, cotton and maize grown that’s GM
Soybean - 83%
Cotton - 75%
Maize - 29%
When was oligonucleotide mediated gene editing first approved?
2016
% yield loss possible due to weeds
10-15%
OSR weed contamination - clean vs 2% contamination money
Clean - $353 / t
2% contamination - $246 / t
When was stubble burning banned in the UK?
1993
How many $ per years worth of herbicides are used?
$22 billion
How many tonnes of herbicide active ingredient are produced per year?
1.3 million tonnes
What is glyphosate an inhibitor of?
EPSPS
What does glyphosate compete with to block EPSPS?
PEP
When was Roundup Ready soybean approved for release and used commercially in the UK?
Approval sought - 1994
First signs commercially - 1998
Roundup ready facts: Herbicide usage reduction Reduction in damage Increased yield Reduction in foreign matter
Herbicide usage - 10-40%
Damage reduction - 6-20%
Yield - 4.7%
Foreign matter - 0.57% from 0.85%
Benefits of no till agriculture
Reduces soil erosion Improves soil structure and fauna Reduces water loss by evaporation and run-off Reduction in fuel use Reduction in costs Enables 2 harvests a year
Benefits of no till - stats Soil erosion reduction Water loss reduction Fuel use reduction Cost reduction
Soil erosion - 90%
Water loss - 30%
Fuel use - by 30 L per Ha
Costs - 10-20%
Herbicide resistant plants - risk to the consumer
Being “transformed”
Toxins / allergies from unknown changes
Altered nutritional balance of product
Herbicide resistant plants - risk to the environment
Genetic pollution of other crops Loss of biodiversity Superbugs Escape of genes into other plants Superweeds
How should herbicide resistant plants be managed?
Crop rotation
Alternating use of different resistances
Field margins / headlands to maintain species
Only in species with no close native relatives
Don’t stack resistance genes together
Legislation / code of conduct
Knock-on effects of GM plants
Reduction in number of non-GM cultivars
New cultivars available only in GM form
If GM seed is more expensive, will non-GM rise to match?
Seed purchase tied in with pesticide / herbicide purchase
% GM crops that express Bt
35%
% losses European corn borer annually and in heavy infestations
Annually - 4-10%
Heavy - 20-30%
Bt 2014 facts: % maize crop in US % yield increase % pesticide reduction Profit increase
% maize - 80%
Yields - 7%
Pesticide - 11%
Profits - $5 billion
Cotton % yield losses from pests
30-60%
% non-GM as refuge for cotton and maize
Cotton - 20%
Maize - 5%
Should we eat GM / problems?
BT not part of normal diet
Use food processing to stop effects of PIs normally, but what about GM?
Want to eat plant expressing toxins?
Risk of allergenic proteins?
Labelling of GM foods?
Altering metabolic profile could change food produced
Still don’t understand enough about DNA to know what all sequences do
Considerations for use of RNAi
How stable is VIGS / HIGS? How specific is the control? Durability in the field? Can targets evolve resistance? Who decides how this might be used in the future?
When is GM not GM?
Grafting Viruses as vectors VIGS HIGS RNA pesticides Marker-free transformation Host-derived modifications
% potato losses due to: Fungal and bacterial pathogens Viruses Insect pests Weeds
FB - 22%
V - 8%
I - 18%
W - 23%
Global % of potatoes lost that are grown
70%
When were INNATE potatoes approved for commercialisation in the US?
November 2014
How many ha of INNATE potatoes grown in 2015?
160 ha
INNATE potatoes genes involved
Asn1
PhL
R1
Ppo5
INNATE potato late blight resistance year
2015
GM potato resistant to Potato virus Y where and when?
Argentina
2015
Who did maris piper potato breeding?
Plant Breeding Institute
When was maris piper potato developed and released?
D - 1964
R - 1966
Steps to breed a nematode resistant plant - maris piper
Survey Andean markets for potato relatives within breeding range Cross resistant with elite variety Backcross hybrid to elite Second backcross More backcrosses
When was GM tomato puree sold in the UK?
1996
GM tomato genes / methods
TOM13
Anti-sense ACCase
Antisense polygalacturonase
How many iron atoms does ferritin bind?
4,500
Rice with iron in promoter
GluB-1
When was the prototype of golden rice developed and how many mg/g of carotenoid?
2000
1.6 mg/g
When was the new golden rice developed that increased the amount of carotenoid and how much?
2005
37 mg/g
Vistive gold genes silenced and enzyme
Fad2
FatB
E - delta15 desaturase
Getting approval before starting - steps
Local committee permission and registration of workers
Health and safety executive permission for GM
DEFRA permission for modified crops
Getting approval before planting - steps
DEFRA for permission to release
Considered by ACRE
ACRE opinion on carnations year
2014
ACRE advice on GM cotton and rice year
2014
What are TMV particles made up of?
18 rigid rods 300 nm long
How many nucleotides in the TMV genome
6,394
TMV replicase proteins, movement protein and coat protein names
R - 126K, 183K
MP - 30K
CP - 17.5K
Systemic spread stats % crop lost by TMV How many days for cell-to-cell movement When reach connective tissue? When reaches top of plant? When completely infected?
Up to 80-90% 3-4 days Day 4 Day 5 Day 21
How to prevent virus infections (traditional)
Plant virus free
Keep vector away
Use virus resistant plants
% insecticides used in UK to control plant virus vectors
67%
Who first demonstrated cross-protection, when and in what?
McKinney (1929)
TMV
First field trials of transgenic tomato plants to TMV year
1987
CP-MR year decided no restrictions in some species in US
2001
How does 54K protein mediated resistance differ from CP-MR?
Resistance against virus and RNA
Not overcome by high levels of inoculum
Resistance is specific
General risks of GM
Risks to humans
Risks to the environment
Commercial risks
Safety concerns related to transformation event
Insertion site, integration of T-DNA or plasmid DNA
Selection
Other components in transformation constructs other than viral sequence
Risks of using CaMV 35S promoter
CaMV is a plant pararetrovirus
Suggested it has recombination hotspots
Has enhancer elements that enhance expression
Promoter is from a pararetrovirus
Potential risks of CP-MR
Transgenic synergism
Transencapsidation
Recombination
Surfinia synergism viruses
TMV and Potato virus Y
3 main types of recombination
Homologous
Aberrant homologous
Nonhomologous
Potyvirus RNA size
10kb
Who was the first to report PTGS?
Prof David Balucombe
In which countries and what year did groups work on 2-5A?
Japan and USA
1996
Who developed phage display?
Greg Winter
Viral elements used in plant biotechnology
Promoters and terminators Translational enhancers Origins of assembly Ribozymes Nuclear targeting signals Viral vectors Suppressors of PTGS
Who discovered the omega translational enhancer?
Mike Wilson
Who set up plantibody company?
Prof George Lomonossoff
