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Moderated conference on GMOs in the pipeline, hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum in 2012

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Biotech-Mod2 <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:42:59 +0100
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This is E.M. Muralidharan from India, again.

There has not been much mention in the conference about GM trees. Not very surprising if you consider that interest in a long-term crop is fraught with difficulties of field testing, besides the fact that most tree crops are relatively recent in domestication and are rather recalcitrant to molecular and in vitro culture procedures. In the field too, trees are different in the way they interact with the ecosystem. Long-term crops are therefore not very attractive for GM. The fast growing eucalypts, poplars and pines are exceptions. 

Although not a forest crop, the only tree in the GMO pipeline in India (although not in the next five years) is GM rubber (Hevea brasilensis) developed by the Rubber Research Institute of India. Permission for long term testing of GM rubber in two locations has been granted by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) but has not yet been taken up. Genetic modification had been done to introduce drought tolerance and tapping panel dryness by introducing the Manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) gene from the rubber plant itself with CaMV 35S promoter, npt II and GUS reporter genes.

There is opposition, mainly within the rubber growing Kerala State, situated in the biodiversity-rich Western Ghats region. The State has also declared itself a GMO free state a few years back. NGOs have pointed to the dangers of using a testing protocol designed for annual crops in the case of rubber, which grows for many decades and that seeds of the rubber tree and honey from plantations are widely used in India and are likely to be affected by use of GM trees. 

Dr. E.M. Muralidharan
Biotechnology Department, 
Kerala Forest Research Institute
Peechi, Thrissur, 
Kerala, 
India
emmurali (at) gmail.com

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