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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]>
Wed, 7 Nov 2012 16:59:36 +0100
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Adrian Dubock again. Oops! I hoped to make a quick comment and exit, but need to respond to both Henry Lutaaya (Message 6) and Didier Breyer (Message 5).



Didier first. I was sloppy in my response. In making my comment (Message 4) I wanted to make it clear that it had nothing to do with defending a position. I meant to make clear that Golden Rice doesn't contain any antibiotic selectable marker gene, which was clearly the subject of your commentary in Message 2. You are correct Didier, the selected transformation event of Golden Rice does contain a selectable market gene PMI. For those who are not in 'the know', this is a sugar based selection, not an antibiotic selectable marker. The strategy of the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board has for many years been to select one transformation event for introgression into all locally preferred - consumer preferences and grower preferences - varieties of rice. The idea it to make registration easier and cheaper to manage. And that is what has been done. You are also correct Didier that the first 'Proof of Concept' Golden Rice published in Science in 2000 (Ye et al) utilized hygromycin antibiotic selectable marker. But the much improved constructs (Paine et al 2005) already licensed to the inventors in 2000, had several advantages and it was from careful data collection from these events, when introgressed into Asian rice varieties and in Asian climate and soils which led to THE event being selected. My view is that scientifically there is no reason not to use antibiotic selectable markers, but if they can be avoided then that's one less reason for emotional concern by some people. And I think that's what European advice is. As a non-molecular biologist I understand that there are not too many alternatives easily available.



And Henry. You are also correct. You will note above that we take account always of "consumer preferences and grower preferences". Again, it was my brevity which led to miscommunication. What I meant to say was that in matters of regulatory permissions it is science, not opinion, which must prevail.  In terms of product acceptance and adoption, then that is a different matter, and subjective opinion of course is important, as with any product.



But isn't this conference meant to be about what products are coming from ag biotech in the next 5 years? Well we are very hopeful that Golden Rice will be an early entrant in the period. And the recent results (Tang et al, AJCN 2012) showing that the beta carotene from Golden Rice is better converted to vitamin A than beta carotene from spinach, and that only about 40 grams a day is expected to save both life and sight, is very encouraging.



Adrian C Dubock PhD

Golden Rice Project Manager

Switzerland

contact (at) goldenrice.org 



[1. The relevant references are 

Ye X, Al-Babili S, Klöti A, Zhang J, Lucca P, Beyer P, Potrykus I. 2000. Engineering the provitamin A (beta-carotene) biosynthetic pathway into (carotenoid-free) rice endosperm. Science 287:303-305

Paine JA, Shipton CA, Chaggar S, Howells RM, Kennedy MJ, Vernon G, Wright SY, Hinchliffe E, Adams JL, Silverstone AL, Drake R. 2005. A new version of Golden Rice with increased pro-vitamin A content. Nature Biotechnology 23:482-487.

Tang, G., Y. Hu, S. Yin, Y. Wang, G.E. Dallal, M.A Grusak, and R.M Russell. 2012. β-Carotene in Golden Rice is as good as β-carotene in oil at providing vitamin A to children. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 96: 658-664



2. Selectable markers (mentioned first in Message 2) are genes which allow the selection of transformed cells, or tissue explants, by enabling transformed cells to grow in the presence of a certain agent (e.g. a specific antibiotic) added to the medium. To get an easily readable account of these kinds of technical aspects of FAO, please see Module A (introduction to molecular biology and genetic engineering) of the FAO Biosafety Resource Book published in 2011. The book is based on materials from the training courses organized by FAO from 2002 to 2010 in the framework of its biosafety capacity development projects and consists of five modules where special attention has been paid to avoid technical jargon and to keep the modules scientifically accurate as well as accessible to non-specialists. It also contains Module B (on ecological aspects), Module C (on risk analysis), Module D (on test and post-release monitoring of GMOs) and Module E (on legal aspects). All 5 Modules are freely downloadable at http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i1905e/i1905e00.htm or contact sandra.tardioli (at) fao.org to receive a copy, providing your full postal address.



3. NB. As mentioned in Section 1 of the Background Document to the conference that I sent to you on 30 October, the debate on GMOs is very broad, touching on their implications for food security, the environment, biodiversity, human health, farmers income, the global food system and a number of other issues. The goal of this 4-week conference is not to cover the whole debate. Instead it addresses two main topics. First, what new GMOs are likely to be commercialized in developing countries within the next five years (i.e. before the end of 2017) in the crop, forestry, livestock, aquaculture and agro-industry sectors? Second, what are the likely implications of these new GMOs for developing countries? Before preparing a message, we kindly ask participants to carefully read the Background Document, in particular Section 4 which provides specific guidance about the topics that are to be discussed in the conference...Moderator]



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