What is Biotechnology?

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What is Biotechnology?
Biology 600 Biotechnology Principles and
Products Delivered Live and via
Videoconference June 1-2, 2005
Phil McClean Department of Plant Science North
Dakota State University
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The Latest Biotech News
Monsanto halts GM wheat (May 10, 2004)

• Responding to lack of market support, Monsanto
• halts their Roundup Ready wheat program
• Will wait until sentiment changes

EU Approves New Biotech Corn Product (May 19,
2004)

• Syngenta allowed to market products containing
• Bt-11 insect resistant corn
• First new biotech product approved in EU in five
  years
• But company decides not to market the product
• because of user concerns

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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 Definition
The application of technology to improve a
biological organism
Detailed Definition
The application of the technology to modify
the biological function of an organism by
adding genes from another organisms
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What is the Result of Biotechnology?

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

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 that functions 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

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

Source USDA

• Transformation

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

Source USDA
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Lets 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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Interspecific Cross
Wheat
Rye
X
Triticale
New species, but NOT biotechnology
products
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Mutagenesis New Trait, No Foreign Gene

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

Mutagenesis Treatment
Susceptible Normal Gene
ATTCGA
Resistant Mutant Gene
ATTGGA
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BASF Clearfield Products
Mutagenesis Crops

• 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

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The Crop Biotech Market Is Dominated By Five
Countriesa
6.7/13 ma (6.0/10 ma)
58.8/118 ma (63/106 ma)
4.6/9 ma (3/7 ma)
6.2/12 ma (3/7 ma)
20.0/40 ma (21/36 ma)
Top Five Countries 96 of market 20 increase
in biotech acreage from 2003
a2004 growing season data. http//www.isaaa.org/Pr
ess_release/Briefs30-2003/press/b30_english.htm
2003 in parentheses.
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Crop Biotechnology Grew Worldwide In 2004

• 200 million acres (20 growth)
• 8.3 million farmers (18 growth)
• 17 mega-producing countries (gt120,000 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
rapidly adopted new agricultural technology
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Biotechnology Crops Worldwide Acreage 2004
Soybean 120.0 million acres (17 annual
growth) Corn 30.6 million acres (25
annual growth) Canola 16.8 million acres
(12 annual growth)
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Economic Effect of Bt Cotton In China

• 200/acre increase in income

• 750 million increase nationally

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Benefits to Hungarian Farmers
Trait Total benefit Farmer 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, and oilseed rape in Hungary.
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Transgenic Crops Increasing In the USa
Crop ( total acreage) Crop ( total acreage) Crop ( total acreage) Crop ( total acreage) Crop ( total acreage) Crop ( total acreage) Crop ( total acreage) Crop ( total acreage) Crop ( total acreage)
Soybeanb Soybeanb Soybeanb Cornc Cornc Cornc Canolad Canolad 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 million c2002 US acreage 79 million ND
acreage 1.2 million d2002 US acreage 1.6
million ND acreage 1.3 million
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Impact of Transgenics on Major Crop Production
Transgenic versions of the big four crops are
grown on 30 of their acreage
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Impact of Transgenics on Worldwide Crop Production
Transgenic crops are grown on 5 of the 3.7
billion acres of cultivated land in the world
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Roundup Ready Soybean No Yield Drag or
(Advantage) North Dakota 2002 Data
Locationa Locationa Locationa Locationa
Arthur, Grandin, Northwood Arthur, Grandin, Northwood Wyndmere, Mooreton, Great Bend 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, NDSU b of
varieties in trial in parenthesis
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Roundup Ready Soybean Reduces Expensesa
Soybean type Herbicide 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
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 level From Science (2003) 299900
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Agriculture Products On the Market
Insect resistant cotton

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

Source USDA
Insect resistant corn

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

Normal
Transgenic
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Herbicide resistant crops

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

Source Monsanto
Virus resistance

• papaya, squash, potato
• resistance gene from a virus

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Bacterial and Animal Biotechnology Products
Biotech chymosin

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

Source Chr. Hansen
bST (bovine somatotropin)

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

Source Rent Mother Nature
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Next Generation of Ag Biotech Products
Golden Rice

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

Sunflower

• White mold resistance
• Resistance gene from wheat

Source Minnesota Microscopy Society
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Turfgrass

• Herbicide resistance
• Slower growing
• reduced mowing reduced pollution

Bio Steel

• 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 Coming
Field Trial Data Jan 2001 Today (n2540)
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)
2001-03 data collated from Information Systems
for Biotechnology
(http//www.isb.vt.edu/)
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Where Are the GM Crops Tested in the US?
ND 23 230 (3)
IA 4 1,022 (12)
CA 5 990 (12)
IL 2 1,292 (16)
PR 3 1,063 (13)
HA 1 1,437 (17)
Data 1993-present State rank, trials, total
trials Information 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)
2001-03 data collated from Information Systems
for Biotechnology
(http//www.isb.vt.edu/)
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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)
2001-03 data collated from Information Systems
for Biotechnology
(http//www.isb.vt.edu/)
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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)
2001-03 data collated from Information Systems
for Biotechnology
(http//www.isb.vt.edu/)
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Whats Coming for Wheat??
Trait 2002-03 Wheat Trials
Roundup Ready 57
Protein content 10
Yield 8
Fusarium resistance 8
2001-03 data collated from Information Systems
for Biotechnology
(http//www.isb.vt.edu/)
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Some Ag Biotech Products Are Discontinued
Why???

• Poor Quality
• FlavrSavr tomatoes (Calgene)
• Negative Consumer Response
• Tomato paste (Zeneca)
• Negative Corporate Response
• NewLeaf (Monsanto)
• Universal Negative Publicity
• StarLink corn (Aventis)

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Environmental Applications
Indicator bacteria

• contamination is detected in the environment
• microbes sensitive to certain pollutants

Bioremediation

• cleanup contaminated sites
• uses microbes designed to degrade
• the pollutant

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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 Definition
Growing transgenic crops that express
pharmaceutical products
Examples
Drugs Antibodies Proteins
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Why use this technology?
Familiar Production Systems

• 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 Dream Biotech
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
• Diarrhea
• Hepatitis B
• Measles

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Future Health-related Biotech Products
Vaccines

• Herpes
• hepatitis C
• AIDS
• malaria

Tooth decay

• 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
coming Biotechnology 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
  individuals
• with 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 Biotechnologies In 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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Top Biotechnologies In The Future

• 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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Top Biotechnologies In The Future

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

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

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

• Answers depends upon your perspective on the
  value
• of the technology
• What will support your opinion?
• Economics
• Safety of products
• Needs of human