St. Louis, Missouri
August 20, 2003
By Tony Fitzpatrick,
Washington
University
Washington University in St. Louis and Monsanto Co., Creve
Coeur, Mo., have been issued patent 6,608,241 by the United
States Patent Office. The patent is for a technique that
protects crops from devastating viral diseases that currently
threaten or harm many important food crops.
The
inventors are Roger Beachy, Ph.D., president of the Donald
Danforth Plant Science Center, and professor in the department
of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, and
Robert T. Fraley, Ph.D., Monsanto chief technology officer and
former Monsanto research scientist Stephen G. Rogers.
Over the past 16 years, ongoing research and development in
laboratories around the world has led to virus-resistant
varieties of tomato, pepper, cucumber, squash, sugar beets,
papaya and plum, among other crops. Recently, scientists at the
University of Hawaii and their collaborators used the technique
to develop disease-resistant varieties of papaya to protect
against papaya ringspot virus. Beachy and his collaborators are
researching viral resistance in numerous other plants, including
rice and cassava.
Monsanto has donated rights to the technology to a number of
public institutions.
"The sharing of this technology has been critical in creating
virus-resistant crops for developing countries around the
world," Fraley said.
In
addition to the successes in papaya, Monsanto is collaborating
with the Danforth Center and the Kenya Agricultural Research
Institute to develop a virus-resistant sweet potato.
"We
are delighted that this technology, as one of the first
applications of biotech, is helping to advance science
throughout the globe," Fraley said.
The
technique was conceived, developed and tested in the 1980s when
Beachy was professor of biology at
Washington
University. The research began in the early '80s with attempts
to make tobacco plants resistant to a virus called tobacco
mosaic virus (TMV). This involved constructing target genes
containing a viral-coating protein and inserting them into
tobacco leaf tissue. Plants regenerated from this tissue were
able to resist the virus. In 1987, they tried the technique with
tomatoes and became the first team to successfully genetically
engineer a food crop with a disease resistance trait.
"The creation of disease-resistant plants will bring benefits
throughout the world, thanks to the pioneering work of Beachy
and our many other outstanding biology faculty and their
scientific colleagues at Monsanto. This discovery is another
example of
St. Louis's emerging role as a world leader in
plant research and the exceptional history of collaboration
between this university and industry," said Mark S. Wrighton,
Washington University chancellor.
The
group of scientists developed a gene that, when introduced to
plant cells, would cause the cells to produce the virus "coat,"
a protein normally made by the virus to ensheath the virus's
genetic information. Tomato plants that were produced from the
modified cells - transgenic plants - produced the coat protein
in very small amounts in comparison to the amount of coat
protein that is produced during virus infection. While these
plants were "challenged" by tobacco mosaic virus inoculation and
its close relative, tomato mosaic virus, they were highly
resistant to infection. Work conducted since the original
discovery has demonstrated that the "coat protein" in the
transgenic plants restricts infection and thwarts the ability of
the virus to successfully infect the plant.
Aphids spread many different types of plant viruses, and it is
common practice to control virus infection by using chemical
insecticides to limit spread of viruses. The "coat-protein
mediated resistance" technology, like other disease resistance
genes, can substantially reduce farmers' reliance on chemical
insecticides. Therefore, this technology has helped solve an
otherwise unsolvable problem in agriculture.
With the granting of this patent, Monsanto can continue to
license the patent to interested parties.
"It
is gratifying to see the technology we developed nearly two
decades ago reach this stage and have the impact that it has had
and will have on agriculture throughout the world," said Beachy.
"The technology already has reached many people and has been
proven effective for many different crops. What's truly exciting
is its potential to increase food production in developing
countries."
Beachy, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, is
internationally known for his groundbreaking research on
virus-resistant plants. He is the founding president of the
not-for-profit
Donald
Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Mo., a position he
has held since January 1999. In this role, Beachy has been
responsible for developing and implementing the
Danforth
Center's strategic direction, recruiting its staff, and
formulating its research programs. The Center, established in
1998, is affiliated with many businesses and universities and
focuses on interdisciplinary research in genetics, chemistry,
cell biology, biochemistry, computational genomics and
structural biology.
From 1991 to 1998, Beachy headed the Division of Plant Biology
at The Scripps Research Institute, a leading biomedical research
center in La Jolla, California. He was also Professor and
Scripps Family Chair in Cell Biology and co-director of the
International Laboratory for Tropical Agricultural Biotechnology
(ILTAB) at Scripps.
Beachy was a member of the biology department at Washington
University in St. Louis from 1978 to 1991, where he was
Professor and Director of the Center for Plant Science and
Biotechnology. He rejoined the department in 1999 upon his
appointment to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.
Research under Beachy's direction has led to a number of patent
applications. He has edited or contributed to 50 book articles,
and his work has produced more than 200 peer-reviewed
publications.
Fraley oversees Monsanto's integrated crop and seed agribusiness
technology and research with facilities in almost every world
area. He has authored more than 100 publications and patent
applications relating to technical advances in agricultural
biotechnology. Fraley received the National Medal of Technology
from President Clinton in 1999. |