PARTIAL TABLE OF CONTENTS, relevant to seed professionals (links are to the ISB News Report website)

RISK ASSESSMENT

Biosafety of transgenic sorghum - A comment on Visarada and Kishore (2007)
Allison Snow & Gebisa Ejeta

In their recent ISB News Report article about transgenic sorghum, Visarada and Kishore (2007) provide incomplete information about the likelihood that transgenes would spread to wild relatives of the crop. Introgression of transgenes that enhance the fitness of weedy relatives could possibly make them more difficult to manage. Studies show that pollen- and seed-mediated gene flow to wild and weedy relatives of sorghum is expected to be extensive.

Complete article:
pdf: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/artspdf/may0701.pdf
web: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/news07.may.htm#may0701

Environmental safety of transgenic squash: a geostatistical analysis
Ferdinand E. Klas, Marc Fuchs, & Dennis Gonsalves

Hypothetically, for any given pair of plants in a field, one can influence the infectious status of another by serving as virus source for aphid-mediated virus transmission. This degree of dependence on virus spread between plant pairs can be quantified and modeled by geostatistical analysis of data. The parameters measured are the infectious status of the test plants (healthy or infected) and the location (coordinates) of the two samples within a field.

Complete article:
pdf: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/artspdf/may0702.pdf
web: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/news07.may.htm#may0702

INDUSTRY NEWS

Nitrogen use efficient canola showing early success

With nitrogen fertilizer prices hovering at about $500/ton, one of the most eagerly awaited next generation biotech crop traits is greater nitrogen use efficiency, which would help farmers save on input costs and have environmental benefits as well. Several companies are working on nitrogen efficient crops, including Arcadia Biosciences, which recently announced that development of Nitrogen Use Efficient (NUE) canola is showing early success.

Complete article:
pdf: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/artspdf/may0703.pdf
web: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/news07.may.htm#may0703

BOOK REVIEW

Let them eat precaution: How politics is undermining the genetic revolution in agriculture
Jon Entine

This book brings together experts from a variety of perspectives on bioengineered food, which holds the promise of radically reducing hunger in the third world but which is mired in political controversy.

Complete article:
pdf: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/artspdf/may0704.pdf
web: http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2007/news07.may.htm#may0704