ISB News Report - April 2014
USA
April 16, 2014
ISB NEWS REPORT
PUBLISHED BY INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY, VIRGINIA TECH, BLACKSBURG, VA
http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2014/Apr14.pdf
Table of Contents
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REGULATORY NEWS
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GE Labeled Food Fight Continues
Phillip Jones
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During 2012, California voters rejected a measure to label food sold in the state that had been derived from genetically engineered (GE) organisms. On February 21 of this year, California Senator Noreen Evans introduced a GE labeling bill. This time, the fate of GE labeling will be decided by state legislators, not the voters. In the United States, GE labeling advocates continue their fight to overcome policies established by the Food and Drug Administration.
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PLANT RESEARCH
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Utility of Metabolite Profiling by Mass Spectrometry to Facilitate Plant Breeding for Food Quality: A Case Study in Malting Barley
Adam L. Heuberger and Jessica E. Prenni
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The process of breeding food crops for agricultural use is lengthy and expensive. Current research has focused on developing genetic markers of food quality; however, this technology often fails to capture the influence of environmental factors that may occur during the growing season. Plant metabolites represent an alternative to genetic markers because they have the potential to be directly associated with food quality. High-throughput metabolite profiling of plant material represents a new and exciting area of research, and recent studies have illustrated a connection between metabolic variation in food and the corresponding genetic diversity within a plant species. We recently reported an investigation of the utility of non-targeted metabolomics to identify markers of food quality in advanced malting barley lines.
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An Innovative Approach for Pest Control towards Next Generation Insect Resistant Plants
Punam Kumari, Nirupama Banerjee and Neera Bhalla Sarin
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Insecticidal Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins have been successfully expressed in plants to provide resistance against selected insect pests. Each Bt gene is highly specific: single Cry proteins are generally toxic to specific orders of insects, mostly Lepidoptera (Cry1 toxins) and Coleoptera (Cry3 toxins). Non-Bt approaches for resistance to pests have also been used by exploiting plant defense mechanisms such as proteinase inhibitors, lectins, a-amylase inhibitors, enzymes, and predator toxins. Our results indicate that the gene encoding XnGroEL is a promising candidate for more comprehensive evaluation for crop protection in agriculture and could provide new and alternative options for pest management in a variety of crops.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
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NOTICE: Dow AgroSciences LLC; Availability of Petition for Determination of Nonregulated Status of Cotton Genetically Engineered for Resistance to 2,4-D and Glufosinate
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Docket No. APHIS-2013-0113
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Dow AgroSciences LLC (DAS) is seeking a determination of nonregulated status of cotton designated as DAS-8191[Oslash]-7, which has been genetically engineered for resistance to the herbicides 2,4-D and glufosinate. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is making the DAS petition available for review and comment to help them identify potential environmental and interrelated economic issues and impacts that the APHIS may determine should be considered in their evaluation of the petition.
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More news from: ISB News Report
Website: http://www.isb.vt.edu Published: April 16, 2014 |