April 2005,
Colume 23
No. 4
Link to issue:
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v23/n4/index.html
More Golden Rice
Nature Biotechnology Volume 23 No. 4, pp 482 - 487 (April
2005)
NEWS RELEASE
An improved version of Golden
Rice, rich in pro-vitamin A, is described in the April issue of
Nature Biotechnology. A team of industry scientists in
the UK and USA has produced an improved version of 'Golden
Rice', which contains significantly elevated levels of
beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A) — work that could bring efforts to
develop rice strains to help combat dietary vitamin A deficiency
closer to reality.
Dietary vitamin A deficiency
affects over 250 million people around the globe and can result
in blindness and a depressed immune system. Golden Rice 2
accumulates more than 20 times the amount of beta-carotene
produced in the original Golden Rice, developed five years ago.
Rachel Drake and colleagues engineered the new strain following
methodical screening and testing of alternative versions of
phytoene synthase — the first enzyme in the beta-carotene
pathway — to find the one that produced the most beta-carotene.
Among all the enzymes screened, a phytoene synthase from maize
gave the best results. The new version of Golden Rice containing
the maize enzyme is an excellent starting point for breeding new
varieties of rice rich in beta-carotene.
The original Golden Rice,
although a valuable first step, was soon recognized to contain
insufficient levels of beta-carotene in its grains to allow
practical implementation in the field. Golden Rice 2, however,
has the potential to provide about 50% of the required daily
allowance of vitamin A for children, although this depends on
overall diet composition — in particular the amount of dietary
oils consumed together with it.
The company developing the new
rice strain supports the Humanitarian Project for Golden Rice
and intends to donate the strain for further research and
development through a research license.
Improving the nutritional value of
Golden Rice through increased pro-vitamin A content
pp 482 - 487
Jacqueline A Paine, Catherine A
Shipton, Sunandha Chaggar, Rhian M Howells, Mike J Kennedy,
Gareth Vernon, Susan Y Wright, Edward Hinchliffe, Jessica L
Adams, Aron L Silverstone & Rachel Drake
Published online: 27 March 2005 |
doi:10.1038/nbt1082
Abstract |
Full text |
PDF (accessible to subscribers)
Nature Biotechnology
Volume 23 No. 4, pp
439 - 444 (April 2005)
Published online: 6 April 2005; | doi:10.1038/nbt1084
Regulating
transgenic crops sensibly: lessons from plant breeding,
biotechnology and genomics
Kent J Bradford1, Allen Van Deynze1,
Neal Gutterson2, Wayne Parrott3 & Steven H
Strauss4
1
Seed Biotechnology Center, One Shields Avenue, University of
California, Davis, California, USA 95616.
2 Mendel Biotechnology, Inc., 21375 Cabot Boulevard,
Hayward, California, USA 94545.
3 Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, University
of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA 30602.
4 Department of Forest Science, Oregon State
University, Corvallis, Oregon USA 97331-5752.
ABSTRACT
The costs of meeting regulatory
requirements and market restrictions guided by regulatory
criteria are substantial impediments to the commercialization of
transgenic crops. Although a cautious approach may have been
prudent initially, we argue that some regulatory requirements
can now be modified to reduce costs and uncertainty without
compromising safety. Long-accepted plant breeding methods for
incorporating new diversity into crop varieties, experience from
two decades of research on and commercialization of transgenic
crops, and expanding knowledge of plant genome structure and
dynamics all indicate that if a gene or trait is safe, the
genetic engineering process itself presents little potential for
unexpected consequences that would not be identified or
eliminated in the variety development process before
commercialization. We propose that as in conventional breeding,
regulatory emphasis should be on phenotypic rather than genomic
characteristics once a gene or trait has been shown to be safe.
Full text | PDF
(148K) |
