Barley
It will be some time yet before genetically modified barley lines move beyond the development stage and are ready for market approval. Areas of research include ways of improving the digestibility of barley used for fodder, and improving its malting qualities as a raw material for the brewing industry. Another key breeding aim is to protect barley against fungal diseases. Fungus-resistant barley lines are now also the subject of biosafety research.Two biosafety research projects at the University of Giessen are also looking at barley lines with fungal resistance.
Following repeated destruction of its release fields for genetically modified barley in recent years, the university is planning to move its trials to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2009. The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) approved the trial at the beginning of May 2009.
Science live
- "There are hopes that resistances can be created using individual targetable genes." An interview with Karl-Heinz Kogel on fungal resistance in cereals
- Mycorrhizas – a successful symbiosis. Safety research on barley
- "We are interested in soil life." An interview with Karl-Heinz Kogel on the field trial with GM barley in Giessen
Background
Research info
- Sifo project (2005-2008): Transgenic fungus-resistant barley – Effects on pathogenic and beneficial fungi, University of Giessen
- Sifo project (2005-2008): Transgenic fungus-resistant barley – Effects on gene expression and plant substances, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Wheat:
drought tolerance
Drought and other unfavourable climate conditions have led to declining cereal harvests in many countries. Australia has been particularly badly hit. Agricultural research in Australia is looking to genetic engineering to develop wheat lines that produce consistent yields even in arid conditions.
Release experiments with drought-resistant wheat will be conducted in Australia again this year. GMO Safety spoke to German Spangenberg about the findings to date and about future prospects. Prof. Spangenberg is a research director at the Victorian Department of Primary Industries in South-Eastern Australia.
Background
Wheat: Fungal resistance
Breeders have been trying to develop wheat with increased resistance to fungal diseases for a long time – so far with mixed results. Not only do fusaria and mildew lead to harvest losses, they also produce toxic metabolites. Other fungi, such as loose smut of wheat are spread via seeds.
Using genetic methods it is possible to transfer natural strategies used by other plants or micro-organisms to protect themselves against fungi, to wheat or other cereals. The first field trials with a fusarium-resistant GM wheat line were destroyed by GM opponents in 2004. Field trials with GM wheat are to begin again in 2009.
Background
- Field trials with GM wheat 2008: Sophisticated approach for combating loose smut of wheat
- Fungal resistance: An attractive but difficult objective. GM wheat trial completely destroyed (April 2004)
Wheat: Protein enrichment
Scientists at the Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Gatersleben (Saxony-Anhalt) have found a way to increase the amount of protein in wheat grains. To do so they transferred certain genes from barley and broad beans to wheat. Field trials began in the autumn of 2006 to test the concept under realistic conditions.
The institute’s site is also home to one of the world’s largest gene banks. For many years the gene bank has been storing more than a hundred thousand plant specimens, including wheat. In the summer some of them are planted in the field and propagated. Critics fear that the GM wheat could ‘contaminate’ the gene bank’s valuable stocks.
background
- Interview with the head of the gene bank, Prof. Andreas Graner: "We have 60 years’ experience of propagating wheat seed." (March 2007)
- Wheat grain with more protein. Release trial with GM wheat approved (December 2006)
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