BVL approves more release trials with GM plants

Field research on genetically modified potatoes and barley to continue

The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) has approved more release trials with genetically modified plants. The applications were submitted as part of the biological safety research programme funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The trials with potatoes and barley can now go ahead. It is only the trials with petunias that are still awaiting approval.

Potatoes for the production of biopolymers

Scientists from the University of Rostock are investigating how suitable potato plants are as a safe system for producing biopolymers. The potato plants to be released contain a gene from a cyanobacterium. The inserted gene enables the potato plants to produce cyanophycin , a material from which the biodegradable plastic polyaspartate can be obtained. Polyaspartate binds calcium and has applications in e.g. detergents as a water softener. It can also replace petroleum-based plastics.

Trial field with genetically modified potatoes

Plants are protected against diseases by colonising them with beneficial mycorrhizal fungi: right with mycorrhiza, left without

Petunia

One of the areas being investigated by the research projects is whether genetically modified potato plants display other, unintended, modified properties, e.g. if they are less susceptible to frost and therefore survive the winter better, or whether there are differences in the way they rot. The projects are also investigating possible harmful effects on the soil ecosystem.

Fungus-resistant barley

Scientists from the University of Giessen are studying two barley lines with increased resistance to fungal diseases. Following repeated destruction of its release fields in Giessen in recent years, the university is moving the trials it began in 2006 to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2009.

One of the barley lines contains a gene inserted from a soil fungus, which causes the plants to produce a chitinase . Chitinases are enzymes that break down chitin – a component of fungal cell walls. The other line contains a gene from a soil bacterium, which causes it to produce glucanase . Glucanase is an enzyme that makes the barley easier to process and increases its resistance to fungi.

One of the research projects is investigating whether the chitinase and glucanase enzymes produced in the barley can also harm beneficial fungi. Like many other plants, barley lives in symbiosis with beneficial mycorrhizal fungi, with plant and fungus benefiting each other. A second project is testing whether the enzyme formation in the plant has impacts on other plant characteristics and substances.

Not yet approved: Outcrossing experiments with petunia

The trial with genetically modified petunia, which has not yet been approved, plans to investigate transfer of plastid DNA via pollen. New research projects are focusing on genetic modification of plants in the plastids rather than in the cell nucleus. Plastids are small units of a plant cell that have their own DNA. Their genetic information is not usually transferred via pollen. This prevents the potential spread of the inserted genes (biological confinement).

It is, however, known that plastid DNA can be transferred via pollen in very rare cases. The project is to quantify these rare cases and research the genetic and cytobiological reasons behind them. The model plant chosen for the experiments is petunia. Outcrossing experiments will be conducted in which some of the plants are genetically modified. The research will be led by the University of Rostock.