Czech agro-biotechnology in 2007

Czech agro-biotechnology in 2007

 

The year 2007 brought serious changes in global biotech climate in agriculture market. China and India started importing food and food crops. Biofuel ideology put forward unrealistic demand for agro products as a source of bioethanol and bio-diesel. The European Union's Biofuels Directive (Directive 2003/30/EC) states that, by the end of 2010, 5.75% of all petrol and diesel transport fuels should be biomass-based. A subsequent energy strategy adopted in early 2007 increases the target to 10% for 2020. The over-supply of food crops in Europe turned into shortage sending food prices high. Global wheat price raised from 3 USD/bushel in 2005 to 5 USD in 2006 and over 10 USD in 2007. Farmers were pleased by prices increasing but consumers were afraid of future development.

The situation evoked UNEP[1], FAO and UNIDO[2] as well as OECD to issue warning[3] "So although using biofuels to partly replace fossil fuels is widely assumed to deliver a number of energy security, environmental, and economic benefits, these are actually smaller than expected and unlikely to be delivered by current policies." The diagnosis of this malady by OECD fits exactly to EU and Czech situation: "The most commonly used government policies to stimulate biofuel production are financial incentives, such as tax credits or concessions, and import quotas and tariffs; to enhance their use, quantitative blending requirements of ethanol and bio-diesel with fossil fuels are often introduced."

The solution is envisaged in the development of "second generation" technologies in biofuel production. They point in two directions: to use classical processes of ethanol or biogas fermentation but using wastes rather than crops, or to develop new processes producing more suitable compounds as biofuels like higher alcohols, hydrocarbons etc. This is great stimulus for biotechnology as demonstrates in the global patenting trends published by European Patent Office.

However, Czech example indicates that good results can be obtained even by traditional approach. Czech and Moravian region used to be a sugar producer for whole Central Europe. Recently the EU quotas on sugar almost cancel the sugar industry. Nevertheless the skill of farmers to get yield up to 60 tonnes of sugar beet per hectare is still there. The management of the sugar factory in Dobrovice refused to close the sugar beet processing instead they constructed modern distillery and launched the company Agroetanol a.s. The efficiency reached about 100 litres of bioethanol from one tonne of sugar beet. Taking into account the above harvest the production per hectare touched almost that of sugar cane.

Improving the technology so that the distillery will work smoothly the whole year, Czech Republic would be able to cover the demand for bioethanol. But the price will be above the import from Brazil. There is a chance to reduce the cost of planting sugar beet: to use herbicide tolerant (HT) variety. M. Čeřovská estimated the saving of 3 500 to 4 000 CZk/ha when HT variety is used. It is one of biotechnology products envisaged in the Czech Republic for future use as discussed bellow.

Even if the sugar beet provides good efficiency in bioethanol production, the future lies in biofuels from wastes. Many farms are using the biogas production from organic materials. This can be extended to household wastes. Wood industry also provides sawdust and wood debris that can be converted to gas.

Transgenic crops

The transgenic crops are in Czech Republic represented by Bt corn MON 810, the only crop authorized for market in EU. It was authorised in CR for planting on the basis of precautionary principle: the risk to the environment is much higher when "traditional" measures are used for the control of European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis). They are limited to chemical insecticides, e.g., deltamethrin, metoxyfenozid, indoxacarb, teflobenzuron and others. Bt corn is well accepted by farmers in CR. The area of MON 810 Bt corn reached over 5000 ha last year. This represents about the quarter of the area that used to be sprayed by chemical insecticides. Planting this corn also reduced the use of machinery and fuel. Both reductions are beneficial for farmers as well as for environment. The official organisations like the Agricultural Chamber are supporting the use of Bt corn.

Reasons for growing Bt corn were evaluated by Drábkova[4] by questioning of farmers: quality of harvest (30%), higher yield (25%), saving expenses for spraying (20%), more environment friendly (11%), other (10%).

This practical application is supported by the Czech research. Two three-year projects studying the effect of Bt corn on filed insect population were finished. The results showed no shift in the structure of the community neither in the abundance of individual species occurred. The study was connected with the analysis of mycotoxines in the harvest. Neither Trichogramma is safe protection from mycotoxine formation. Chemical treatment by insecticides is successful provided proper timing can be used.

New task for research is emerging: the root-worm (Diabrotica) invades from south in the CR territory. So far it does not cause economic damage. Nevertheless, measures should be developed for the future as expansion of this pest can be expected.

Field trials

Several field trials were successfully finished in 2007. Czech University of Agriculture in Prague[5] conducted field trials of genetically modified maize NK603 tolerant to glyphosate herbicides (N-phosphonomethyl-glycine) on area 2500 m². The tolerance is achieved through the expression of CP4 EPSPS proteins similar to Roundup Ready soybeans. EPSPS is an enzyme involved in the shikimic acid pathway for aromatic amino acid biosynthesis in plants and microorganisms. CP4 EPSPS enzyme of bacterial origin have been shown to exhibit significantly reduced affinity for glyphosate when compared with the wild-type plant enzyme, and to retain catalytic activity in the presence of the inhibitor glyphosate.

Potato is another traditional crop in CR. Field tests of four transgenic varieties developed by BASF were conducted. The only one designed for food or feed is the variety with improved resistance to Phytophthora infestans. This genetically modified potato line[6] contains two NBS-LRR-genes, Rpi-blb1 and Rpi-blb2, from wild species Solanum bulbocastanum for conferring improved resistance to P. infestans. The reduced need for fungicides on these lines can easily be identified as an environmental benefit. The ahas gene is used as selection marker. It imparts tolerance to the herbicidal active substance Imazamox to the shoots during the selection process in cell culture.

Three other lines are designed for industrial use. They form starch of different composition. General starch is composed of two glucose polymers: a linear amylose and branched amylopectin. The starch of one of these transgenic lines is composed from amylose only as the branching enzyme was silenced[7]. Two lies were developed by BASF forming practically amylopectin only. One of them called Amflora[8] provides starch suitable for textile industry, painting products, paper manufacturing and other industrial applications.

Field trials included also transgenic crops developed in CR.

In addition to potatoes lines developed by BASF another potato variety with the reduced sugar content in tubers is under long-term filed trials[9] in Vesa Velhartice. It was prepared in the Institute of Experimental Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences by the introduction of Lbpfk (bacterial phosphofructokinase) gene from, Lactobacillus bulgaricus. The lowering of reducing sugars decreases the acrylamide formation upon frying and sweetening in cold environment.

Agritec, Research, Breeding & Services, Ltd. proceeds in testing genetically modified flax and linseed plants developed by Czech scientists[10]. They follow induced mutations of existing plant genes, tolerance to herbicide phosphinotricine introduced by bacterial gene bar and expression of inhibitors of serine-type proteases (SPI-2) with the aim to enhance tolerance of flax plants to fungal diseases and/or insect pests. Introduction of gene sequences either for human metalothioneine (αHMT1A) or short synthetic peptide (CP) enhances the ability of flax to accumulate heavy metal pollutants from the soil.

Another long-term field trial proceeded at Research Institute of Crop Production with genetically modified plum cv. Stanley clone C-5 with the aim to develop variety resistant to plum-pox virus[11]. The GM tree was obtained by introduction of coat protein gene of plum-pox virus together with NPT II (tolerance to kanamycin) as selection gene and GUS (coding for glucuronidase) as signal gene.

About the future

As reported above, sugar beet can be acceptable source of bioethanol and will use the traditional skill of our farmers. However, to get price level comparable with the import from Brazil, transgenic HT line is needed. Transgenic sugar beet H7-1 is being tested in Germany, Spain and Sweden. The problem sticks in Brussels as the European Commissioner for the Environment blocks the approval of new transgenic crops for planting. The variety H7-1 was developed with PMI - phosphomannose isomerase gene (PMI) derived from E. coli as selectable marker[12], so that no objections can be raised concerning safety.

The planting of Amflora potato will bring the revival of potato planting, which fell down to almost one half since 1989. Starch factories will form welcomed contribution to the country industry. As the substance rich in protein resulting after starch isolation is usually used for feed mixtures, the Amflora potato should be approved for planting and also for feed. This is again a problem with the EU as the Council of agriculture ministers was not able to come to positive recommendation since Commissioner Stavros Dimas holds the issue closed.

The problem here is the selection marker used. The nptII gene (neomycinphosphotransferase II) from E. coli introduces kanamycine tolerance in plant material. Certain medical doctors, e.g., from Institute Pasteur argue that using the material from such potatoes as feed will bring a risk of gene transfer to pathogenic bacteria in animal intestine rendering them resistant to certain antibiotics. However, this hypothesis has no practical value. The plant-to-bacteria gene transfer has never been verified. If it occurs it is extremely rare. On the contrary, the bacteria-to-bacteria transfer is quite common. The occurrence in field conditions of bacteria carrying the kanamycine resistance gene is of the order 10⁷/g of soil. Naturally, they come to animal feed and to our food. The content of soil microorganisms in food is tolerated to the level 10⁵/g for baby food and 10⁷/g for general food. Consequently daily uptake of bacteria carrying nptII gene is of the level 10¹⁰.with humans and more with livestock. Thus the supply of easy transferable bacterial genes of kanamycine resistance is so high that it makes the probability of plant gene transfer practically negligible.

 

1 Global Agro-Industries Forum FAO and UNIDO in New Delhi, 9 April 2008

http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000823/index.html

2 UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council meeting, Nairobi, 5 February 2007.

3 Biofuels for Transport: Policies and Possibilities, OECD Policy Brief, November 2007, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/18/8/39718027.pdf

4 Čeřovská M. Technologické a socio-ekonomické aspekty geneticky modifikovaných plodina hodnocení rizik v podmínkách ČR. Ph disertace ČZU, 2008.

5 Notification Number B/CZ/07/02, http://gmoinfo.jrc.it/

6 Notification Number B/CZ/07/01, http://gmoinfo.jrc.it/

7 Notification Number B/CZ/06/01, http://gmoinfo.jrc.it/

8 Notification Numbers B/CZ/05/642 and B/CZ/06/05, http://gmoinfo.jrc.it/