1.
Define which problem – in your opinion - will be the
greatest challenge for Swiss agriculture in the future.
In Switzerland we have the privilege to have
very fertile soil at our disposal and it will probably still take a very long
time until a shortage of water will limit our agricultural production. Even
though extreme climate events are becoming more frequent and the weather more unpredictable,
I think climate change is currently not the main problem for the Swiss
agriculture. The bigger concerns nowadays are about pests, about suitable pest
management/control and pest monitoring. Not only newly introduced pests are
causing huge problems but also the pests we’ve had in Switzerland for a long
time are still threatening crop yields today and the application of many pesticides
is often necessary.
2.
What kind of plants would be needed to address this
problem?
The best way to combat pests is to achieve resistances
in crops against the pests which threaten them. Many resistance genes can still
be found in old wild types of the cultured plants and with conventional
breeding methods these resistance genes can often be successfully reintroduced
into the culture by crossbreeding. But these techniques are very complicated,
uncertain and take a lot of time. Therefore there are many attempts to achieve such resistances by genetic engineering. In doing so, it is best if the resistance to the pest
organism is generated by several genes, so
that the pest organism will not adapt and become resistant to the transgenic plant. Thus, the GM plant might not be fully, but permanently protected.
Since I focussed on viruses in my last blog entry,
I first thought of addressing this problem again. Virus resistances have
already been achieved in various plants, also in potatoes. Potatoes are a very
important crop in Switzerland but are affected by a lot of pests, not only by
viruses. A much more problematic, epidemically spreading pest in the
cultivation of potatoes is Phytophthora
infestans, the fungus which causes the disease called potato blight. This pest is so very versatile so that the pest
control methods always start to become ineffective again. This is why, in the end, I chose this topic.
3.
What gene would you need in your plant? Can this gene
be found in the gene bank (maybe from a different species)? Please provide some
details.
In order to attain Phytophthora resistant
potatoes, not only one single gene is needed, but the resistance is
sought to be constituted by several genes since Phytophthora is such a versatile
pest. There are wild type potatoes which show resistance characteristics, but
by crossing there are also the bad traits of the wild potato which come along. One
has to get rid of these unwanted traits afterwards by a long backcrossing procedure
with the cultured potato. With genetic engineering it is much easier and the
first resistant variety Fortuna had been achieved in 2006 by BASF Plant Science,
introducing two resistance genes from the wild type Solanum bulbocastanum. (Early in 2013 the company stopped the
admission procedure in Europe due to the strong refusal of the population).
The University of Wageningen is still working
on a research project (DuRPh) aiming to develop potato cultivars with a durable and a
high level resistance against late blight (Phytophthora). They found
that also other wild types can serve as resistance source, such as Solanum demissum. Among the
11 R gene differentials, which were introduced from S. demissum, especially R8
and R9 differentials showed broad spectrum resistance both under laboratory and
under field conditions.
Since these resistances come from related species,
the “modified” plants are called cisgenic instead of transgenic.
4.
The Swiss National Foundation finances scientific
projects developing genetically modified plants for the Swiss agriculture. State two main arguments, why your project
should be financed too.
-
The conventional pest control agents to combat Phytophthora
are very expensive. The potato production costs could be decreased.
-
A conventional field with potatoes is treated with
fungicides around 10 times a season. These pesticides are very harmful for the
environment and the numerous applications are not climate friendly at all.
5.
If you would be the person responsible for grants at
the Swiss National Foundation – would you finance your project? Explain in two
sentences.
I still stick to my denial of transgenic crops
and would therefore not finance the project. I do not believe that genetic
engineering will ever come up with ultimate solutions, but would only
temporarily facilitate the work of farmers. In the long run, it is not the
right approach.
References:
www.wageningenur.nl. (2012). Von
http://www.wageningenur.nl/en/Expertise-Services/Research-Institutes/plant-research-international/DuRPh.htm
abgerufen
www.transgen.de. (30. Januar 2013). Abgerufen am 7. Mai 2013 von
http://www.transgen.de/pflanzenforschung/anbaueigenschaften/845.doku.html
ETH Zürich. (19. April 2011). www.path.ethz.ch. Abgerufen am 7. Mai
2013 von
http://www.path.ethz.ch/education/courses/online_skripte/diagnostik/kartoffel/index
Kim HJ, L. H. (23. November 2011). Broad spectrum late blight
resistance in potato differential set plants MaR8 and MaR9 is conferred by
multiple stacked R genes. Wageningen.
