Monthly Archives: June 2017

June 27, 2017 A photograph of purple endosperm rice. Credit: Qinlong Zhu of the South China Agricultural University

Researchers in China have developed a genetic engineering approach capable of delivering many genes at once and used it to make rice endospermseed tissue that provides nutrients to the developing plant embryoproduce high levels of antioxidant-boosting pigments called anthocyanins. The resulting purple endosperm rice holds potential for decreasing the risk of certain cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other chronic disorders. The work appears June 27th in the journal Molecular Plant.

"We have developed a highly efficient, easy-to-use transgene stacking system called TransGene Stacking II that enables the assembly of a large number of genes in single vectors for plant transformation," says senior study author Yao-Guang Liu of the South China Agricultural University. "We envisage that this vector system will have many potential applications in this era of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering."

To date, genetic engineering approaches have been used to develop rice enriched in beta-carotene and folate, but not anthocyanins. Although these health-promoting compounds are naturally abundant in some black and red rice varieties, they are absent in polished rice grains because the husk, bran, and germ have been removed, leaving only the endosperm.

Previous attempts to engineer anthocyanin production in rice have failed because the underlying biosynthesis pathway is highly complex, and it has been difficult to efficiently transfer many genes into plants.

To address this challenge, Liu and his colleagues first set out to identify the genes required to engineer anthocyanin production in the rice endosperm. To do so, they analyzed sequences of anthocyanin pathway genes in different rice varieties and pinpointed the defective genes in japonica and indica subspecies that do not produce anthocyanins.

Based on this analysis, they developed a transgene stacking strategy for expressing eight anthocyanin pathway genes specifically in the endosperm of the japonica and indica rice varieties. The resulting purple endosperm rice had high anthocyanin levels and antioxidant activity in the endosperm. "This is the first demonstration of engineering such a complex metabolic pathway in plants," Liu says.

In the future, this transgene stacking vector system could be used to develop plant bioreactors for the production of many other important nutrients and medicinal ingredients. For their own part, the researchers plan to evaluate the safety of purple endosperm rice as biofortified food, and they will also try to engineer the biosynthesis of anthocyanins in other crops to produce more purple endosperm cereals.

"Our research provides a high-efficiency vector system for stacking multiple genes for synthetic biology and makes it potentially feasible for engineering complex biosynthesis pathways in the endosperm of rice and other crop plants such as maize, wheat, and barley," Liu says.

Explore further: The origin and spread of 'Emperor's rice'

More information: Molecular Plant, Zhu et al.: "Development of ''Purple Endosperm Rice'' by Engineering Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in the Endosperm with a High-Efficiency Transgene Stacking System" http://www.cell.com/molecular-plant/abstract/S1674-2052(17)30140-5 , DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2017.05.008

Journal reference: Molecular Plant

Provided by: Cell Press

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Genetic engineering tool generates antioxidant-rich purple rice - Phys.Org

What do you think of genetically modified organisms? Are they good or bad? Those are the type of simplified, and sometimes divisive, questions documentary filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy wants to challenge.

Kennedy was a unique guest speaker at the UGA Plant Centers annual symposium on May 9. Hot on the heels of completing his latest film, Food Evolution, Kennedy spoke to a crowd of plant scientists and shared how he pursued the various angles of the GMO controversyscience, politics, activism and businessonly to find that the truth is complicated.

The GMO controversy was just waving its hands, saying this is a story thats not being told correctly, said Kennedy. It deals with huge issues in our food system, from feeding the most who have the least, to corporate greed and issues of monopolies and things like that. But it didnt seem like the full story was being told.

Kennedy will be the first to admit hes not an expert on genetic modification, but hes become very informed. He hopes his film will help shed some light on the less understood sides of the GMO debate.

UGA plant biologist Jim Leebens-Mack hopes so, too. Thats why he worked with Kennedy to organize a screening of Food Evolution at Cin in addition to presenting at the symposium.

In Athens, theres a lot of concern about people not taking the scientific perspective on things like global warming, environmental sustainability and so on, said Leebens-Mack, but GMOs are one issue where science takes a backseat to fear.

Genetic modification, also known as genetic engineering (GE), has been in practice since the early 1990s, when herbicide-tolerant corn was introduced. Today, more than 90 percent of the corn, soybeans and cotton grown in the U.S. are genetically engineered, and the Genetic Literacy Project estimates that 70 percent of the foods we buy contain GM ingredients.

GM foods have become a bogeyman, says Leebens-Mack. Like the mythical monster, fears surrounding genetic modification are ill-defined. Leebens-Mack often hears that its just not natural. His perspective is different.

As an evolutionary biologist, I know that nature has been imposing genetic modifications on plants throughout their evolutionary history, he said. Scientists use genetic modification to promote traits within a plant that growers want, whether thats resistance to certain herbicides, drought, bacteria, insects or pathogens.For example, a virus-tolerant variety of Rainbow papaya has saved Hawaiis papaya industry from ruin. That is one of the many scenarios where GE plants have obvious benefits that Kennedy explores in his film.

Leebens-Mack wants the films viewers to understand that GE technology and GMOs are not inherently good or evil. Kennedy observed that the decision to grow GE crops or organic crops depends on whats right for each farmer.

For the record, the scientific consensus is that GMOs do not present any health risk to animals or humans. Of course, there are arguments that go beyond safety and health. Kennedy and Leebens-Mack both acknowledge that GE technologies have been used by Big Ag to improve commodity crop yields.

USDA Certified Organic foods, by contrast, cannot use GE ingredients. This contributes to the idea that supporting organic farming and GE technologies are mutually exclusive, said Kennedy.

It doesnt have to be either/or, he said. There are wonderful things that we have and will continue to learn from organic farming, and there are amazing things that are being done by very smart people that want to save the planet in a sustainable way on the science side.

Rather than make blanket claims about GMOs, Leebens-Mack wants to community to start having more rational conversations about genetic modification and how it can be a useful tool for sustainable agriculture. The potential for corporate monopolies and corruption, the environmental and social impact GMOsthese may be valid concerns, says Leebens-Mack, but lets do a better job of articulating our concerns and then try to work through those.

Food Evolution (narrated by celebrity physicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson) opened nationally in theaters June 23. To start a local discussion about GMOs, your local farmer and Wayne Parrotts lab at UGA are good places to start.

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New Documentary Challenges Views on Genetically Modified Food - Flagpole Magazine