Download Agricultural Biotechnology: mainstream or misguided?

Biotechnology education at
Purdue University and beyond
Peter Goldsbrough
Dept. of Horticulture and Landscape
Architecture, Purdue University
January 2006
Outline
Survey of major ag biotech products
 Adoption of biotech products
 Products that have failed
 Obstacles to the deployment of ag
biotech products
 Some examples of biotechnology
educational programs

Timeline
1973
1978
1983
1994
1996
First recombinant DNA molecules
First plant genes cloned
Transgenic plants produced
Flavr Savr tomato marketed
Roundup Ready soybeans planted
commercially
1998 First UK supermarket bans GM foods
2002 Approval to grow Bt cotton in India
What are the products of
agricultural biotechnology?

Herbicide resistance
– soybeans, cotton, canola, corn

Insect resistance
– cotton, corn

Virus resistance
– papaya, squash

Others (most not yet commercialized)
– nutritional content, shelf life, flower color,
pharma crops ….
Impact of Roundup Ready beans
Improved weed control
 Reduced cost of weed
control

– for all growers
– impact on other herbicide
manufacturers

Increased use of no-till
planting
– reduced soil erosion
Why do growers love Roundup
Ready soybeans?
Reduced production costs
 Greater flexibility for weed control
 Increased yield?

Bt cotton
Produces a Cry toxin protein from
Bacillus thuringiensis
 Used to control a number of insect
pests

– cotton bollworm, budworm

Introduced in 1996, now planted on
76% of US cotton acreage
Global adoption of Bt cotton

Bt cotton has been planted in many
countries, 21% of global acreage
– US, India, China, Australia, South Africa
Contributed to a dramatic reduction in
insecticide use (more than 50% in some
areas)
 Limited food safety concerns
 Bollgard II recently introduced

– expresses two different Cry proteins
Virus resistance

Papaya ringspot
virus decimated the
papaya industry in
Hawaii in the 1990s
 Dennis Gonsalves et
al. developed
transgenic papaya
expressing PRSV
coat protein, resistant
to the virus
Virus resistance

Transgenic papaya
grown in Hawaii for
several years
 Restored the
papaya industry
 Increased exports
of non-transgenic
papaya
Adoption of GM crops

Steady increase
in global
plantings of GM
crops

High market
penetration in
the US
GM crops on the rise?
GM crops on the rise?

GM crops are
planted on only 5%
of the world's
farmland
– account for >50%
of only one crop,
soybeans

Lots of opportunity
for growth!
Some GM product “failures”
Flavr Savr tomato
 Bt potato
 High methionine soybean
 Roundup Ready wheat
 Weevil resistant pea

What are the obstacles to the
greater use of GM crops?
Scientific discovery
 Cost of development
 Economic benefits
 Intellectual property constraints
 Regulatory issues
 Consumer acceptance


What role for biotechnology education?
Consumer acceptance?
Not an issue in
the US
 A major concern
elsewhere,
especially in
Europe

Agricultural biotechnology
education at Purdue

Purdue students
– HORT 350 Biotechnology in Agriculture

High school teachers
– Summer class on biotechnology

School-age children
– Apple genomics

The general public
HORT 350 Biotechnology in
Agriculture
Semester course for junior and senior
undergraduate students
 The science of biotechnology and
transgenic organisms
 Applications of biotechnology, primarily
in agriculture
 Regulations and controversies
surrounding ag biotechnology

Biotechnology education for
teachers
HORT 350 converted to a distance
education course for teachers
 Taught by Dr. Kathryn Orvis
 Encourages incorporation of genetics
and biotechnology into the school
curriculum
 Teachers develop and share lesson
plans on biotechnology

Biotechnology education for
children
Apple genomics research program
supported by the National Science
Foundation
 At Purdue, we are developing webbased educational material to explain
the science of genomics
 Targeted at school-age children
 Uses apple as the model

Apple genomics education
Use animations to explain topics
 DNA cloning
 DNA sequencing
 Gene expression
 Microarrays
From Lego blocks to nucleotides

Lego building blocks are
used to represent
nucleotides in DNA
 Connectors on blocks
represent the hydoxyl
and phosphate groups
 These join together to
make a stack of blocks
 or a DNA molecule
DNA sequencing with Lego
blocks
Connectors on Lego
blocks represent
chemical groups
 Different colors of
blocks represent bases
 Blocks without
connectors represent
dideoxy nucleotides
used for sequencing

DNA sequencing with Legos

See the animation, “Modeling DNA
Sequencing with Lego Blocks
under Apple Molecular Biology –
Cloning, on this website.
Other animations
Two additional animations, showing
biotechnology processes are on this
webpage, under the For Educators”
section:
 The gene gun
 Agrobacterium
The role of education
Education will not solve all the problems
with public concern regarding GM crops
 However, if the public is better informed
about the science and the issues, the
prospects for more widespread adoption
of this technology are enhanced
