Contributions of Biotechnology for Poverty Reduction in Africa

$A perspective for small to medium-sized plant breeding programs

Agro-biotechnology

Tissue culture and micropropagation

Recombinant DNA and diagnostics

Transgenics and GM-food, -feed, -fiber

Genomics and marker-aided introgression and selection

(Biosafety and IPR management)

Agro-biotechnology levels

Product users: import germplasm ensuing from biotech

process for testing or for crossing blocks with local

material

Tool users: import tools for molecular breeding,

adapting tool to local environments when needed

Methods innovators: research to establish full capacity

(both products and tools) for molecular breeding

7666088Total

79909Barley

7762Papaya77959Tomato

72253Legumes691674Potato

71231Squash761980Soybean

65234Beet712136Wheat

78290Alfalfa625563Cotton

87326Pea6810511Maize

93350Canola6813487Rice

73400Flax8626723Apple

%>1985TotalCrop%>1985TotalCrop

US patents in key crops (< 2000)

Legal forms of property protection: patents, plant breeder’s rights, MTAs, technology use agreements, bag label contracts, trade secrets, commercial contracts and licenses

Freedom-to-operate: licensing germplasm for biotech tools, cross-licensing, joint ventures with private sector holding biotechnology, licensing (gratis), making common cause for sharing biotechnology, alliance with independent developers of biotech tools, use legally proprietary tools in host country and allow recipients to deal with claims on ensuing biotech products in other country

public goodsIntellectual property rights and international

Agro-biotechnology strategy for an international

Conduct applied biotech research to address the food

and income needs

Transfer, in collaboration with partners, biotech

products from labs to markets

Serve as a platform for biotech transfer between

advanced labs and NARS

Enhanced selected NARS capacity to apply and monitor

biotech via comprehensive interactions and training-

through-research programs

center - IITA

Gene gun Agrobacterium

Transformation Methods

Transgenic crops: cotton, cucumber, melon, maize, tomato, papaya, potato, soybean, canola, sugar beet, tobacco, carnation

In pipeline: sweetpotato, cassava, banana/plantain, groundnut, chickpea, pigeonpea, pea, cowpea, sorghum, wheat

Transgenic technology: from test tubes tofarmer fields

Containment Facility and Biosafety

Testing Transgenics

Grown in:Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Uruguay, USA

Not yet grown?:Brazil, Egypt, other EU, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Switzerland

Traits:Herbicide-tolerant Insect resistantViral resistantMale sterile/restorersDelayed ripeningOil contentVitamin A, vaccines

GM-crops: 53 million ha (2001); 62.3% RR-soybean

Transgenic crops

Available transgenic technology for sub-Saharan

Insect resistant crops: cotton, maize, potato, sweetpotato

Viral resistant crops: potato, sweetpotato, papaya, (squash?)

Herbicide tolerant crops?: cotton, maize, soybean, (canola)

Delayed ripening: (melon, tomato?)

Africa

KenyaBt-sweetpotato

KenyaVR-sweetpotato

Ex-ante:

ChinaBt-cotton

MexicoVR-potato

USABt-potato

USA/NCRR-soybean

CanadaRR-canola

US Corn beltBt-maize

LocationCrop

Benefits from transgenic crops

GM-crops and pesticide use

RR-soybean, RR-canola, Bt-maize, Bt-cotton reduced

pesticide use by 22.3 million kg of formulated product in

year 2000

In EU (ex-ante analysis) IF 50% GM-maize, -canola, -

sugar beet and –cotton; THEN pesticide use down by

14.5 million kg of product (4.6 M kg active ingredient),

7.5 M ha sprayed less (i.e., savings of 20.5 million liters

diesel, thereby avoiding 73,000 t CO2 into atmosphere)

From: R.P. Phipps & J.R. Park (2002)

 

Year

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Trait discovery/optimization

Elite event selection process

Regulatory process--------------

 Introgression

 Parent seed production

 Commercial production

-----------Product launch----------- Branding/pricing Premarketing

Timeframe for a transgenic cultivar

Crops

startingstartingstartingCocoa

availableavailableSoybean

gplmap/QTLin dev.Cowpea

gplmap/QTLavailableMaize

pest, gpl genome

map/QTLin-house

GUS +

routineBanana/plantain

pest, gplmap/QTLn/aroutineYams

pest, gplmap/QTLIn-houseroutineCassava

Finger-printingDNA MarkerGM-techTissue Culture

Available = from lab or biotech company in North America

IITA AgroBiotech R4D in SSA

Tissue culture at IITA

In vitro gene bank for cassava, yam and plantain/

banana (incl. cryo-preservation)

Emergency relief unit for vegeatively propagated crops

and delivery of new propagules to farming systems

Pathogen-tested propagules for export after virus-

indexing and diagnostics for pests

Genetic transformation at IITA

Efficient in-house genotype-independent regeneration

protocol from apical meristems of plantain and banana; Gus

(uidA) expression after Agrobacterium transformation

Regeneration and Agrobacterium transformation systems for

cassava; transient Gus expression shown in partnership

project

Researching electroporation for yams and Agrobacterium-

transformation for cowpeas in partnerships with ARIs in EU

and North America

IITA markers for aided-breeding

Plantain & Banana

RAPD and AFLP to determine genetic variation and phylogeny in Musa germplasm

Researching on fruit parthenocarpy, dwarfism, apical dominance and banana weevil resistance with SSR and AFLP markers

RAPD markers for A and B genomes

FISH technique for distinct genomes

SSR to predict heterosis; but pedigree-based analysis still useful for selecting parents

IITA markers for aided-breeding

Cassava Interval mapping with RFLP and SSR of cassava mosaic disease

dominant gene with CIAT and cloning with DDPSC-ILTAB

Two genes coding for enzyme in biosynthesis of cyanogenic glucosides with KVL

EST and DNA chips with NDSU

SSR to determine duplicates in gene bank

Yams

Genetic diversity and phylogeny with AFLP

AFLP maps for water and white yams

QTL for yam mosaic virus with JIC

Cowpea Genetic map (RAPD, AFLP, SSR) with JIC, Univ. Saskatchewan

and US Univs.

QTL for 100 seed-weight, CPMoV, bruchids

Strain-specific R genes for Striga with VU

Genetic diversity and phylogeny gene bank

Maize AFLP fingerprinting of landraces and lines

Map Striga R genes from teosinte for BC with CIMMYT

Soon to research DNA markers for biofortification and nutritional genomics

IITA markers for aided-breeding

Diagnostic tools Routine to detect virus and for pathogen strain-fingerprinting

(ELISA and PCR)

Environmental risk assessment GM-crops Gene flow between cowpea and wild Vigna

Capacity building Assessing status and suggesting new steps

Updating skills of NARS partners

Biosafety with national governments and other stakeholders

Public awareness of benefits (and risks?) of agrobiotechnology

AgroBiotech R4D at IITA

CGIAR’s Emerging Niche “Developing new paradigms in breeding”

Catalyzing lateral linkages

Genomics – Germplasm – Breeding – Bioinformatics

Releasing the power of HTP genotyping

Public domain molecular breeding packages

Enhanced food production

Support increases in population plus fuel economic development

Advances in crop productivity

Augmentation of traditional plant breeding

Critical role of applied agro-biotechnology

More rapid and efficient plant breeding plus achieving new goals

The Role of Molecular Breeding in PovertyAlleviation

New Paradigms in Plant Breeding

Molecular breeding of complex traits GxE, epistasis, population size

Plus-minus assays

Rapid, cost effective, complex development

Knowledge-led plant breeding

Functional and comparative genomics

Mega-throughput marker screening

Microarrays and DNA chips

Outlook for the Future