GM biotech sugar cane one step closer

Commercial crops of biotech sugarcane are one step closer to becoming a reality in Australia through new and improved genetic transformation technologies.
A research project from the Cooperative Research Centre for Sugar Industry Innovation through Biotechnology, is said to be making great progress towards improving biotechnology currently used in Australian sugarcane research.

The research team, led by Queensland-based BSES Limited researchers, Dr Prakash Lakshmanan and Dr Priya Joyce, aims to develop commercially useful biotechnology tools for enhanced sugar production and value-added bioproducts, such as bioplastics.

A number of sugarcane lines produced using improved transformation techniques (Agrobacterium-mediated and biolistic techniques) are currently being field tested.

According to Dr Lakshmanan, sugarcane transformed by each method has performed well in the field.

"They provide a sound platform from which genetically enhanced sugarcane can be developed for the benefit of our industry and bring us one step closer to commercial release of genetically enhanced canes," Dr Lakshmanan said.

"But there are hurdles to cross; the most significant one being to secure investment to develop the necessary data package to establish that genetically enhanced sugarcane does not pose health or environmental risks."

Biotechnology is not new to Australian sugarcane research; it has been used by our scientists for almost two decades, and various genes have been successfully introduced and expressed in many sugarcane varieties.

But according to the CRC SIIB, the main constraints to commercial release of genetically enhanced sugarcane have been a lack of reliable transformation systems and access to genes that translate to production advantages for growers and millers.

The CRC SIIB research team developed three improved biotechnology methods, two of them involving the popular biolistics system and the other using the soil microorganism Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

These advances have improved the technology and made the methods more efficient. Hundreds of independent lines using the new methods have been generated and more than one-hundred of these lines are now being tested in the field.

Additionally, using the new technologies, the team has generated canes with new characteristics.

This is a major advance compared to previous trials of biotech sugarcane plants, where significant variations in important traits were observed.

source: nqr.farmonline