László Sági

Transplastomic plants for innovations in agriculture. A review

Food production has to be significantly increased in order to feed the fast growing global population estimated to be 9.1 billion by 2050. The Green Revolution and the development of advanced plant breeding tools have led to a significant increase in agricultural production since the 1960s. However, hundreds of millions of humans are still undernourished, while the area of total arable land is close to its maximum utilization and may even decrease due to climate change, urbanization, and pollution. All these issues necessitate a second Green Revolution, in which biotechnological engineering of economically and nutritionally important traits should be critically and carefully considered. Since the early 1990s, possible applications of plastid transformation in higher plants have been constantly developed. These represent viable alternatives to existing nuclear transgenic technologies, especially due to the better transgene containment of transplastomic plants. Here, we present an overview of plastid engineering techniques and their applications to improve crop quality and productivity under adverse growth conditions. These applications include (1) transplastomic plants producing insecticidal, antibacterial, and antifungal compounds. These plants are therefore resistant to pests and require less pesticides. (2) Transplastomic plants resistant to cold, drought, salt, chemical, and oxidative stress. Some pollution tolerant plants could even be used for phytoremediation. (3) Transplastomic plants having higher productivity as a result of improved photosynthesis. (4) Transplastomic plants with enhanced mineral, micronutrient, and macronutrient contents. We also evaluate field trials, biosafety issues, and public concerns on transplastomic plants. Nevertheless, the transplastomic technology is still unavailable for most staple crops, including cereals. Transplastomic plants have not been commercialized so far, but if this crop limitation were overcome, they could contribute to sustainable development in agriculture.

Challenges facing European agriculture and possible biotechnological solutions.

Abstract Agriculture faces many challenges to maximize yields while it is required to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner. In the present study, we analyze the major agricultural challenges identified by European farmers (primarily related to biotic stresses) in 13 countries, namely Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, UK and Turkey, for nine major crops (barley, beet, grapevine, maize, oilseed rape, olive, potato, sunflower and wheat). Most biotic stresses (BSs) are related to fungi or insects, but viral diseases, bacterial diseases and even parasitic plants have an important impact on yield and harvest quality. We examine how these challenges have been addressed by public and private research sectors, using either conventional breeding, marker-assisted selection, transgenesis, cisgenesis, RNAi technology or mutagenesis. Both national surveys and scientific literature analysis followed by text mining were employed to evaluate genetic engineering (GE) and non-GE approaches. This is the first report of text mining of the scientific literature on plant breeding and agricultural biotechnology research. For the nine major crops in Europe, 128 BS challenges were identified with 40% of these addressed neither in the scientific literature nor in recent European public research programs. We found evidence that the private sector was addressing only a few of these “neglected” challenges. Consequently, there are considerable gaps between farmer’s needs and current breeding and biotechnology research. We also provide evidence that the current political situation in certain European countries is an impediment to GE research in order to address these agricultural challenges in the future. This study should also contribute to the decision-making process on future pertinent international consortia to fill the identified research gaps.

Why the European Union needs a national GMO opt-in mechanism

VOLUME 36 NUMBER 1 JANUARY 2018 NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY for seed companies, as well as reducing unnecessary regulatory delays. Fourth, it would no longer force the EC to make decisions that may go against the will of several member states. Finally, the proposed opt-in mechanism would take the political edge out of the procedure. Unlike in the opt-out scenario, countries with a politically significant opposition to GM crops do not need to take a vote in favor (with all its fallout risk in the media) before they can exercise their discretion to opt out, but can simply refrain from opting in.

In Vivo DNA Affinity Purification and Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor Treatment Proves the Role of Histone Acetylation in the Expression Regulation of High-Molecular-Weight Glutenin Genes

High-molecular-weight glutenin subunit (HMW GS) proteins are major components of the gluten matrix, which is the physical basis of bread-making in wheat. Epigenetic and transcriptional regulations of HMW GS genes were studied both in silico and in wet lab to understand their tissue (endosperm) specific expression. Our co-expressional network analysis identified key transcription factor (TF) genes that regulate HMW GS genes. We also show here that HMW GS genes are inhibited in vegetative tissues by histone deacetylation as revealed by strong GUS expression in vascular tissues of transgenic barley seedlings harbouring HMW GS gene promoter::uidA-reporter gene fusions upon treatment with a histone deacetylase inhibitor. A novel method termed in vivo DNA affinity purification (IP) has been developed here for the isolation of histones and transcription factors binding to target DNA regions. The technique is based on the biolistic introduction of biotinylated PCR probes amplified from HMW GS gene promoters into wheat leaves. Twenty-four hours later, the probe is cross-linked with interacting factors and subsequently re-purified from plant nuclear extracts. Many proteins, ribosomal proteins and histones have so far been isolated. No lysine-acetylated histone protein fragments were found which further highlight the inhibiting effect of histone deacetylation on HMW GS gene expression.

Effect of soil and location on field performance of maize hybrids with doubled haploid pedigree

Oil rape is a valuable fodder because in early spring and late autumn it produces green forage used for the nutrition of domestic animals. It has been replacing sunflower and soy in colder and wetter regions. It is additionally advantageous because it leaves behind more nitrogen in soil, which is beneficial to other plants in plant rotation. There are some possible ways for the fixation of nitrogen in soil and they are as follows: by the means of oil rape straw ; by relatively long roots ; by the action of nitrogen bacteria, which perform the nitrogen synthesis within their root system, which is the case in some leguminous plants. Oil seed rape is expected to be wider used in crop rotation of West and Middle Europe, Croatia included. Due to this various sorts have been introduced and potential positive impacts have been studied in order to boost the process. This paper presents information on barley and wheat yield in case when they were sown after oil seed rape and corn. The aim of the research is to determine the presence of positive impacts upon the soil with special attention paid to a potential increase of nitrogen content after oil seed rape was grown. The preceding crops had statistically significant effect. Rape yield was significantly higher compared to the one with corn as preceding crops. Very similar results were obtained in 2007.The maize hybrids seed from three different FAO groups (FAO 400, FAO 500 and FAO 600) in four fractions (KO, KP, SO and SP) produced in two climatically different years (extremely dry 2000 and extremely wet 2001) had been different in quality and chemical composition. The effects of year, genetic specifity and seed fraction at the kernel mass, chemical composition (starch, proteins, cellulose, oil and moisture content) and seed vigour have been evaluated. The influence of agroecological conditions during two production years have been exposed at seed chemical composition and vigour indicators (cold test – CT and bulk seed electrical conductivity - EC). The genetic specificity and seed fraction had significant influence at all tested indices, with the exception of the influence of the fraction at the starch content