Product/Service Development

Wolf Frommer of the Carnegie Institution for Science in the U.S., along with Bing Yang of Iowa State University and Frank White of Kansas State University will modify rice to be stably resistant to all strains of a major rice pathogen. Rice bacterial blight can cause up to 60% loss of yield in Asia and there are currently no effective ways to stop it. These bacteria steal sugar from the rice plants to fuel their own growth. They will block this fundamental mechanism by selectively modifying the DNA sequence of the rice using their TALEN technology.

Shunyuan Xiao of the University of Maryland in the U.S. proposes to engineer a genetic system that enables targeted delivery and induced release of antimicrobial proteins across the extrahaustorial membrane, which is the appendage used by pathogens to penetrate host plant cells. This technology could be used to create broad-spectrum resistance against haustorium-forming pathogens in crop plants.

Ravi Durvasula of the Biomedical Research Institute of New Mexico in the U.S. is developing biopolymers to encapsulate and protect fungal biopesticides, which are used to kill desert locusts that destroy crops in Africa. The polymer will not only shield the biopesticides from harsh environmental conditions such as UV radiation and heat but will also be formulated to release its contents upon contact with the insect.

Savithramma Dinesh-Kumar of the University of California, Davis, along with David Segal of the University of California, Davis and Vincent Fondong of Delaware State University in the U.S., seek to design custom TALE nucleases that target and cleave critical regions of DNA from cassava-infecting geminiviruses (CMGs) to completely inactivate the viruses. CMGs are a major threat to cassava production in Africa, and targeted nucleases could be used to engineer CMG resistance into staple African cassava varieties to promote regional food security.

Monica Schmidt of the University of Arizona and Dilip Shah of the Danforth Center in the U.S. will work to develop a fungal resistant, aflatoxin-free transgenic groundnut by simultaneously suppressing fungal growth and inhibiting the fungus' ability to biosynthesize the mycotoxin compound. This may eliminate carcinogenic mycotoxin contamination making groundnuts safe for consumption.

Marc Ghislain of the International Potato Center in Peru proposes to identify key genes in African sweetpotato weevils that can be used as targets for RNA interference strategies. Engineering gene silencing approaches could confer pest resistance in food crops like the sweetpotato.

Luis Herrera of StelaGenomics, Inc. in the U.S. proposes to produce transgenic crop plants that express an enzyme allowing them to take up a unique source of phosphorous as fertilizer, and to greatly compromise weed growth. This new fertilizer and weed control system could help achieve sustainable high-yield agriculture in Sub-Saharan African without expensive herbicides.

Amitava Mitra of the University of Nebraska in the U.S. will investigate direct repeat- induced gene silencing, a phenomenon of RNA interference in which genes adjacent to a target gene are also silenced. This "transitive silencing" will be tested for its ability to target multiple crop viruses at once, allowing the development of a transgenic wheat strain that is resistant to multiple major diseases.

Wassim Chehab and Janet Braam of Rice University in the U.S. will use light entrainment of plant circadian rhythms and mechanical perturbation to enhance crop biotic stress resistance in the field and post-harvest. The crop protection solutions are simple to administer and, if successful, may enhance smallholder farmer food security.

Jan Kreuze of the International Potato Center in Peru will use RNA silencing mechanisms to eliminate viruses from cultured plants in-vitro by introducing doubled- stranded RNA into the culture media.