Seed Today - Q1 2008 - (Page 65)

“Cutting fertilizer use by about a third would reduce greenhouse emissions by more than grounding every single aircraft in the world.” volved in the production of proteins and originally isolated from barley. Hooked to a sequence that ensures the gene is switched on in plant roots, it seems to boost the ability of a wide range of plants to take up nitrogen. Arcadia claims field tests over five growing seasons show that GM oilseed rape can either produce about the same yield using just a third of the fertilizer, or boost yield by a third using current quantities. Arcadia has licensed the technology for oilseed rape to Monsanto. Reducing fertilizer use should cut emissions of nitrous oxide in direct proportion. Indeed, cutting fertilizer use by about a third would reduce greenhouse emissions by more than grounding every single aircraft in the world. Arcadia is now working with officials in the autonomous region of Ningxia in northern China to quantify the reductions in emissions that would result if rice with alanine aminotransferase could be grown with less nitrogen fertilizer. them a big advantage in some natural ecosystems. Groups that have spearheaded the campaign against genetically modified crops remain sceptical. “I have no doubt that people working in this area have good intentions,” says Clare Oxborrow, an anti-GM campaigner with Friends of the Earth UK. “We’re just not convinced this is the way to be going.” Then Oxborrow adds, “We wouldn’t shut the door completely. We’re not fundamentalist about it.” So perhaps environmentalists might buy into Rey’s green GM vision, if he can come up with an application that everyone agrees is environmentally beneficial. Nitrogen-Use Efficiency The workable answer, Rey believes, is a nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE) trait. Across much of the globe, yields depend heavily on huge quantities of nitrogen fertilizer. Its manufacture emits one percent of all greenhouse emissions, according to some estimates. Most crops take up less than half of the applied nitrogen, which means that nitrates contaminate soil, groundwater and run-off. Worse still, nitrates in the soil can be converted to nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 300 times as potent as carbon dioxide, molecule for molecule. The level of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere has risen by 18 percent since the dawn of modern agriculture, and nitrogen fertilizer is the main cause of the increase. Arcadia’s solution is a gene for the enzyme alanine aminotransferase, inResponse No. 651 First Quarter 2008 65 http://www.columbiaokura.com http://www.columbiaokura.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Seed Today - Q1 2008

Seed Today - Q1 2008 Contents Editor’s Notes Cover Feature: Agrecol® Corporation Reed Barker, Ph.D. Cal/West Seeds Inc. Annual GM Use Report Bt Resistance Reported Camelina Tony Harper Gayle Jacklin According to ASTA Krauter Structures AOSCA AOSA/SCST GM and Greenhouse Gas Seed Associations Ad Index

Seed Today - Q1 2008

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