GMO Fortuna & late blight resistance

[stockporttps]

www.aseed.net/new/en/gmo-mainmenu-174/1078-gentechveldproeven-met-aardappels-en-appels-in-2012

2012 GMO field trials in The Netherlands: potatoes and apples

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Saturday, 28 July 2012 17:01

In May the Dutch Bureau for Genetically Modified Organisms published the field trials with GMOs on their website. BASF Crop Science has 3 trial fields with the consumption potatoe Fortuna. Wageningen Agriculture University WUR tests in 4 municipalities DuRPh potatoes and number of GM appletrees in the open. Starch company AVEBE is for the first time in years not doing any field trials. Recently complaints of over 100 citizens and several nature protection foundations against one fo the permits were rejected because they were considered inadmissible. ASEED made a dossier with detailed information on the field trials, based on the BGGO permits database.


Fortuna potato of BASF

In the Netherlands BASF is doing field trials with the deepfry potato Fortuna near Boompjesdijk in the municipality of Steenbergen (West-Brabant), along the Zuiderdiep in Valthermond in the municipality of Borger-Odoorn (Drenthe province), and south of Angeren, municipality of Lingewaard (Gelderland). Also in Sweden and Germany BASF is having trials with Fortuna and with starch potato Modena.

Fortuna is a potato of the variety Agria in which a cassette (package) of 2 genes has been inserted that make the plant more resistent against the fungus disease phytophthora or late blight. To be able to distinguish genetically altered plants from their normal relatives, also when the fungus infection is not visible, the ahas-gene of the zandraket has been inserted. This gene gives the plant tolerance for the weedkiller imidazolinone. This herbicide is allowed in Dutch agriculture but can be used inside the lab to see whether the a plant contains the inserted gene cassette or not: plant cells that die as a result of herbicide treatment were not succesfully modified.



Objective: market Fortuna later?

The field trials with Fortuna are being executed in cooperation with farmers who provide the plots and do part of the work in exchange for financial compensation. The plots are small, 1200-2800 tubers, on average 6 potato plants fit on one m2. They have been planted in May and will be harvested in October. The 2 trial permits are issued by Bureau GGO, part of the national environmental institute RIVM., and valid till 2018 and 2014 respectively.



The Fortuna trials do only serve to test the genetic manipulation. Main objective is to test all kinds of agronomic performance traits of the variety to be able to register it in the European seed catalogue and to claim breeder's rights. The variety has to express specific traits reliably under different breeding climates. These 2 registrations are necessary for bringing Fortuna on the market in Europe and to be able to claim intellectual property. Requirements for these kind of trials are very strict and execution is supervised by the NAK, the Dutch General Inspection for seeds and seedlings of agriculture crops.



In Januari BASF still announced to stop with the development of GMOs for the European market because there is too much resistance amongst consumers and food companies against the use of GMOs. In this perspective the pursueing of the Fortuna field trials is rather striking. “To keep all options open for our potato varieties, we will … continue with the ongoing approval procedures and the seedling production necessary for it,” said Dr. Peter Eckes, President of BASF Plant Science in April. Apparently the company intends to either sell the variety after market approval or will keep Modena and Fortuna in the shelve for a few years untill resistance has decreased and opportunities for GMOs in Europe have appeared.



BASF: the company behind the potato

BASF Crop Science is part of chemical concern BASF. In Europe the company has facilities in Ludwigshafen in Germany and in biotechnology parc Zwijnaarde in Ghent. Before BASF developed the industrial starch potato Amflora which has already been approved for cultivation in Europe. Last year the company tried to find potato breeder in the Netherlands for the production of Amflora seedlings. They failed as a result of the resistance against GM potatoes with the large potato traders Agrico and HZPC. These traders have a significantly strong position in the international potato seedling market and demand a signed guarantee that the seedlings they buy are GM free. Dutch seedling producers would risk their market access if they would start growing Amflora.



Furthermore, this starch potato is forbidden for cultivation in the areas of the Netherlands where typically starch potatoes are grown (Drenthe, Groningen) because she is too susceptible other potato diseases. Amflora cultivation here would risk the rest of the starch production of the Netherlands. Hence BASF did not manage to arrange any seedling production in The Netherlands. Past 2 years a limited acreage of Amflora was grown in other countries. This year BASF gave that up in Europe.



Besides the Fortuna BASF is also testing the starch potato Modena in Europe. This variety was developed by the Dutch starch company AVEBE, which gave the intellectual property rights of the potato to BASF in exchange for investments in her research and development department. Besides GM potatoes BASF also develops and sells the fungicides ametoctradin (brand name Initium), dimethomorph and mancozeb (active agents of Invader) that are used in potato cultivation.


The DuRPh potatoes of WUR

Researchers of Wageningen Agriculture University WUR are again doing field trials with the cisgenic DuRPH potato this year. Near Oudeschip in the municipality of Eemsmond (Groningen) and in Wageningen in Hoge Born and the Nude various traits are being tested and seedlings for future trials are being produced. On the fields near Lelystad, along the Lawickse Allee north of the field in the Nude in Wageningen and in Valthermond in the municipality of Borger-Odoorn different pest control strategies are being tried. They monitor the disease development on the plants very precisely. One of the used methods is the placement of cameras in the field that take pictures of the plants every hour. They are testing various DuRPH-varieties with 1 or more resistance genes.



In Belgium the VIB, the University of Ghent and the Institute for Agriculture and Fishery Research (ILVO) is also having a DuRPh field trial but Greenpeace protested formally against the provided permit. The potatoes have been planted already anyway. The objections include insufficient risk assessment and bias of the Bio Safety Council that advises the goverment on field trial permits. Four of the 12 council members have connections with the VIB, the UGent or ILVO. Eventhough this trial is executed by Belgian institutions, it is in fact part of the Dutch DuRPh project.



DuRPh is a special GMO project. It is a serious attempt to apply genetic engineering in a way that is acceptable for the general public. The potatoes are cisgenic, which means that only genes from the night shade family are used and no species boundaries are crossed. The objective is to achieve environmental gain in the sense that potato farmers will reduce the use of pesticide against late blight up to 80%. Furthermore, the researchers claim that WUR owns the patent on all used genes and can thus make the developed traits, potatoes and knowledge freely available. On request they can provide farmers and small potato breeders with desired resistances.



On the other hand, WUR is one of the biggest patent holders and depend for 50% of her financial resources on corporate contributions. This can be in the form of research assignments and consultancy, but also by selling patents on discoveries and technologies. The question has been raised before whether any DuRPh technology did not end up in the Fortuna of BASF; DuRPh and Fortuna potatoes were growing side by side on a trial field in the Belgian site of Wetteren (see the Dutch article on gentech.nl "Profiteert BASF met 'Fortuna' van Nederlandse aardgasbaten?", 9 nov. 2011, or the website of the Belgian Field Liberation Movement).



Meanwhile DuRPh scientists succesfully lobbyed Dutch and European politics to arrange for cisgenic crops exceptions in the safety testing regulations that are usually required for transgenic crops before release in the environment or the food chain. Recently the European food safety authority EFSA stated that cisgenic crops can be considered more equivalent to conventionally bred crops than to transgenic ones. Since the biggest risk in genetic engineering lies within the manipulation procedure and not in the origin of the inserted genes, this development created a stealth route for these GM potato into the market as “normal” potatoes.



Critical questions

The Fortuna has only 2 genes that provide resistance against late blight. One of the problems with this fungus disease is that it quickly adepts. Potato breeders manage regularly to develop a resistant variety through conventional methods, but most of the time it loses that trait in a few years because it is based on just a single gene. The objective of the DuRPh project is to end up with 3 or 4 resistance genes in the potato so that the fungus has to adept so many times it will die out before.



But those 2 genes in Fortuna, will they hold up long enough to eliminate the fungus indefinitely? Why then, are the Wageningen researchers not content with 2 resistance genes too? A well-known proverb says: "What does not kill you, only makes you stronger." So, with the somewhat limited resistance Fortuna might even increase the blight problem in the long run. Following the logic of evulation this could be the consequence. And that might give BASF after Amflora maybe even yet another GM failure. A financial debacle of 1.3 billion Euros. But the farmers are really the ones left to face the music: an even stronger fungus to fight. And the Wageningen potato fixers and farmer breeders have to continue their search for again new genes that make the potato resistent against this disease.

[DarJones]

left to face the music: an even stronger fungus to fight.

This will happen regardless of the development of gmo potatoes. It is just a matter of when.

Stacking 3 or more genes for disease tolerance is easily proven to be an effective method. The problem with potato R genes is that they are not additive. In other words, you might stack 9 R genes into a single variety but phytothora would only have to break 1 of those genes to infect the plants. This is a simplistic explanation, but should get the point across.

DarJones

[stockporttps]

Yes.

Would it be totally stupid to think this is why they are making these GMO potatoes so the big corporations can control the worlds food supply, I mean if gardeners just want to grow spuds and have fun doing so (like most of us here at tatermater) thats one thing, but I have my doubts that the scientific theory has not already thrown this one up, that they are indeed making it harder to control late blight to there advantage somehow?

thanks for your input snickeringbear.

[stevecrouse]

Or could it be that an overbreeding human population now at 7 billion and growing exponentially will require some sort of increases in food production, no matter WHO owns it?

[stockporttps]

Mar 2, 2013 4:28:42 GMT -8 stevecrouse said:

Or could it be that an overbreeding human population now at 7 billion and growing exponentially will require some sort of increases in food production, no matter WHO owns it?

Wow thats a scary thought!

I personally don't buy into this "overbreeding" rhetoric though, as it stands some of the mega rich who talk of a over populated planet have benefited from the sheer number of people there is, when the going is good.
Maybe the wealthy feel threatened? Maybe the employees at BASF eat fortuna with extra gravy.
If only people as individuals would take back control of there own food supply (en masse) instead of relying on someone else to feed them (deceptive supermarkets who screw the poorly paid farmers).
The earth as a land mass could thrive and so would its inhabitants, not only in its diversity but it would be able to accommodate many more billions of people, instead man huddles in his concrete city slave accommodation to keep the 5% population of the mega rich in luxury, GMO has nothing to do with saving the third world "useless eaters" .

[stevecrouse]

WOW.

That's not a world I want to live in.

Reset the clock back to about four billion for me.

[stockporttps]

Mar 2, 2013 13:17:15 GMT -8 stevecrouse said:

Reset the clock back to about four billion for me.

The current adopted political models have nearly run there course, it has nothing to do with overbreeding though.
While a growing population leaves man with undoubtedly big challenges up ahead, food being the biggest after water, people who grow there own food lessen not add to the burden of a growing population and GMO will never be able to answer that problem otherwise it would of done by now.
GMO is all about profit, control and depopulation.

[Tom Wagner]

My take on the GMO Fortuna is complicated.

First I hate the overuse of a name and Fortuna is one of those. It already exists with upwards of four varieties of potatoes. The Fortuna I have is from the USDA collection:

PI 238084
Solanum tuberosum L. SOLANACEAE (Irish potato, potato)
'FORTUNA'
Collected in: Germany
Additionally this GMO Fortuna is not even one of the existing lines of the same name....it is an Agria with a few genes inserted. Couldn't the powers that be just call it GMO Agria?



AGRIA is a cross of

QUARTA x SEMLO

More info on the GMO Agria/Fortuna

Trials showed Fortuna was agronomically identical to the widely grown conventional variety Agria, but had total resistance to late blight, said Mr Wetjen.

Blight-resistant genes Rpi-blb1 and Rpi-blb2 from the wild potato Solanum bulbocastanum had been introduced into the parent material. They worked by recognising the Phytophthora hyphae as they invaded plant cells, he said. That triggered early local cell death, which inhibited the fungal growth.

Fortuna had been tested against hundreds of blight isolates, including Blue-13, and found to be resistant.

Blake, Andrew. "BASF halts GM potato research in UK." n.d. n. page. Print. <http://www.fwi.co.uk/articles/08/07/2009/116528/basf-halts-gm-potato-research-in-uk.htm>.

Theor Appl Genet. 2008 May;116(7):933-43. doi: 10.1007/s00122-008-0725-3. Epub 2008 Feb 15.

Allele mining in Solanum: conserved homologues of Rpi-blb1 are identified in Solanum stoloniferum

Wang M, Allefs S, van den Berg RG, Vleeshouwers VG, van der Vossen EA, Vosman B.
Source
Plant Research International BV, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Abstract
Allele mining facilitates the discovery of novel resistance (R) genes that can be used in breeding programs and sheds light on the evolution of R genes. Here we focus on two R genes, Rpi-blb1 and Rpi-blb2, originally derived from Solanum bulbocastanum. The Rpi-blb1 gene is part of a cluster of four paralogues and is flanked by RGA1-blb and RGA3-blb. Highly conserved RGA1-blb homologues were discovered in all the tested tuber-bearing (TB) and non-tuber-bearing (NTB) Solanum species, suggesting RGA1-blb was present before the divergence of TB and NTB Solanum species. The frequency of the RGA3-blb gene was much lower. Interestingly, highly conserved Rpi-blb1 homologues were discovered not only in S. bulbocastanum but also in Solanum stoloniferum that is part of the series Longipedicellata. Resistance assays and genetic analyses in several F1 populations derived from the relevant late blight resistant parental genotypes harbouring the conserved Rpi-blb1 homologues, indicated the presence of four dominant R genes, designated as Rpi-sto1, Rpi-plt1, Rpi-pta1 and Rpi-pta2. Furthermore, Rpi-sto1 and Rpi-plt1 resided at the same position on chromosome VIII as Rpi-blb1 in S. bulbocastanum. Segregation data also indicated that an additional unknown late blight resistance gene was present in three populations. In contrast to Rpi-blb1, no homologues of Rpi-blb2 were detected in any material examined. Hypotheses are proposed to explain the presence of conserved Rpi-blb1 homologues in S. stoloniferum. The discovery of conserved homologues of Rpi-blb1 in EBN 2 tetraploid species offers the possibility to more easily transfer the late blight resistance genes to potato varieties by classical breeding.

Therefore, one could bypass the GMO material and go directly to stoloniferum since it already has: Rpi-blb1 homologues and

Extreme resistance to PVA, PVM, PVX and PVY
Take any number of the accessions of this species and begin a crossing program with USDA clones and the derivatives I have of:
110 kinds of potatoes which can be found under this search with GRIN + late blight solanum tuberosum
....Most of which I have used to evaluate late blight in Skagit County, Washington

If I could ignore the issue of GMO, which I can't, I would access the GMO Fortuna and since it is just a male sterile Agria...I could use pollen from all sorts of accessions I have with great blight resistance and the many seedlings lines also and cross them singly or in bulk pollen to make hybrids with even more versatile and fluid resistance at multiple alleles. The original Agria makes some great crosses so why wouldn't the GMO version?

Does anyone think the BASF company would accept such a proposal?

I am not worried about Late Blight anymore with my own collection of accessions and even more of my own annually tested new seedlings and if I go to stoloniferum for the Rpi-blb1 types...I certainly am not worried.

What is the problem? ...control...I suspect.

If my work with the wild species work in Hawaii in the next few weeks, months, etc., I might try more stoloniferum species than I have already just to sample the possibility of durable introgression.

[stockporttps]

Mar 3, 2013 8:05:33 GMT -8 Tom Wagner said:

Does anyone think the BASF company would accept such a proposal?

Nah, too much value for money, ;D

"In the past decade, we have invested over €1bn into GM research," said BASF's Tom Wetjen at the Potato Council's East Midlands Potato Day.

another question would be how many families could you feed with non GM potatoes if you had €1bn in your pocket?

The GM lobby still insists everyone must continue to throw millions of our cash at it, so you have to ask yourself why if its not to feed the exponentially growing population, having already wasted €1bn, for what, more "Amflora" wallpaper paste?

[DarJones]

another question would be how many families could you feed with non GM potatoes if you had €1bn in your pocket?

Sadly, $1.3bn today is a drop in the bucket. It would feed 43 million people 100 pounds of potatoes each for 1 year. Calculated at a rate of $.33 per pound and 100 pounds per person. Per 2010 data, 239 million people were starving in SubSaharan Africa in 2010, therefore, your argument is specious.

You obviously have an agenda to promote.

DarJones

[stockporttps]

1. Superficially plausible, but actually wrong: "a specious argument".
2. Misleading in appearance, esp. misleadingly attractive: "a specious appearance of novelty".

Well I'm sorry if this offends the community but I'de rather feed the 43 million than waste it on giving people a better hold on their wallpaper.
My only agenda is (and be sure to slate me for it) is as I see it, 5% of the "ruling classes" are using a subordinate 95% to fund their depopulation excercises using Vaccines, GMO's and commercial chemicals like glysophate (all of which coincidentally attack the reproductive tissue in human populations).
If my agenda is to make people realise that then so be it!
kind regards

[Tom Wagner]

Gentlemen...there is plenty of room here on this forum for cognitive dissonance especially of the specious speculation we all come to embrace.

I have my issues with GMO crops for what I rather emotionally disagree about. I hope we don't resort to near ad hominem attacks with our words. We will rarely agree in every argument...but stating one's opinions of facts should remain so.

I am reminded of lots of argumentative approaches..namely the following:
Ad Hominem (Argument To The Man)

Affirming The Consequent
Amazing Familiarity
Ambiguous Assertion
Appeal To Anonymous Authority
Appeal To Authority
Appeal To Coincidence
Appeal To Complexity
Appeal To False Authority
Appeal To Force
Appeal To Pity (Appeal to Sympathy, The Galileo Argument)
Appeal To Widespread Belief (Bandwagon Argument, Peer Pressure, Appeal To Common Practice)
Argument By Dismissal
Argument By Emotive Language (Appeal To The People)
Argument By Fast Talking
Argument By Generalization
Argument By Gibberish (Bafflement)
Argument By Half Truth (Suppressed Evidence)
Argument By Laziness (Argument By Uninformed Opinion)
Argument By Personal Charm
Argument By Pigheadedness (Doggedness)
Argument By Poetic Language
Argument By Prestigious Jargon
Argument By Question
Argument By Repetition (Argument Ad Nauseam)
Argument by Rhetorical Question
Argument By Scenario
Argument By Selective Observation
Argument By Selective Reading
Argument By Slogan
Argument By Vehemence
Argument From Adverse Consequences (Appeal To Fear, Scare Tactics)
Argument From Age (Wisdom of the Ancients)
Argument From Authority
Argument From False Authority
Argument From Personal Astonishment
Argument From Small Numbers
Argument From Spurious Similarity
Argument Of The Beard
Argument To The Future
Bad Analogy
Begging The Question (Assuming The Answer, Tautology)
Burden Of Proof
Causal Reductionism (Complex Cause)
Contrarian Argument
Changing The Subject (Digression, Red Herring, Misdirection, False Emphasis)
Cliche Thinking
Common Sense
Complex Question (Tying)
Confusing Correlation And Causation
Disproof By Fallacy
Equivocation
Error Of Fact
Euphemism
Exception That Proves The Rule
Excluded Middle (False Dichotomy, Faulty Dilemma, Bifurcation)
Extended Analogy
Failure To State
Fallacy Of Composition
Fallacy Of Division
Fallacy Of The General Rule
Fallacy Of The Crucial Experiment
False Cause
False Compromise
Genetic Fallacy (Fallacy of Origins, Fallacy of Virtue)
Having Your Cake (Failure To Assert, or Diminished Claim)
Hypothesis Contrary To Fact
Inconsistency
Inflation Of Conflict
Internal Contradiction
Least Plausible Hypothesis
Lies
Meaningless Questions
Misunderstanding The Nature Of Statistics (Innumeracy)
Moving The Goalposts (Raising The Bar, Argument By Demanding Impossible Perfection)
Needling
Non Sequitur
Not Invented Here
Outdated Information
Pious Fraud
Poisoning The Wells
Psychogenetic Fallacy
Reductio Ad Absurdum
Reductive Fallacy (Oversimplification)
Reifying
Short Term Versus Long Term
Slippery Slope Fallacy (Camel's Nose)
Special Pleading (Stacking The Deck)
Statement Of Conversion
Stolen Concept
Straw Man (Fallacy Of Extension)
Two Wrongs Make A Right (Tu Quoque, You Too)
Weasel Wording
Critical thinking vs. Specious arguments
How to Win Any Argument On The Internet, a cheerfully obscene guide to flaming.
How to Argue and Win every time. Alcohol and lying appear to be involved.


Contrarian Argument
Common Sense

Argument From Personal Astonishment
Argument By Dismissal
Argument By Vehemence

www.don-lindsay-archive.org/skeptic/arguments.html#weasel

[dkelly]

Tom that may be the greatest quote i've seen someone quote and I want to quote it too.
Man has wanted to change things for a while and now we just got some new tools in the past few years who cares anyways? I just hope we figure out some way where the sky is clean and the drones don't bite.

[nathanp]

one could bypass the GMO material and go directly to stoloniferum since it already has: Rpi-blb1 homologues

Tom, have you done much breeding with S. stoloniferum? If so, what TPS varieties might contain genes from these?

[Tom Wagner]

extreme resistance to Potato virus Y (PVY has been introgressed from stoloniferum but other introgressions have weird traits that I dont like. Just as the name implies...I get some that have hundreds of stolons...ewww..