Field trials on drought-tolerance and water use efficiency with GM crops hit the news in Australia

Today the Australian gene technology regulator (OGTR) announced approval of field trials of drought-tolerant GM wheat varieties.

It will a mixed blessing for the trials if we have a very wet winter growing season, but I don't expect farmers will complain if we get lots of rain.

Update Jun 15 2007

The Age Letters June 15, 2007

BOB Phelps asserts that the benefits of GM crops are empty promises (Opinion, 12/6). Before Age readers take his story at face value, they should remember that we live in a drought-prone country.

Australians need to weigh carefully the potential for gene technology to protect crops against drought and provide ways of using water more efficiently. Phelps gives the wrong impression that this is simply a pie-in-the-sky dream.

Drought tolerance from GM crops is a field-trial reality, backed up by more than 300 registered trials of such crops in the US going back over the past eight years or so. The Dow Jones news service recently reported that drought-tolerant maize can give about 9 per cent better cereal yields under water stress conditions in such trials.

Phelps disingenuously claims that no drought-tolerant GM crops have been commercialised or trialled in Australia, but what he doesn't say is that there are field trials for water-efficient cotton, water-efficient sugar cane and drought-tolerant wheat either under way or recently approved by our national gene technology national regulator.

There is an extremely high future cost to slamming the door now on these welcome results of crop innovation. If shut, the door will be shut for years, because breeding and testing new crop varieties to suit local conditions takes years. Meanwhile, with a door shut here, our trade competitors in North and South America would be taking all the advantages. Most likely, Australian farmers will suffer badly for years to come from the vagaries of climate change if we make the wrong decision now.

David Tribe, department of microbiology and immunology, University of Melbourne

To continue after that introduction to the topicality of drought resistance in crops, let's do a stock take of progress in breeding protection against water stress (but not forget that hybrids and conventional traits such as those offered by hybrid maize and and GM hybrid canola also offer more crop resilience).

Bob Phlps and a few others ( eg Tammy Lobato) seem to think that the remedies offered by GM technology are trivial and that these approachs are nowhere near practical realisation. There's actually hundreds of such water use improvement field trials and they go back to the late 90s:


Limited and Controlled release of GM drought tolerant wheat approved for field trials in Australia by the gene technology regulator (Jun 2007)

What is this licence for ?
The Victorian Department of Primary Industries (DPI Victoria) has obtained approval for a limited and controlled release of up to 30 lines of genetically modified (GM) wheat (Triticum aestivum). The trial is authorised to take place at two sites in the local government areas of Horsham and Mildura, Victoria, on a maximum total area of 0.315 hectares over one growing season (May 2007 – March 2008).
How have the GM wheat lines been altered ?
The GM lines proposed for release contain one of six different genes which express proteins that are intended to enable normal plant growth with reduced amounts of water (drought tolerance). The introduced genes were derived from plants (thale cress and corn), a moss and a yeast. The GM wheat lines also contain a herbicide tolerance gene and an antibiotic resistance gene that were used as markers to select for successful genetic modifications during initial research and development work in the laboratory.
What is the purpose of the proposed trial ?
The purpose of the trial is to conduct early stage, ‘proof of concept’ research to assess the effect of the introduced genes on the agronomic performance of the GM wheat lines under rain-fed, drought prone conditions. Some seed will be collected and retained for analysis and possible future trials of lines that may be selected for further development. No GM plant materials from this release will be used in human food or animal feed.

But wait, there's more.

Water Efficient GM Cotton field trial in Australia approved by the gene technology regulator

What is this application for?
Monsanto Australia Ltd has obtained approval to undertake a small scale release of up to 24 cotton lines, each genetically modified with a different gene that is expected to enhance water use efficiency. The release will take place under limited and controlled conditions on up to 10 sites of up to 2 hectares (ie a maximum total area of 20 hectares) during each of the summer growing seasons of 2006/07 and 2007/08 in a number of shires in New South Wales and Queensland.
How has the GM cotton been altered?
The GM cotton lines contain 1 of 24 different introduced genes. Twenty three of the genes are derived from the plants thale cress, corn, soybean, rice and cotton. One gene is derived from a common bacterium. The GM cotton lines also contain either a herbicide tolerance gene or an antibiotic resistance gene that were used as markers to select modified plants during initial research and development work in the laboratory.
What are the effects of the genetic modification?
The genetic modifications are intended to enable the GM cotton plants to grow normally with less water (improved water use efficiency).

Limited & Controlled Release of Genetically Modified Sugarcane, including Water Use efficient GM sugarcane approved by the Australian gene technology regulator

How has the GM sugarcane been altered?
Up to 1900 of the GM sugarcane lines have been modified with 18 genes, either alone or in combination, to alter plant size and shape, enhance water use efficiency (WUE) or improve nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and an antibiotic resistance selectable marker. The remaining 600 GM sugarcane lines contain only the introduced antibiotic resistance selectable marker and/or visual marker genes. The introduced genes are derived from the plants rice, sugarcane, barley, bean, thale cress, apple, maize and the common gut bacterium Escherichia coli.
What are the effects of the genetic modification?
The introduced genes that are intended to alter plant size and shape, enhance WUE or improve NUE regulate different biochemical pathways in the sugarcane plants and may result in increased agronomic performance, including sugar yield. The selectable and visual marker genes were used to identify successfully transformed plants in the laboratory.

But over 300 trials of crops made by GM have taken place in the US going back 8 years or more. These include wheat, maize, soybeans, cotton and several vegetables.

There is a website at which field tests carried out in the US can be tracked down here.


A sampler from that site of trials that test drought tolerance on new GM crop varieties:

Organism: Corn Received: 06/01/07
Permit # 07-152-108N # 1
Institution: Pioneer Hi-Bred International Status: Pending Release Period Begins: 06/15/07
Effective: Release Period Ends: 06/15/08


Cotton Received: 05/17/07
Permit # 07-137-102N # 2
Institution: United States Department of Agriculture/Agricultur Status: Acknowledged Release Period Begins: 05/10/07

Organism: Cotton Received: 05/02/07
Permit # 07-122-106N # 3
Institution: Monsanto Status: Acknowledged Release Period Begins: 06/01/07
Effective: 05/11/07 Release Period Ends: 06/01/08

Organism: Tobacco Received: 05/01/07
Permit # 07-121-107N # 4
Institution: Arcadia Biosciences Status: Acknowledged Release Period Begins: 06/04/07
Effective: 05/30/07 Release Period Ends: 10/19/07
Gene(s):
AP - Drought Tolerance Increased EAs Not Required For Notifications
Field Data Received:

Organism: Corn Received: 04/09/07
Permit # 07-099-107N # 5
Institution: Pioneer Hi-Bred International Status: Acknowledged Release Period Begins: 04/15/07
Effective: 04/24/07 Release Period Ends: 04/15/08

Organism: Cotton Received: 04/03/07
Permit # 07-093-104N # 6
Institution: Texas Tech University Status: Acknowledged Release Period Begins: 05/10/07
Effective: 05/02/07 Release Period Ends: 12/31/07

Organism: Tomato Received: 04/02/07
Permit # 07-092-104N # 7
Institution: University of California/Davis Status: Acknowledged Release Period Begins: 05/01/07

Organism: Potato Received: 03/22/07
Permit # 07-081-117N # 8
Institution: Michigan State University Status: Acknowledged Release Period Begins: 05/01/07
Effective: 04/24/07 Release Period Ends: 11/01/07

Organism: Corn Received: 04/28/06
Permit # 06-118-01N # 99
Institution: Monsanto Status: Acknowledged Release Period Begins: 05/27/06
Effective: 05/09/06 Release Period Ends: 05/27/07

Organism: Corn Received: 04/04/06
Permit # 06-094-01N # 100
Institution: Biogemma Status: Acknowledged Release Period Begins: 04/15/06
Effective: 05/05/06 Release Period Ends: 04/14/07

Organism: Corn Received: 08/25/04
Permit # 04-238-03N # 200
Institution: Monsanto Status: Acknowledged Release Period Begins: 09/22/04
Effective: 09/27/04 Release Period Ends: 09/25/05
Organism: Corn Received: 08/03/04
Permit # 04-216-05N # 202
Institution: Syngenta Status: Acknowledged Release Period Begins: 08/27/04
Effective: 09/27/04 Release Period Ends: 08/27/05

Organism: Wheat Received: 02/17/99
Permit # 99-048-10N # 298
Institution: Montana State University Status: Withdrawn Release Period Begins: 05/15/99
Effective: 03/19/99 Release Period Ends: 09/15/99

But don't forget earlier Pundit examples:

Dow Jones report

John Headrick, development lead on drought-tolerance corn for Monsanto, said the company is in the early development stage of testing for drought-tolerance in corn and is going into its third season of field testing. To date, the company has seen an average mean of about 9% yield advantage versus a conventional corn crop in drought conditions.

Water stress resistant Canola
(Photo)


Later Post on Arcadia Biosciences and drought tolerance successes.