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By Linda F.
Jarrett
A partnership between three major companies, the Donald Danforth
Science Center, and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA),
located in Chesterfield, Mo., is reaping big gains in the field
of corn genome sequencing.
In March 2004, Monsanto Company, Ceres Inc., and DuPont subsidiary,
Pioneer HI-Bred International Inc. joined with the NCGA to share
their research on corn sequencing with that research already being
done by academic scientists. This compilation of information
is housed on a website developed at the Donald Danforth Plant
Science Center, a non-for-profit research institute located near
Monsanto campus in Creve Coeur, Mo.
Tom
Adams
Director of Genomic Technology,
Monsanto |
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Tom Adams,
director of genomic technology at Monsanto, says that the NCGA
had worked with the National Science Foundation to start an initiative.
“But it was funded at a pilot level. While it was creating interesting
data, we in Monsanto were looking at that and thinking it would
be nice if this could happen faster.”
The first thought, he says, was to give money. However, the bigger
thought was that if a way could be found to share data in order
to accelerate the corn genome sequencing program, this would benefit
researchers in all fields from corporate to academia, ultimately
benefiting farmers.
Monsanto had collaborated with Ceres, and DuPont had been doing
its own research. It became apparent that more good could be done
with less money if the companies pooled their efforts into one
project.
“Weighing the cost to us and the value that could be created if
we did something together,” Adams says, “we came to the conclusion
that now would be a good time to share our data with the public
and see if we could help speed up the research.”
“The government was doing this,” he says. “There were also multiple
groups and companies spending large amounts of money in competing
instead of working for a similar end.”
According to Adams, the cost to complete the basic project could
be $30 million with the price rising towards one hundred million
dollars as the final stages of sequencing are completed. Bringing
companies together to share information and cost only made good
sense.
Monsanto already had a good working relationship with the NCGA
and realized that was a good place to start. While initiating
conversations, DuPont approached Monsanto and asked if Monsanto
would be interested in working with them on this same project.
“The NCGA coordinated the project,” Adams says. “Then we brought
in the academics and we came up with a path to license our sequences
to the NCGA who, in turn, would license them to the academics.”
Each company then turned their research over to the NCGA, and
brought in the Danforth Center as a host.
Monsanto spokesperson Ben Kampelman says, “Danforth is housing
the data, and NCGA was leading this effort, so researchers obtain
a license from the NCGA and get a password for accessing the database.
Then those researchers can access that database where there is
more to learn and possibly supplement their research projects
that might be going on in corn or maize.”
Monsanto worked with various universities, DuPont and Ceres to
create a generic license. Scientists and university researchers
who want to access the website register through the NCGA and verify
that if their research results in an invention, they give Monsanto,
DuPont and Ceres the opportunity to work with them, if they so
choose.
“We get a choice if we want to negotiate with them to develop
this as a product, or tell them that they can go to other companies
if they want,” Adams says.
“An interesting part of the arrangement,” he adds, “is that our
academic colleagues can see what we shared and what DuPont has
shared, but we can’t see what each other has shared. It’s frustrating
from a scientific prospective, but it really helps with the motivation
as to why we are doing this.”
University researchers can access this site and publish their
results, after sharing their findings with the three companies.
The partnership is now over two years old and, according to Nathan
Fields, NCGA director of research and business development, says
over 40 institutions and 160 researchers worldwide are accessing
the database. “We had some of the prominent geneticists take a
look at how much information in the database, and they said it
increased the information for the public sector.”
The database contains 1.8 million lines of genetic information
compared to 400,000 available in the public domain, an increase
of four and a half times.
Fields says that many researchers are using the database as a
comparison to the rice genome to see if they can find similarities. “Some
research tools have been developed, but nothing major. I know
that the USDA has used it quite a bit and cited the database in
a couple of publications, but there has not been a significant
discovery that would lean to a marketable trait.
The National Science Foundation has just started sequencing the
maize genome and it should be completed in three years.
We’ll start to see a lot of the NSF work made public,” Fields
says. They will post it as they discover more and more of the
sequencing information.”
Once the maize genome is sequenced, other projects loom on the
horizon.
“The Department of Energy is actually leading up to sequencing
soybeans,” Fields says. “The public effort after that might be
wheat.”
Sequencing provides a vast amount of information from which researchers
will be able to develop more agronomically- advantaged traits,
Fields says.
“This could create corn that is more drought-tolerant, insect-resistant,
or containing a wider range of starch or oil content,” he says.
“Basically, it would expand the acreage and reduce the amount
of nitrogen to put in their fields. The Holy Grail of this project
would be nitrogen fixing which would reduce the amount of nitrogen
farmers have to use in their fields which would, in turn, help
the environment and increase production.”
More proof that the St. Louis region is building on its biotech
reputation.
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A Story to Tell
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What
began as a video project has turned into a website attracting
attention throughout the biotech industry.
“Conversations about Plant Biotechnology” features
vignettes from farmers and agricultural economists around
the world and puts the business of farming in simple terms.
Launched in the United States in 1996, biotech crops now grow
on over a billion acres in over 20 countries by nine million
farmers.
Tom McDermott, director of Global Biotechnology Acceptance,
says that studies done during that time should be conveyed
in a more “lively” manner on a personal level to demonstrate
what the technology has meant to farmers and their families.
“We wanted to go around the world to talk to farmers in both
developed and developing places,” McDermott says. “We were
looking for the personal angle with each of these individuals
telling how long he or she had been growing crops, what they
grew, and what benefits they derived from them.”
After gathering the information, McDermott says they wanted
to make it available to more people, and the website came
into being. In that way, they could also keep adding interviews
to keep the information fresh.
“We called it ‘Conversations About Technology’ with two or
three minute vignettes,” he says. “We have about nine countries
represented now, and we’re adding interviews every couple
of weeks.”
Interviewees, many in developing countries, talk about how
the use of biotechnology in their crops have enabled them
to send their children to school, build a new home, proving
enough money to have better nutrition for their families,
and allow more time with their families.
The site also offers pod casts for people wanting to download
the information.
“The purpose of this website is not to promote Monsanto products
or brands,” McDermott says. “We believe our technology is
the best out there, but we want people to talk about plant
biotechnology.”
www.biotech-gmo.com
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Understanding the Corn Genome
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To
appreciate this partnership, one needs to understand the corn
genome and what this fast track to sequencing can mean to
the public.
Every organism has a genome, which is a collection of genes
that contains the complete set of genetic information of an
organism as DNA. Each gene produces a message or RNA, that
is converted into a protein that determines specific actions.
To “sequence” is to decode those messages representing genes.
Knowing the code can predict what trait a gene will have,
whether the corn will have a trait to produce a higher yield
or be particularly sweet. Once that is ascertained, scientists
can breed that gene to bring the desired result.
Tom Adams, director of genomic technology at Monsanto, says
that while breeding has been going on since the late 1920s,
scientists have found in the last few years that by knowing
more about the sequences of these traits, they can create
what they call a “molecular marker.”
This marker allows the researcher to see if the corn has the
gene to be taller or sweeter, rather than waiting until it
is in the field.
“Instead of taking several years to go through a breeding
cycle,” Adams says, “this sequencing accelerates the process.”
Adams used the analogy of a gene to a library book. “By having
the genome now, it allows you to have a context of all the
genes. When we have the genes to begin with, we don’t know
where they are relative to each other. It’s like a library
where each book belongs in a certain place. By having the
genome, we know where each book goes.
“And it allows us to know the Dewey Decimal Code for that
book so we know how to find it again. Plus,” he adds, “We
know how many people have read the book before and what they
got out of it.” |
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