Fundamentals

of Crop Science
Crop Science I
Lecture 14
 Plant Genetic Resources

Plants of actual or potential value for the present and future

generations; raw materials for plant breeding; Component of
biodiversity

Biodiversity- variability in all living things, life on earth

 What makes up
PGR of a crop?
Traditional or farmers’ varieties
Commercial varieties
Wild relatives, wild species
Products of crop improvement programs

From all parts of the world where the crop is grown

Crop diversity is the world’s least well
known, yet most important, natural
resource - every meal you eat is possible
only because of the diversity of our crops.
 Levels of Biodiversity

1. Genetic- differences in genes within a species (different

varieties of crops)
2. Species - different species in a certain ecosystem
e.g.different types of species within all of the different
kinds of plants and animals, including fungi, insects
mammals, amphibians, plants, bacteria, and all the
other flora and fauna
3. Ecosystem- different climates or biomes that exist on
earth
Earths different kinds of biodiversity are what make
everything run smoothy.

helps to keep our water and air clean

Regulates the climate, and
provides man (and all other organisms) with shelter,
medicine, food, and many other useful goods
Threats to Genetic
Diversity
genetic erosion

genetic vulnerability
genetic wipe out
Loss of populations and species - genetic
erosion


Causes of Loss of Biodiversity or

Genetic Erosion
deforestation

habitat conversion

land conversion
acculturation
urbanization/industrialization
adoption of modern varieties
introduction of exotic species
natural calamities
CONSERVATION

best means to guarantee the availability of biodiversity

including genetic resources
Methods of Conservation

ex situ - conservation outside the natural

habitat ex. seed & field genebanks
in-situ - conservation in the natural habitat


Institutions Mandated To
Conserve Crop Genetic Resources
International

wild relatives
IRRI - rice and their
CIMMYT - maize and wheat
CIP - potato, sweetpotato
ICRISAT - legumes and sorghum
IITA - yam and cassava


Institutions Mandated To
Conserve Crop Genetic Resources

National

NPGRL - National Plant Genetic Resources SRA - sugarcane

Laboratory - all crops FIDA, NARC – abaca
PhilRice - rice PCA - coconut
PRCRTC - rootcrops NTA - tobacco
NPRCRTC - rootcrops CODA - fiber crops
Plant genetic resources from developing countries
deposited to the Arctic Seed Vault. Over 150 million
seeds are already stored there

 Why does biodiversity matters?

Biological diversity underpins ecosystem functioning

and the provision of ecosystem services essential for
human well-being.

Its continued loss, therefore, has major implications

for current and future human well-being.
Crop improvement, environmental
sustainability and higher farm incomes all
depend on agricultural biodiversity - as
does simply consuming a healthy, balanced
diet

UN resolution 61/203, the General

Assembly declared 2010 International Year
of Biodiversity
Background Paper for High-Level UNGA Meeting on Biodiversity Released August 2010: The Secretary-
General has transmitted to the UN General Assembly (UNGA) a background paper for the UNGA's high-
level meeting as a contribution to the International Year of Biodiversity, to be held on 22 September
2010, at UN Headquarters in New York, US

The paper lists the five principal pressures directly driving biodiversity
loss, namely: habitat change; over-exploitation; pollution; invasive species;
and climate change. It adds that these pressures are either constant or
increasing in intensity. It further states that change in the abundance and
distribution of species, compounded by climate change, has serious
consequences for human societies and is moving ecosystems ever closer to
“tipping points,” beyond which their services will be seriously undermined.
Such tipping points include: the disappearance of large areas of the
Amazon forest, due to the interactions of climate change, deforestation and
fires; and multiple collapses of coral reef ecosystems, due to a combination
of ocean acidification, warmer water leading to bleaching, overfishing and
nutrient pollution
The paper summarizes the findings of the third edition of the
Global Biodiversity Outlook, published in May 2010, highlighting
that "the missions of keeping climate change within limits that
minimize the risks to human societies and of avoiding further loss
of the biodiversity that provides those ecosystem services upon
which human societies depend are, in key aspects, two sides — the
scientific and the political — of the same coin." It underscores the
linkages between biodiversity loss and the core concerns of society,
including tackling poverty, improving health and dealing with
climate change.
However, the paper also underlines that "the options for
addressing the crisis are wider than in earlier projections"
and that action to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity
"will reap rich rewards." These include contributing to
slowing climate change by enabling ecosystems to absorb and
store more carbon, and helping people adapt to climate
change by adding resilience to ecosystems and making them
less vulnerable.
 DaylengPlant
art and science of improving the genetic

Breeding
make-up of crops to increase crop
productivity
-90-95% selection
-5-10% hybridization

Success in plant breeding relies on genetic

variability
 Sources of
variation
Mutation
Migration
Recombination
Processes of Crop Improvement

Selection, selecting the best looking plants/seeds and

saving them to plant for the next year’s crop
Traditional plant breeding, modifying the genetic
composition of plants by making crosses and selecting
new superior genotype combinations
STEPS (conventional breeding)
1. Set the breeding objective

2. Select parental materials from the germplasm (genetic

resources) pool
3. Grow the parentals
4. Hybridization
5. Grow the F1
6. Grow F2 F7 (selection for desired trait in each
generation)
 Selection Criteria

High yield
Resistance to pests and diseases
Tolerance to abiotic stresses
including traits for climate change
mitigation and adaptation
Good eating quality
 Rice

Intermediate height
Early to medium maturing
Resistance to stemborer, bph
Resistance to tungro, BLB
Tolerance to drought and
submergence
Intermediate amylose content
STEPS (conventional breeding)

7. Preliminary Yield Trial (at least 2 seasons, on –

station)
8. Advanced Yield Trial ( multilocation,at least 2 wet
and 1 dry)
9. Evaluation across locations by crop technical
working group
10. Recommendation to the technical secretariat and
then to the approving committee of the National Seed
Industry Council (NSIC)
11. Varietal Release
 Limitations of Traditional
Plant Breeding

1. Breeding can only be done between two plants

that an sexually mate with each other
2. When plants are mated, (crossed), many traits
are transferred along with the trait of interest
including traits with undesirable effects on
yield potential
 Processes of Crop Improvement

Genetic engineering, a new type of genetic

modification, involving the purposeful
addition of a foreign gene or genes to the
genome of an organism.
Biotechnology

…use of living organisms or their parts to make

or modify products, or improve plants, animals
and microorganisms
Modern biotechnology

…allows direct introduction of genes from one

species to another through DNA manipulation
(recombinant DNA technology)
Genetic Engineering

…refers to specific gene transfer from the

same or related or unrelated species resulting in
gene expression and production of new trait(s)
in an organism
Some terminologies

DNA is the hereditary material

Gene is a DNA fragment that encodes a

functional product; unit of inheritance

The process of artificially inserting a

gene is called genetic transformation
Some terminologies

The transferred gene is called a

transgene

The resulting product is referred to as

genetically modified organism (GMO)

transgenic organism
genetically engineered organism
(GEO)
Genetic engineering is not bound by the
limitations of traditional plant breeding
Genetic engineering physically removes the DNA
from one organism and transfers the gene(s) for
one or a few traits into another.

Therefore:
The 'sexual' barrier between species is
overcome. Traits from any living
organism can be transferred into a plant.
This method is more specific in that
a single trait can be added to a plant.

Overview of the Process of Plant Genetic

Engineering

The process of genetic engineering

requires the successful completion
of a series of five steps.
 Step 1: DNA
Extraction
The first step is to
extract DNA from the
organism containing
the gene of interest.
 Step 2 : Gene
The second step is touse

Cloning
gene cloning technology
to separate the single
gene of interest from the
rest of the genes
extracted and make
thousands
of copies of it.
 Step 3 : Gene
Construct
The gene is reconstructed so
that it
will work once inside a
different organism.
This is done by cutting the gene
apart
with enzymes and replacing the
promoter
with a new and stronger
promoter
isolated from another organism.
 Transformation
The new gene is inserted into cultured

Step 4 :
plant cells using various techniques such
as gene gun, Agrobacterium infection,
and electroporation. The goal is to
deliver the genes into the nucleus of a
cell without killing it. Transformed plant
cells are then regenerated into
transgenic plants. The transgenic plants
are grown to maturity in greenhouses to
produce seeds.
 Step 5 : Backcross
The fifth and final part of
producing a genetically

Breeding
engineered crop is backcross
breeding.
Transgenic plants are crossed

with elite breeding lines

using traditional plant breeding
methods to combine
the desired traits of elite
parents and the
transgene into a single line
 Genetic Engineering

The product of genetic engineering in plant breeding

is variously called as:

Transgenic plants/crops

GE crops. Genetically engineered plants/crops

GM plants. Genetically modified plants/crops

GMO’s. Genetically modified organisms

Genetically Modified (GM) or
Transgenic Crops

Products of modern biotechnology (recombinant DNA

technology)

Contain DNA from other sources

The transferred gene is usually, but not necessarily, from

outside the normal range of sexual compatibility

Possess improved character as a result of expression of the

transgene(s)
 Genetic Engineering

The process of genetic engineering is still relatively

young,

still fraught with uncertainties and unknown risks

so that before a GM plant is released to the environment

for
field trial or commercial cultivation, it has to pass thru a
regulatory process different from that of a conventionally
bred variety
 Genetic Engineering

The regulatory processes differs with different countries.

Very strict in EU member countries, which requires

labelling of food products with GM contents

Very strict in Japan which bans any GM food product

Relatively lax in the US, which does not have clear cut
rules

Reasonable in the Philippines, perhaps as a compromise

to
many NGO’s opposed to GMO’s
 Genetic Engineering

Experiments with Genetic Engineering in the Philippines is

regulated by the National Biosafety Committee,

While the release of GM crops for commercial planting

or importation of GM products is regulated by the
Department of Agriculture.

At present, the only GM crop approved for commercial

planting
Is GM corn containing traits
insect resistance or Bt corn
Herbicide tolerance
Or varieties possessing both traits
 Examples of GM Crops

Environment-friendly crops
pest resistant, cotton, corn, rapeseed and soybean

Crops with high nutritional quality

High pro-vitamin A and iron rice

Vaccine and medicine production (bio-pharming)

Edible vaccines against diarrhea and hepatitis as in tomato,
banana and potato
 Genetic Engineering

There are other GM crops that are in waiting,

either still in the experimental stage
field trial stage, or just waiting for regulatory approval.

The most notable are :

Bt eggplant
Virus resistant papaya
BLB resistant rice
Golden rice
Concerns for GM Food Crops
1. FOOD SAFETY

Nobody has died yet eating commercially released

GM food, but nobody also know the
long term effect of prolonged exposure to GM
food
the unintended production of toxic or allegenic
metabolite in the crop
 GE technology is not precise
You cannot control where in the genome the gene is inserted, or
how many copies are inserted

The gene insertion process affects the other parts of the genome,
affecting the action or regulation of other genes which may have
unintended effects, e.g. production of toxic metabolite.

The inserted gene may not be stable, subject to mutation, again

causing unintended effects
Concerns for GM food crops
2. environmental safety

a. Impact on biodiversity

*genes may transfer to wild relatives

*the food chain in the crop ecosystem, which is

important for natural biological control may be upset resulting to
outbreak of new pest, toxin produced by the crop may persist in the
soil, affecting soil microflora
2. environmental safety

b.. Encourages the use of more agro chemicals

herbicide resistant crop encourages the use of more

herbicide thus further polluting the environmen
The GE technology is controlled by a few

Socio-economic
multinational corporations (thru patents) which

concern
also controls the international seed trade

What would be the impact on poor farmers?

GE corn, for example costs 100% more than the

conventional corn hybrid variety
 farmer is only in
The benefits to

the short term

In China, in the first few years, farmers planting Bt cotton
use less pesticide.

But after 7 years, they are using as much pesticide as non- Bt

cotton farmers, because new pests, not controlled by Bt gene
emerged. They are also earning less because Bt cotton seeds
are more expensive

The same is happening among Bt corn growers in Isabela-

new pests not controlled by Bt are emerging.
“You can take a gene from organism A and
put it into plant B.
We know that. But that's the only question
we can answer with certainty. We now realize
that there are a whole host of other questions
"Genes exist in networks, interactive networks
which have a logic of their own.

The technology point of view does not deal with

these networks

It simply addresses genes in isolation

But genes do not exist in isolation”
These issues put the sustainability of GM
crops in serious doubt, especially among
farmers in developing countries
There are many sustainable alternatives that
can be explored…

Embracing GE technology, with all its

uncertainties… is not at all justified

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

 How to Address Global Climate Change?
Targets for Agricultural Biodiversity & Plant Breeding
Change in crop mix
Crop diversification
Crop adaptation:
Traits: temperature, drought
Phenology: developmental times
Cycle length: extended/shortened growing season
Pest and disease resistance
Changed distribution
Pollinators
Changed distribution
thank you
AGRI 31 Lecture 14