Table of Contents

RISK ASSESSMENT RESEARCH

Does Recombination in Virus-Resistant Transgenic Plants Lead to Emergence of Novel Viral Diseases
Mark Tepfer, Fernando Garcia-Arenal

If the scientific community hopes to maintain and enhance the use of scientific risk assessment in decision-making, it will be vitally important to present large, complex bodies of scientific research in a manner that is satisfactory to the research community, to participants in decision making, but also to various stakeholder groups, including the general public. The Biosafety Unit of the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) has developed a particularly flexible tool for presenting a scientific approach to risk assessment. Tepfer et al. have used this framework in a review article presenting in synthetic fashion the conclusions that can be drawn from nearly 20 years of research published in specialized scientific journals that is pertinent to an exceptionally complex biosafety question, "Will recombination in transgenic plants expressing viral sequences lead to appearances of new viral diseases?"

PLANT RESEARCH NEWS

RNAi Silencing of a Chitin Synthase Gene Protects Wheat Plants against Fusarium graminearum and Mycotoxins
Yu-Cai Liao and He-Ping Li

Fusarium graminearum is a fungal species responsible for Fusarium head blight in wheat and barley and Gibberella ear rot in maize, which are economically devastating diseases worldwide. F. graminearum species can produce various types of trichothecene mycotoxins that are directly accumulated in cereal grains and are often associated with chronic or acute mycotoxicoses in domestic animals and humans. It is necessary to identify new FHB-resistance genes and to use them to protect plants against Fusarium pathogens and to reduce mycotoxin production. Chitin synthase genes, which are essential for fungal survival and infection, could be among the best possible RNAi targets for reducing fungal disease development in plants.