December 23, 2011

Source: Crop Biotech Update

Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences scientist Lanqin Xia and colleagues reported the current status of GM wheat in China through an article published in the Journal of Experimental Botany. According to their report, significant financial resources were provided by the Chinese government for research and development of GM crops. The goal of the project was to provide an opportunity to improve crops using a safe, precise, and effective wheat genetic transformation system suitable for commercialization. One of the main aspects of the R&D project is the genetic improvement of wheat. The authors said that the increasing hectarage and acceptance of GM crops appears to be gaining momentum in China, thus providing a broad and stable foundation for future growth of GM wheat both in China and the rest of the world.

GM wheat development in China: current status and challenges to commercialization
Lanqin Xia, Youzhi Ma, Yi He and Huw D. Jones

Abstract
Genetic modification facilitates research into fundamental questions of plant functional genomics and provides a route for developing novel commercial varieties. In 2008, significant financial resources were supplied by the Chinese government for research and development (R&D) into genetic modification of the major crop species. This project was aimed at providing an opportunity for crop improvement while accentuating the development of a safe, precise, and effective wheat genetic transformation system suitable for commercialization. The focus here is on one of the key crops included in this project, wheat, to provide an insight into the main transformation methods currently in use, the target traits of major importance, and the successful applications of wheat genetic improvement in China. Furthermore, the biosafety and regulatory issues of major concern and the strategies to produce ‘clean’ transgenic wheat plants will also be discussed. This commentary is intended to be a helpful insight into the production and commercialization of transgenic wheat in China and to put these activities into a global context.

Read the article at http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/12/14/jxb.err342.abstract.

Website: http://www.isaaa.org/kc/

Published: December 23, 2011