Background and Objective
Adventitious presence (AP) or unintentional commingling of genetically modified (GM) grain in non‐GM grain lots is a concern for stakeholders who wish to produce non‐GM grain ...and grain‐based products. AP that exceeds tolerance levels results in the loss of product marketability as “non‐GM” and subsequent loss of a premium market price. The objective of this study was to evaluate the US commodity corn supply chain using Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) to assess factors contributing to AP in supply chains that handle both GM and non‐GM products.
Findings
Systematic analysis of the farm‐to‐feed supply chain identified key processes and actors involved. FTA identified 27 factors potentially contributing to AP along with their root causes. Ranking of factors using FMEA prioritized 14 factors as “critical” with a comparatively higher likelihood of occurrence and impact on AP levels.
Conclusions
AP contributing factors were found across the supply chain, indicating that successful segregation relies on all supply chain participants. Identification and prioritization of critical factors make it possible to target resources to a small number of significant factors to attain low AP levels rather than distributing resources across the entire set of factors.
Significance and Novelty
This study is an initial attempt to provide insights into the assessment and management of AP in the grain and feed supply chain with a novel application of FTA and FMEA techniques.
Premise
Pollinator foraging behavior can influence pollen dispersal and gene flow. In many plant species a pollinator trips a flower by applying pressure to release its sexual organs. We propose that ...differences in tripping rate among grooming pollinators could generate distinct pollen deposition curves, the pattern of pollen deposition over successive flowers visited. This study compares the pollen deposition curves of two grooming pollinators, a social bumble bee and a solitary leafcutting bee, with distinct tripping rates on Medicago sativa flowers. We predict a steeper deposition curve for pollen moved by leafcutting bees, the pollinator with the higher tripping rate.
Methods
Medicago sativa plants carrying a gene (GUS) whose product is easily detected by staining, were used as pollen donors. After visiting the GUS plants, a bee was released on a linear array of conventional M. sativa plants. The number of GUS pollen grains deposited over successive flowers visited or over cumulative distances was examined. Distinct mixed effect Poisson regression models, illustrating different rates of decay in pollen deposition, were fitted to the pollen data for each bee species.
Results
Pollen decay was steeper for leafcutting bees relative to bumble bees for both models of flowers visited and cumulative distance, as predicted by their higher tripping rate.
Conclusions
This is the first report of a difference in pollen deposition curves between two bee species, both grooming pollinators. Such differences could lead to distinct impacts of bee species on gene flow, genetic differentiation, introgression, and ultimately speciation.
The adventitious presence of transgenic crops in wild plant populations is of ecological and regulatory concern. In this context, their effects on non-target, below-ground organisms are not well ...understood. Here, we introduced, at various frequencies, Bt-transgenic oilseed rape (OSR, Brassica napus) into wild mustard (Brassica juncea) populations in the presence and absence of the target herbivore (Plutella xylostella). The impacts on soil nematode and microbial communities were assessed in this system. There were no significant changes on the number of nematode genera and abundance in proportions of OSR with mustard. Nonetheless, the Shannon–Wiener and Pielou evenness index was lowest in plant stands containing 50% of Bt-transgenic OSR. Among treatments, there was no significant variation for culturable soil microbes. There was a positive association between foliar herbivory and the abundance of plant parasitic (PP) and cp-3 nematodes, whereas there was no association between herbivory and soil microbial populations. There was no direct effects of the presence of Bt-transgenic OSR in wild mustard populations on the rhizosphere nematode and microbial communities, whereas its indirect effects via aboveground herbivory might be important to consider for biosafety assessments.
•We model an invasion process of transgenic Brassica napus into wild populations.•We examine changes of nematodes and microbial community in the invasion process.•Transgenic B. napus has no direct effects on nematodes and microbial community.•Above-ground herbivory influences rhizosphere ecology via plant responses.•The indirect effects of Bt B. napus on soil invertebrates should be evaluated.
Systematic management of Plant Genetic Resources (PGRs) is the key to sustainable agriculture for food and nutritional security and in mitigating climate change. The National Genebank (NGB) at ...ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi, acts as a repository of PGRs for future use. This study aimed at screening for the adventitious presence of transgenes in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) accessions conserved in the NGB. The study targeted the collections made during 2007-2016 from areas adjacent to Bangladesh (Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and West Bengal), where field trials of Bt brinjal event EE1 were conducted during 2005-2012 and commercial cultivation of this event was permitted in 2013.There could be an apprehension of both unintentional introgression and transboundary movement through borders. Adventitious presence of transgenes was checked in a set of 96 accessions of brinjal employing Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and real-time PCR assays. As event EE1 carries cry1Ac gene for insect resistance with Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (CaMV) promoter (P-35S) and marker genes (nptII and aadA), so these genetic elements were targeted for qualitative GM testing. Based on the test results, transgenes were not detected in brinjal accessions conserved in NGB. Our study showed that brinjal and wild species collected from adjoining areas of Bangladesh, post field trials and release, do not contain the event EE1. The study presents an efficient and reliable method to ensure conservation of GM-free germplasm in the NGB.
The EU has the probably strictest regulations in the world for the presence of GMOs in food and feed. These require the labeling of food and feed where the level of approved GMO exceeds 0.9% of ...unintentional adventitious presence. For non-approved GMOs the threshold is ‘zero’ and thus requires that cargoes containing GMOs non-approved GMOs are returned to the port of origin or are destroyed. The process of GMO safety approval is slow and subject to extensive political interference. However outside of Europe, new GMOs are being created, approved and cultivated at a rate exceeding that of EU approvals. Since current methods of cultivation, storage and transport do not permit complete segregation of GMO and non-GMO crops, some co-mingling must be expected. This leads to a peculiar situation where the EU is dependent on imports (particularly soybean for animal feed) from North and South America and yet, legally, must reject these imports since they contain low levels of unauthorized GMOs. Several authorative European reports indicate that this is not a sustainable situation and must result in feed shortages and price increases of meat and poultry. The solution is to either to modify EU regulations or to synchronize GMOs approvals on an international level.
The USA has constantly criticized the EU for its unscientific GMO regulations which it says amounts to trade protectionism. Very recently however, the USA has realized that other countries are now producing and cultivating their own GMOs, and that these are not authorized in the USA. The USA is thus proposing to set up its own system of GMO regulations which may bear a close similarity to those in Europe.
Walsh, K. D., Puttick, D. M., Hills M. J., Yang R.-C., Topinka, K. C. and Hall, L. M. 2012. Short Communication: First report of outcrossing rates in camelina Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz, a ...potential platform for bioindustrial oils. Can. J. Plant Sci. 92: 681–685. Outcrossing rates in camelina were low (0.09–0.28%), suggesting camelina is a primarily self-pollinated species. Outcrossing was affected by flowering synchrony influenced by planting date as well as direction and distance (20, 40 or 60 cm) from the pollen source. Pollen-mediated intra-specific gene flow is unlikely to prohibit the development of camelina as a bioindustrial platform. Short distance outcrossing results will be used to design experiments to evaluate outcrossing rates at a field scale.
India has been predicted as a center of origin of brinjal (
Solanum melongena
L.) with large number of wild and weedy relatives distributed across the Indian subcontinent. Fruit and Shoot Borer (FSB) ...is one of the most devastating insect pests of brinjal causing production losses up to 80%.
Bt
technology has played a key role in imparting FSB resistance in brinjal. In 2013,
Bt
brinjal event EE1 was commercialized in Bangladesh. Since the neighbouring country shares porous borders with north-eastern states of India, it is important to check for any unapproved entry of genetically modified (GM) brinjal in India. Adventitious presence of transgenes was monitored in the samples collected from regions of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and West Bengal bordering Bangladesh. A total of 211 brinjal samples were collected from 32 locations of selected states. Conventional singleplex and multiplex PCR assays and real time PCR were employed to target the genetic elements of
Bt
Brinjal viz.
cry1Ac
transgene,
Cauliflower Mosaic Virus 35S
promoter (
P
-
35S
),
neomycin phosphotransferase II
(
nptII
) and
aminoglycoside
-
3′
-
adenyltransferase
(
aadA
) marker genes. Based on the tests conducted, adventitious presence of transgenes was not detected in any of the collected samples. This approach targeting common screening elements or specific GM target could be efficiently employed to check for unapproved GM events in food and supply chain to comply with the regulatory requirements.
A growing pool of genomic knowledge and remarkable reductions in the cost of genetic sequencing is revolutionizing the identification of plant pathogens and phytosanitary risks. This article examines ...available technologies of plant testing for genetics, residues, and contamination that can be imposed at port locations for the trade of bulk commodity crops. Access and deployment of lower-cost detection technologies could fundamentally change phytosanitary practices with potential consequences for agricultural trade. Investment in testing for the presence of transgenic dockage or plant and soil diseases will likely decrease time and arbitration costs. Implementation of diagnostics testing could not only protect the exporters’ position, but it could also lead to future implications of trusted trade or higher standards of phytosanitary policy. The lack of rigorous export testing creates the opportunity for trade protectionist countries to claim that commodity imports fail to meet import standards, which can either lower the price or result in shipment rejection. The failure of commodity shipments to comply with import thresholds is a regular occurrence, yet resolutions are achieved that do not disrupt international trade. This rise in the ability to accurately test for pathogen detection provides the opportunity for safer commodity trade, but also the rise in protectionism.
Coexistence among genetically modified (GM) and non-GM cropping systems and identity preservation at the field level are increasingly important issues in many countries. Different types of ...pollen-mediated gene flow (cross-fertilization) models have been released during the past decade, primarily as a decision-support tool to achieve the European Union (EU) 0.9% GM adventitious presence (AP) labelling threshold for food and feed. We review key empirical or mechanistic models for four diverse crop types—canola or oilseed rape (OSR) (
Brassica napus L.), maize (
Zea mays L.), wheat (
Triticum aestivum L.), and creeping bentgrass (
Agrostis stolonifera L.). Their strengths, weaknesses, relevance, and utility in simulating pollen-mediated gene flow are examined. Many empirical models simulate gene flow well, although their utility is often restricted by datasets with limited environmental variability or spatial scale. Few mechanistic models have been developed, reflecting the challenge in accurately simulating pollen-mediated gene flow by wind or insects; such models have not been validated for commercial field scenarios. Many models tend to provide upper-end or worst-case outcrossing predictions and management recommendations, either because of experimental design underlying datasets, biological and environmental stochasticity, or chosen statistical analysis. Both experimental results and modelling predictions of outcrossing in OSR, maize, and wheat reveal that isolation distance or a pollen barrier (buffer zone) generally is only recommended between small grain maize fields (ca. <5
ha) to maintain field-average AP due to pollen-mediated gene flow below the EU threshold. Recent advances in modelling pollen-mediated gene flow in commercial fields are encouraging, but simulating gene flow in heterogeneous landscapes remains an elusive goal. Moreover, practical, user-friendly decision-support tools are needed to inform and guide farmers in implementing coexistence measures.
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