Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee Approves Genetically Modified Mustard for Environmental Release

 Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee Approves Genetically Modified Mustard for Environmental Release

India’s apex Biotech regulator, Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), has recommended indigenously developed India’s first-ever transgenic food crop genetically modified mustard containing two alien genes isolated from non-pathogenic soil bacterium called Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. The transgenic mustard variety DMH – 11 was developed by Dr. Deepak Pental, and his colleagues from the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants at the University of Delhi, South Campus.

GM mustard DMH – 11 was created through transgenic technology involving the Bar, Barnase, and Barstar gene systems. The Barnase gene confers male sterility, while the Barstar gene restores DMH – 11’s ability to produce fertile seeds. The insertion of the third gene Bar enables DMH – 11 to produce phosphinothricin-N- acetyl-transferase, the enzyme responsible for Glufosinate resistance. Glufosinate resistance is due to an enzyme expressed by the Bar (Bialaphos resistance) gene. The cloned Bar gene (derived from Streptomyces hygroscopicus) encodes for the synthesis of phosphinothricin-N- acetyl-transferase (PAT). PAT enzymes produced by the Bar gene, deactivate Bialaphos (the tripeptide precursor to phosphinothricin) through acetylation to form an inactive, non-toxic product. This enzyme is responsible for detoxifying the active ingredient in the herbicide Glufosinate-phosphinothricin. Phosphinothricin’s mechanism of action involves the inhibition of Glutamine synthetase, which prevents the detoxification of ammonia and subsequently causes toxic buildup within plant cells. Inhibition of glutamine synthetase also leads to an overall reduction in Glutamine levels. In plants, Glutamine acts as a signaling molecule, and as a major amino acid donor for nucleotide synthesis. Hence, this GM mustard DMH – 11 is Glufosinate tolerant, and therefore it is thought to encourage farmers to liberally spray the herbicide upon commercialization.

So far, India has not approved any commercial cultivation of transgenic food crops. It will be the first GM food to be approved by Govt of India for commercial cultivation. This approval for GM mustard was a long wait but better late than never. Transgenic Bt-cotton was allowed for cultivation by the Government of India in the year 2002. The decision comes on the backdrop of soaring edible oil prices in the past few years. India meets 70 percent of its domestic cooking oil demand by importing a variety of oils such as sunflower, soybean, and palm. Still, we are continuing to import larger volumes of GM soybean oil from USA, Brazil, and Argentina. India has imported 4.1 million tonnes of GM soybean oil in 2021-22. The decision by GEAC was taken during its 147th meeting held on October 18, 2022. The regulator recommended the “environmental release of mustard hybrid DMH-11 for its seed production and testing as per existing ICAR guidelines and other rules/regulations before proper commercial release. GM mustard was found not to pose any food allergy risks and has demonstrated increased yields over existing mustard varieties. Conflicting details and results regarding the field trials and safety evaluations conducted on GM mustard have delayed its approval for commercial cropping.

In 2017, GEAC has recommended the commercial release of GM mustard but due to objections from Swadeshi Jagran Manch, an affiliate of RSS, the Govt. of India has put it on hold. Similarly, transgenic brinjal was put on indefinite moratorium in 2010 by then environment minister Jairam Ramesh. GM mustard technology will now accelerate mustard breeding programs for bringing a new revolution in mustard farming by enhancing edible oil production in the country. The project to develop DMH – 11 received funding from the National Dairy Development Board of India and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).

The potential of Smart Agriculture Technology through Public Partnership Programmes (PPPs)

The potential of Agriculture Technology via Public Partnership Programmes (PPPs)

The centre and state governments are interested to deliver hi-tech services to farmers through PPPs. This model can play an important role for creating a viable ecosystem for smart futuristic agriculture technology.

For more information, please browse the link:

https://www-thehindubusinessline-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/unlocking-the-potential-agri-tech/article65255349.ece/amp/

For example:

Use of Drone to spray pesticides and fertilizers

(Photo Credit:Siva Saravanans)

Agricultural Biotechnology

Biotechnology refers generally to the application of a wide range of scientific techniques to the modification and improvements of plants, animals, and microorganisms that are of economic importance. Agricultural biotechnology is that area of biotechnology involving application to agriculture. In the broadest sense, traditional biotechnology has been used for thousand of years, since the advent of the first agricultural practices, for the improvement of plants, animals and microorganisms. The application of biotechnology to agriculturally important crop species has traditionally involved the use of selective breeding to bring about an exchange of genetic material between two parent plants to produce offspring having desired traits such as increase yield, disease resistance and enhanced product quality. The exchange of genetic material through conventional breeding requires that the two plants being crossed are of the same, or closely related species and so it can take considerable time to achieve desired results. Modern biotechnology vastly increase the precision and reduces the time with which these changes in plant characteristics can be made and greatly increase the potential sources from which desirable traits can be obtained.

Nano-Foods

Nanofood is defined as the food derived from the use of nanotechnology techniques or tools during cultivation, production, processing or packaging. After harvesting, crop is processed and then it reaches to consumers in the form of food. One common problem encountered in food sector is that it loses its freshness and quality before reaching to the consumers. Generally food contains bacteria and viruses which ends in illness and sometimes fatality. Nanotechnology can play an important role by designing smart biosensors that can be packed along with the food material. These smart biosensors will warn the consumers about the freshness of the food by colour change indicators. So if there is large concentration of bacteria in a particular food, the biosensor will produce a strong signal indicating the food as unsafe to eat. Biosensors developed on the basis of nanotechnology can detect pathogen in the food matrices. Multifunctional FeO NPs with their surface attached to antibodies can specifically bind to the microorganism can be used for their detection in complex food matrices.

A major problem in food science is determining and developing an effective packaging material. Quality and freshness of food can also be maintained by designing smart packaging materials using nanotechnology to keep the food fresh for longer duration. In addition, many companies are also adding NPs to dietary supplements to enhance their bioavailability and efficacy. Nutraceuticals like lycopene, beta-carotene, lutein, phytosterols, have been incorporated into nanosize self-assembled liquid structures to deliver nutrients to cells. Food and cosmetic companies are working together to develop new mechanism to deliver vitamins directly to the skin.

Nanotechnology may provide solutions to nanoscale biosensors for pathogen detection and to delivery systems for bioactive ingredients in foodstuffs through improved knowledge of food material and their uptake at the nanoscale. Consumers need to be aware of the risk that nanofood may suffer the destiny as genetically modified (GM) crops. Products developed by using nanotechnology are flooding the market in food industry. But there are no specific rules and regulations to check their risks.

A number of factors contribute to a demand for the traceability of food throughout production, processing, distribution and consumption. Nanotechnology based tracing devices can integrate multiple functional devices that provide other important information such as sensors for detection of the presence of pathogens, spoilage microorganism, allergen, chemicals, and other contaminants in food as well as nutritional information. Nanoscale tagging devices can be used to record and retrieve information about the product history. These types of applications will help producers, retailers and consumers regarding food safety. 

Nanotechnology: A Brief Introduction

The term ‘Nanotechnology’ was first defined in 1974 by Norio Taniguchi of the Tokyo Science University as the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. The definition of nanotechnology is based on the prefix ‘nano’ which is from the Greek word meaning ‘dwarf’. Technically the word ‘nano’ means one billionth of something. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. The word nanotechnology is generally used when referring to materials with the size of 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). Nanotechnology is a new branch of science that deals with the generation and alteration of materials to nanosize. Materials with a particle size less than 100 nm at least in one dimension are generally classified as nanomaterials. These materials display different properties from bulk materials due to their size. These differences include physical strength, chemical reactivity, electrical conductance, magnetism and optical effects. Therefore, nanotechnology is the manipulation or self-assembly of individual atoms or molecule or molecular cluster into structures to create materials and devices with new or vastly different properties. Nanosensors and monitoring system enabled by nanotechnology will have a large impact on future precision methodologies. Hence, nanotechnology employs materials (NPs) having one or more dimension in the order of 100 nm or less.

Nanomaterials (NMs) of inorganic and organic origin are used for nanoparticles (NPs) synthesis by a variety of physical and chemical methods. The techniques for making nanoparticles are generally involved either a top-down approach or a bottom-up approach. In top-down approach, size reduction is achieved by various chemical and physical treatments such as milling, high pressure homogenization and sonication while in bottom-up synthesis, the nanostructure building blocks of the nanoparticles are formed first and then assembled to produce the final particle.

Among inorganic materials, metal oxide nanoparticles such as ZnO, TiO_2, AgO, MgO are of particular interest as they are physically and optically stable with tunable optical properties. Metallic nanomaterials are very interesting materials with unique electronic and electrocatalytic properties depending on their size and morphology and include the utilization of nanostructured materials with specific forms like quannologytum dots (QDs). Other inorganic materials such as montmorillionite and other clay nanoparticles have a structure of stacked platelets with one dimension of the platelet in the nanometer scale. Nano-clays have a high aspect ratio that provide more interactive surface when exfoliated and dispersed well. Organic materials such as carbon nanotubes, lipids and polymers are versatile materials with multiple applications.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are hollow cylindrical tubes composed of one, two or several concentric graphite layers capped by fullerenic hemisphere, which are referred to as single-, double-, and multi-walled CNTs. The unique electronic, metallic and structural characteristics make CNTs an important class of materials. The possibility of electron transfer reaction due to their structure dependent metallic character and their high surface area provides ground for unique biochemical sensing system. Solid lipid nanoparticles are delivery systems that comprise of aqueous dispersion of solid lipids or dry powder such as triglycerides, steroids, waxes, long chain fatty acids and emulsifiers prepared by high pressure homogenization. Polymeric nanoparticles made from natural and synthetic polymers by wet synthetic routes are widely used due to their stability and ease of surface modification. Nanoparticles prepared from biopolymers or natural sources possess merits such as available from replenishable agricultural (cellulose, starch, pectin) or marine (chitin and chitosan) resources, biocompatibility, biodegradability and other ecological safety. Chitosan is one of the most promising NMs due to its excellent biocompatibility, complete biodegradiability and non-tixic nature. The degradation products of chitosan are harmless natural metabolites. It is obtained by the deacetylation of chitin, the second most abundant natural polymer after cellulose, which is found in the shells of crustaceans (crabs and shrimp), the cuticles of insects, and the cell walls of fungi. It is suitable for electrochemical sensors due to its transparent nature. Quantum dots (QDs) are inorganic nanocrystals, approximately 1-100 nm in size, with unique properties of broad excitation, narrow size-tunable emission spectra, high photochemical stability and negligible photoleaching. They have been widely used, mainly as alternative to fluorophores,  for the development of optical biosensors to detect ions, organic compounds and biomolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, amino acids, enzymes, carbohydrates.  Dendrimers are known as organic macromolecules with tridimensional (3D) and highly defined structure functionality. The capability of these dendrimeric structures to stabilize and maintain the integrity of metallic nanoparticles has been reported.

Nanoparticles are generally characterized by their size, shape surface area, and disparity. The common techniques of characterizing nanoparticles are scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV-visible spectrophotometery, X-ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS).

Some nanomaterials and their applications

Nanomaterials

Applications

Inorganic Metal nanoparticles           AgO, TiO2, ZnO, CeO2; Fe2O3,          FePd, Fe-Ni; Silica; CdTe, CdSe   Clay         Montmorillonite layerd double hydroxides Organic  Carbon nanotubes,           nanofibres  Lipids       Liposomes       Lippolyplexes       Solid lipid nanoparticles Poymeric       Natural         Cellulose, Starch, Gelatin, Albumin         Chitin, Chitosan      Synthetic        Dendrimers        Polyethylene oxide        Polyethylene  glycol        Polylactides

Delivery of biomolecules (proteins, peptides, nucleic acids), biosensors, diagnostic techniques, pesticide degradation Delivery of pesticides, fertilizers, plant growth promoting hormones Biocatalysts, sensing, Delivery of DNA  and pesticides, essential oils Biocompatible, biodegradable Delivery of DNA/RNA Delivery of pesticides and DNA/RNA