Biotechnology education at Purdue University and beyond

Peter Goldsbrough

Dept. of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University

January 2006

Outline

Survey of major ag biotech products Adoption of biotech products Products that have failed Obstacles to the deployment of ag

biotech products Some examples of biotechnology

educational programs

Timeline

1973 First recombinant DNA molecules

1978 First plant genes cloned

1983 Transgenic plants produced

1994 Flavr Savr tomato marketed

1996 Roundup Ready soybeans planted commercially

1998 First UK supermarket bans GM foods

2002 Approval to grow Bt cotton in India

What are the products of agricultural biotechnology? Herbicide resistance

– soybeans, cotton, canola, corn Insect resistance

– cotton, corn Virus resistance

– papaya, squash Others (most not yet commercialized)

– nutritional content, shelf life, flower color, pharma crops ….

Impact of Roundup Ready beans

Improved weed control Reduced cost of weed control

– for all growers– impact on other herbicide

manufacturers Increased use of no-till planting

– reduced soil erosion

Why do growers love Roundup Ready soybeans?

Reduced production costs Greater flexibility for weed control Increased yield?

Bt cotton

Produces a Cry toxin protein from Bacillus thuringiensis

Used to control a number of insect pests– cotton bollworm, budworm

Introduced in 1996, now planted on 76% of US cotton acreage

Global adoption of Bt cotton

Bt cotton has been planted in many countries, 21% of global acreage– US, India, China, Australia, South Africa

Contributed to a dramatic reduction in insecticide use (more than 50% in some areas)

Limited food safety concerns Bollgard II recently introduced

– expresses two different Cry proteins

Virus resistance

Papaya ringspot virus decimated the papaya industry in Hawaii in the 1990s

Dennis Gonsalves et al. developed transgenic papaya expressing PRSV coat protein, resistant to the virus

Virus resistance

Transgenic papaya grown in Hawaii for several years

Restored the papaya industry

Increased exports of non-transgenic papaya

Adoption of GM crops

Steady increase in global plantings of GM crops

High market penetration in the US

GM crops on the rise?

GM crops on the rise?

GM crops are planted on only 5% of the world's farmland– account for >50% of

only one crop, soybeans

Lots of opportunity for growth!

Some GM product “failures”

Flavr Savr tomato Bt potato High methionine soybean Roundup Ready wheat Weevil resistant pea

What are the obstacles to the greater use of GM crops? Scientific discovery Cost of development Economic benefits Intellectual property constraints Regulatory issues Consumer acceptance

What role for biotechnology education?

Consumer acceptance?

Not an issue in the US

A major concern elsewhere, especially in Europe

Agricultural biotechnology education at Purdue Purdue students

– HORT 350 Biotechnology in Agriculture High school teachers

– Summer class on biotechnology School-age children

– Apple genomics The general public

HORT 350 Biotechnology in Agriculture Semester course for junior and senior

undergraduate students The science of biotechnology and

transgenic organisms Applications of biotechnology, primarily

in agriculture Regulations and controversies

surrounding ag biotechnology

Biotechnology education for teachers HORT 350 converted to a distance

education course for teachers Taught by Dr. Kathryn Orvis Encourages incorporation of genetics

and biotechnology into the school curriculum

Teachers develop and share lesson plans on biotechnology

Biotechnology education for children Apple genomics research program

supported by the National Science Foundation

At Purdue, we are developing web-based educational material to explain the science of genomics

Targeted at school-age children Uses apple as the model

Apple genomics education

Use animations to explain topics DNA cloning DNA sequencing Gene expression Microarrays

From Lego blocks to nucleotides

Lego building blocks are used to represent nucleotides in DNA

Connectors on blocks represent the hydoxyl and phosphate groups

These join together to make a stack of blocks

or a DNA molecule

DNA sequencing with Lego blocks Connectors on Lego

blocks represent chemical groups

Different colors of blocks represent bases

Blocks without connectors represent dideoxy nucleotides used for sequencing

DNA sequencing with Legos

See the animation, “Modeling DNA Sequencing with Lego Blocks under Apple Molecular Biology – Cloning, on this website.

Other animations

Two additional animations, showing biotechnology processes are on this webpage, under the For Educators” section:

The gene gun Agrobacterium

The role of education

Education will not solve all the problems with public concern regarding GM crops

However, if the public is better informed about the science and the issues, the prospects for more widespread adoption of this technology are enhanced