The Hindu Business Line : GM peanut at field trial stage

THE first transgenic groundnut in the world, developed by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) has reached the field trial stage. These groundnuts are engineered with the genes for resistance to Indian peanut clump virus (IPCV), which is widespread in the country.

Icrisat would be conducting open field trials of the transgenic peanuts next year and it would take another two to three years for the commercialisation of the transgenic seed, its Director-General, Dr William D. Dar, told newspersons here on Friday.

A group led by Dr Kiran Sharma of Icrisat developed the technology for genetically transforming groundnut and introduced genes for resistance to IPCV. After extensive molecular characterisation of the transgenic and preliminary studies in the glasshouse, permission to carry out a field trial under controlled conditions was obtained from the Department of Biotechnology.

Dr Sharma said despite screening more than 10,000 lines of groundnut germplasm, no traditional sources of resistance to IPCV could be identified. Hence, he took the course of genetically transforming the groundnut. The work started with genes from the Scottish Crops Research Institute (SCRI) of the UK, which were sequenced and cloned as a part of the collaborative work between Icrisat and SCRI. Dr Farid Waliyar has joined the effort to test the groundnuts at the Icrisat campus at Patancheru here, while Dr. Philippe Delfosse is exploring the possibilities of testing them in Africa against the African isolate PCV.

Icrisat had also found that some of its pearl millet genotypes with yellow endosperm were having beta-carotene levels comparable to those of `Golden rice'. However, Dr Dar said, it would take a minimum of six years before these `Golden millets' were released to the public.

Icrisat scientist, Dr C. Tom Hash, worked on this project in collaboration with nutritionists and plant breeders at the University of Hehenheim in Germany. Apart from groundnut, Icrisat also in the process of developing genetically modified pigeonpea, chickpea and sorghum. Icrisat is also establishing an agri-business incubator (ABI) project at its campus at Patancheru, which will function as an independent outfit. The Department of Biotechnology has granted Rs 2.5 crore for the project. Besides, the institute is seeking infrastructure grant from the Andhra Pradesh Government.

Dr Kiran Sharma, incharge of ABI, said this was a venture to transfer some of the Icrisat's technologies to small and medium enterprises. He was hopeful that the new outfit would be able generate its own resources in a span of five years.

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