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34 I EUROPEAN SEED I EUROPEAN-SEED.COM INTERNATIONAL NEWS GLOBAL SEED WATCH CHECK OUT WHATS HAPPENING IN THE GLOBAL SEED INDUSTRY FROM REGULATORY APPROVALS OF GMOS IN MOZAMBIQUE TO THE USE OF CONTRAST X-RAY IMAGING TO REVEAL STRUCTURAL AND BIOMOLECULAR DIFFERENCES IN FHB-INFECTED WHEAT. STATUS UNITED STATES University of Illinois research geneticist Ram Singh has managed to cross a popular soybean variety with a related wild perennial plant producing the first fertile soybean plants that are resistant to soybean rust soybean cyst nematode and other pathogens. Singh works in the SoybeanMaize Germplasm Pathology and Genetics Research unit in the department of crop sciences at the University of Illinois. The unit is a division of the U.S. Department of Agricultures Agricultural Research program. Singhs collaborator Randall Nelson research lead of the ARS soybeanmaize research unit plants seeds from Singhs most promising experiments grows the plants and distributes their seeds to other scientists who screen them for desirable traits and conduct their own breeding experiments. This research has been published in the journal Theoretical and Applied Genetics. To date the effort has yielded plants that are resistant to soybean rust soybean cyst nematode or Phytophthora root rot. Soybean breeders now have access to dozens of new soybean lineages each with some of the traits of the wild Australian plants and the research continues. Source University of Illinois that the genes dominant traits enabled the transformed plants to withstand heat stress. Furthermore Lin said that the cloned gene may also be used to develop heat tolerant varieties of wheat and cruciferous vegetables such as Chinese cabbage. Source Forum on China-Africa Cooperation STATUS MOZAMBIQUE Policy breakthroughs on transgenic research in Mozambique and Tanzania have led to approval of confined field trials CFTs and a more research-friendly regulatory framework. Mozambiques CFTs will be at the Instituto de Investigao Agrria de Moambique IIAM Agricultural Research Institute of Mozambique research station at Chokwe about 125 miles north of the countrys capital Maputo. Next door in Tanzania a stringent policy that was prohibitive in terms of the onerous liability it placed on researchers has been revised. What all this means is that the two countries which have been somewhat lagging behind on account of policy constraints can now more substantively engage in the Water Efficient Maize for Africa WEMA project and be more in step with other WEMA partners. Inacio Maposs II A Ms director general says that Mozambiques Ministry of Agriculture had been renamed to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. This he emphasized was not just an exercise in words but also underscored the importance of projects such as WEMA. In his words In Mozambique you cannot talk about food security without talking about maize. Statistics show that 95 per cent of Mozambiques smallholders grow maize and that maize covers 40 per cent of the land devoted to annual crops. Despite the recent breakthroughs more remains to be done. In Kenya the 2012 ban on importation of genetically modified organisms is still in force. And while there has been remarkable progress STATUS URUGUAY While in Poland for the International Seed Federations 2015 World Seed Congress Pablo Civetta chair of the National Organising Com m ittee for the Ur u guaya n seed association announced that the 2016 congress will be held in Punta del Este Uruguay from 15 to 18 May 2016.. The theme of the 2016 World Seed Congress will be The Natural Way Forward in Business Life. Civetta explained that the geography of Uruguay makes it well-suited to agriculture. Known for its agribusiness about 90 per cent of the land is used for the production of grains beef milk wool wood and citrus. As such agriculture represents more than 8 per cent of Uruguays gross domestic product and 75 per cent of its total exports. In addition to the International Seed Federation the 2016 congress will be co-hosted by the Uruguayan Seed Chamber Camara Uruguaya de Semillas or CUS and the Uruguayan Breeders Association Asociacin Civil Uruguaya para la Proteccin de los Obtentores Vegetales or URUPOV. Source Seed World STATUS CHINA A team of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences led by Lin Hongxuan have successfully isolated and cloned heat tolerance genes from African rice strains which could be used to develop rice varieties that can resist the effects of global warming. According to Lin temperatures over 35 degrees Celsius decreased the productivity of rice plants. Heat stress destroys rice proteins causing the plants to wither. Under heat stress the heat tolerance gene from African rice variety is activated and gets rid of the toxic proteins that may cause death to the rice plant. The researchers have tested Asian rice varieties with the transplanted gene in field conditions. The results showed