Friday, August 21, 2020
CapitalPress.com 5
Grant funds UC-Berkeley research into wheat gene-editng
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
A grant to the University of
California-Berkeley will pay for
research into advanced gene edit-
ing aimed at developing wheat that
is resistant to pathogens.
The grant comes from the Foun-
dation for Food and Agriculture
Research in Washington, D.C. The
2Blades Foundation and Innova-
tive Genomics Institute provided
matching funds, for a total $3.2 mil-
lion investment.
FFAR builds public-private part-
nerships to support agricultural
research.
If successful, the three-year proj-
ect could help growers reduce fun-
gicide use by developing crops with
improved resistance, Jeff Rosichan,
director of the Crops of the Future
collaborative for the foundation,
Jeff
Rosichan
told the Capital
Press.
“This method-
ology allows sci-
entists to put the
newest and best
disease resistance
genes in the best
germplasm that’s
currently
avail-
able,” he said.
Currently, scientists use tradi-
tional crop breeding to introduce, or
stack, multiple resistance genes, but
this is a time-consuming approach,
according to FFAR.
As pathogens mutate, plant
breeders or chemical producers
must constantly work to keep one
step ahead, Rosichan said.
It typically takes eight to 10
years to stack genes through con-
ventional breeding. Gene editing
accelerates the process, getting a
variety to growers in possibly half
the time, he said.
“It’s really not a matter of being
more resistant, it’s a matter of trying
to stack and create more hurdles for
the pathogen to overcome,” he said.
The UC-Berkeley research team,
led by Brian Staskawicz and Ksenia
Krasileva, uses gene editing tech-
nology to stack resistance genes in
the wheat that recognize the patho-
gen’s proteins. By recognizing the
proteins, the plant can fight the
pathogen, even if it mutates.
The resulting wheat varieties
will have greater yields and require
fewer chemical inputs, according to
FFAR.
Gene editing is not considered
genetic modification, or GMOs,
Rosichan said.
Many key overseas wheat-buy-
ing countries will not purchase
GMO wheat.
Gene editing is more precise
than genetic engineering, Rosichan
said.
The USDA Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service oversees
regulated genetically engineered
wheat field trials, but agencies
agree gene editing poses no risks,
since it makes minor changes to the
plant without incorporating any for-
eign DNA or genetic material, Ros-
ichan said.
There is no GMO wheat for sale
or in commercial production in the
U.S. at this time.
“From a scientific point of view
... there probably isn’t really a sci-
entific downside to this research,”
Rosichan said. “It’s really more
about consumer acceptance of new
technology.”
Some European customers have
expressed concerns, but research-
ers have petitioned the European
Union to adopt a scientifically
based assessment of risk instead of
non-scientifically based perceived
risk, he said.
“Growers really like to have the
best tools out there to deal with their
problems,” he said. “This at least
offers them a cost-effective, poten-
tially successful way to stay ahead
of the disease issue for longer.”
Wheat varieties developed using
gene editing could possibly enter
the marketplace in six years, Rosi-
chan said. Other gene-editing proj-
ects are being developed globally,
as the technology gains more pub-
lic acceptance.
According to FFAR, the grant
includes computational and syn-
thetic biology approaches to
develop novel resistance genes,
through the 2Blades Foundation’s
wheat rusts consortium, for rust-re-
sistant wheat.
WSU ventures into hemp field trials
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OSU
Richard Roseberg, left, and Gordon Jones at the Oregon State University Southern
Oregon Research and Extension Center in Central Point examine hemp plants for
their maturity near harvest as part of a nationwide trial.
OSU researchers spearheading
nationwide hemp trials
Projects made possible by $2.5 million federal appropriation
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
CORVALLIS, Ore. —
Researchers at Oregon State
University and the USDA
Agricultural Research Ser-
vice are teaming up for a
first-of-its-kind nationwide
hemp study to find out how
different growing environ-
ments may influence the
newly legalized crop.
Hemp was criminalized
under the Controlled Sub-
stances Act of 1970, but
Congress removed it from
the list of Schedule I drugs
as part of the 2018 Farm Bill,
opening the door for wide-
spread cultivation.
Jeff Steiner, associate
director of the OSU Global
Hemp Innovation Center,
said the crop was “essen-
tially put in a time capsule”
during the years it was ille-
gal. While farming practices
and technology for other
commodities
progressed,
hemp was left behind.
Producers and academ-
ics alike are now rushing
to catch up. The center was
established in 2019, combin-
ing more than 40 OSU fac-
ulty members working to
incorporate hemp into Amer-
ican agriculture.
“Now that hemp is out of
the time capsule, doing (this)
research starts to bring it up
to
speed
with other
crops
so
that farmers
and other
agricul-
ture busi-
Jeff
ness people,
Steiner
and even
the proces-
sors of hemp, can make sci-
ence-based decisions on
whether they should grow it,
how they should grow it and
where they should grow it,”
Steiner said.
Earlier this year, law-
makers provided another
leg-up for hemp by appro-
priating $2.5 million for joint
research between OSU and
the USDA-ARS.
One project, Steiner said,
involves planting six variet-
ies of hemp at 16 locations
across the country, measur-
ing how the differences in
soil, temperature and amount
of sunlight affect the plants’
timing, yield and levels of
chemical compounds like
cannabidiol, or CBD.
Project partners include
universities in Alabama,
New York, Vermont, Ken-
tucky, Wisconsin and Mon-
tana, among others. Genetics
include both full-season and
auto-flowering varieties — the
latter of which is not depen-
dent on length of daytime to
enter its flowering stage.
Steiner said the focus is
on hemp grown for canna-
binoids like CBD, used in
oils, lotions, tinctures and
other products. Scientists are
also paying close attention to
whether environmental fac-
tors have any effect on lev-
els of tetrahydrocannabinol,
or THC, in the plants.
By law, hemp cannot
have more than 0.3% THC,
the component in cannabis
that gets users high. If hemp
exceeds the 0.3% bench-
mark, it is considered illegal
marijuana under federal law
and must be destroyed.
“This is the first nation-
wide trial of this sort,”
Steiner said. “Right now,
much of this market the last
couple of years has revolved
around CBD production and
cannabinoids. But we don’t
really know where is the best
place to produce, optimally
and economically, essential
hemp varieties.”
That’s not the only proj-
ect underway at the Center.
Steiner said the center is
also working with the Uni-
versity of California-Davis
on irrigation trials to deter-
mine how much water hemp
needs to grow in drier cli-
mates. Testing began this
year in Ontario, Hermiston
and Klamath Falls in Oregon
and Fresno and Yolo coun-
ties in California.
Washington State Uni-
versity has joined the search
for hemp varieties that can
fulfill the hopes of growers
and promises of advocates.
David Gang, professor at
WSU’s Institute of Biolog-
ical Chemistry, will collect
information this summer
from seven
test
plots
across the
state. The
university
has not par-
ticipated
in
hemp
research at David
Gang
this
scale
before.
Gang said he expects
researchers to learn a lot
over the next five years about
hemp’s chemistry and which
varieties will thrive in differ-
ent regions of Washington.
“I don’t think there’s
going to be one hemp vari-
ety. The answer I think is
that we’ll have a battery of
hemp varieties,” he said.
WSU faculty members
obtained hemp licenses
from the Washington State
Department of Agricul-
ture after the 2014 Farm
Bill allowed state-super-
vised hemp cultivation and
research.
Hemp,
however,
remained a federally con-
trolled substance. Hemp
and marijuana are the same
plant, cannabis, but distin-
guished by hemp’s low level
of THC, the psychoactive
chemical in marijuana.
Hemp research proj-
ects bogged down, requir-
ing the same federal scrutiny
as research involving mari-
juana. “It was a nightmare. It
just became too hard,” Gang
said.
The 2018 Farm Bill
legalized live plants and via-
ble seeds. Farmers still need
a state license and must have
their plants tested for THC.
If sample plants have too
much TCH, the crop must
be destroyed.
With hemp no longer a
controlled substance, WSU
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
La Center, Wash., hemp grower Lyn Larson-McCann,
left, and Industrial Hemp Association of Washington
director Bonny Jo Peterson look over a hemp test plot
July 12. Washington State University is participating in
field trials across the state.
has an opportunity, and per-
haps an obligation, to help
develop it as a profitable
agricultural crop, Gang said.
Washington has 170
licensed hemp farmers, far
fewer than leading hemp
states such as Oregon, Col-
orado and Kentucky.
“We know we’re behind
the curve compared to a
number of states,” Gang
said. “We’re trying to play
catch-up right now.”
WSU has collaborated
with the Industrial Hemp
Association of Washing-
ton and farmers on field tri-
als in Spokane, Kennewick,
Chelan, Mabton, Mattawa,
Prosser and La Center.
About 19 acres are
involved, and 17 variet-
ies are being gown, the
hemp association’s director,
Bonny Jo Peterson, said.
She estimated the tri-
als will cost more than
$300,000, with more than
$200,000 coming from
in-kind contributions of
farmers. Peterson said she’s
still raising the rest from the
hemp industry.
Trials have a long list
of goals, including find-
ing a variety that can be
planted in June and har-
vested in September, fit-
ting into short growing sea-
sons in Western Washington,
Peterson said.
“We’re relying on the sci-
entists and the farmers to fig-
ure this out rather than peo-
ple who like hemp and think
that it will save the world,”
she said. “We’re still build-
ing an industry, and we have
a long way to go.”
Lyn
Larson-McCann
planted a dozen varieties on
a little less than 2 acres near
La Center, the only field trial
west of the Cascades. She’s
growing the hemp organ-
ically, and pulling a lot of
weeds by hand.
She said she started plant-
ing hemp last year, interested
in it as a medicinal plant.
“We’re so new at being
allowed to do this. Like any
new business, it’s going to
take years,” she said.
“But I know this isn’t
going to go away, so
now we’re down to the
meat-and-potatoes to see
how it grows and who it can
benefit.”
Hemp advocates tout the
plant’s versatility and its
ability to yield seeds to eat
and fiber to make clothing,
building materials, biofuel
and other products.
So far, however, the
plant’s
chemistry
has
attracted the most consumer
interest. The most popular
product is cannabidiol, or
CBD.
CBD and THC are just
two of more than 80 natu-
rally occurring chemicals in
hemp, according to the Food
and Drug Administration.
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