RESEARCH VIEWS
Leah A Brilman, Ph.D., Research Director, Seed Research of Oregon Biotechnology has become increasingly important in everyone’s life, from genome projects that may help us understand and cure diseases, to genetically-modified crops that allow less herbicides and insecticides to be used in crop production, to fears that a new disease may be created through biotechnology. The average person may not understand the risks and benefits of biotechnology, but it will continue to impact our lives. In the turfgrass industry we are also hearing more about biotechnology and want to make informed decisions about its use. The aspect of biotechnology that has received the most interest by our industry recently is Round-up Ready bentgrass. This is the first application of a genetically engineered or biotechnologyderived turfgrass. This technique involves insertion of novel genes for specific characteristics into the chromosomes of a plant either by using a gene gun or Agrobacterium. Although this is the first application, many other genes have been inserted into turfgrasses for study including genes for resistance to the herbicide glufosinate, various chitinase genes for disease resistance, genes for male sterility, and growth-related genes to control vertical elongation. Various programs have inserted genes into creeping bentrass, Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass and tall fescue. In order for genetic engineering to work certain key elements are necessary: a method to insert the gene, a promoter gene, which is like an “on” switch, a selectable gene and the gene of interest. Theoretically, in Kentucky bluegrass varieties, a properly integrated gene, with a strong promoter that is active in the correct tissue, could be increased directly and have expression in the variety due to its apomictic reproduction. Any gene inserted into a creeping bentgrass or tall fescue plant would require crossing the transformed plant with other desirable plants of the same species to develop a population expressing the gene of interest, and from this population a variety could be selected. The creeping bentgrass developed for Round-up resistance is currently being evaluated by USDA-APHIS and EPA for deregulation. The Round-up resistance is the selectable gene used to find the transformed plants in the tissue culture, and ap-
Reprinted from “Through the Green”, July/August 2003, courtesy of the Georgia Golf Course Superintendents Association
proval of this product is necessary before other genes of interest can be incorporated and commercialized. For example, if you had a gene for disease resistance you wanted to insert into a turfgrass, it would be difficult to find the cells containing that gene in the tissue culture. If the gene for disease resistance were attached to a gene for Roundup resistance, you would insert both together. If you grew the tissue culture in the presence of Round-up, only those cells with the Roundup gene and the attached disease resistance gene would survive. You could then find the transformed cells and grow them into plants. Other DNA techniques would enable you to check the status of your disease-resistance gene once you had the transformed plants. Questions need to be answered about transgenic grasses, including the risk of these genes being transferred into related weed species and the potential for the targeted weed or disease to rapidly develop resistance to the herbicide or enzyme. The USDA had a series of meetings to discuss these questions, since this is the first perennial crop that has been applied for approval and has a welldefined series of experiments before release is approved. In both weed control and disease resistance it is always important to have more than one method or gene for control available to help prevent the development of resistance. A defined stewardship program will be implemented for any course using a transgenic crop. Other genes in other species are also being explored, and this process of approval must be done for each gene and each species. Currently bringing genetically engineered plants to the market is a very expensive and time-consuming process. Only genes and species that show a significant improvement with a large enough market to justify this expenditure will be marketed. Biotechnology is also giving us the ability to find and track genes in turfgrass species more easily. The species that the most progress has been made on include perennial ryegrass, tall fescue and bermudagrass. These species are all important for both turf and forage throughout the world. Improvement of turfgrass varieties is dependent on the ability to efficiently screen large numbers of plants for the desired