Biocassava a meal ticket for famine-stricken East Africa

By Greg Burns
6:16 a.m. CDT, October 1, 2011

ST. LOUIS, Mo.—The terrible famine in East Africa has many causes, but one of the least appreciated involves a staple in the diet of 800 million people worldwide.

Cassava roots look a little like potatoes, and just as those starchy brown tubers succumbed to disease during the Irish famine of the 1840s, blight has devastated the fields of Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Women with Cassava Roots

The Horn of Africa depends on cassava as a food of last resort. The roots can be left in the dirt for years, then unearthed to fill empty stomachs. In recent times, various pathogens have destroyed much of the crop. What’s left, as with all conventional cassava, lacks the nutrients desperately needed in a land afflicted with poverty, drought and warfare.

Mankind has a solution. It’s growing — flourishing — in the laboratories at one of the world’s leading agriculture research centers here in St. Louis.

Nigel Taylor of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a bioengineer on an international team developing a genetically modified cassava protected against some of the most common diseases. In a lab crammed with equipment, he shuffles petri dishes with the practiced hand of a blackjack dealer. Like minigreenhouses, these flat glass jars hold clumps of cassava cells mixed with a bacteria that infects it, transferring a piece of DNA from one organism to the other without harming either. As the cells grow, a new kind of cassava emerges.

Biocassava, as it’s known, has such enormous potential to relieve suffering that big-money donors have flocked to it. Last month, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Monsanto Fund, among others, pledged another $12 million toward the Danforth Center’s research. Scientists at Danforth and other research centers also have focused on making cassava richer in protein and vitamins. Unexpectedly, when they boosted the protein levels, they discovered a happy side effect: The modified variety produces less of a naturally occurring poison that currently requires labor-intensive processing before the roots are safe to eat.

It takes time to genetically engineer a food crop, and the new cassavas still aren’t ready. But improved versions are inching toward a widespread rollout. Field trials now under way look promising.

For the millions at risk of starvation and malnutrition in East Africa, biocassava offers new hope for the future. For the American-led industry of plant biotechnology, it offers new hope too.

The genetic engineering of crops came to the forefront in the 1990s, revolutionizing agriculture in spite of divided public opinion and effective opposition from environmental activists. Industry leader Monsanto Corp. introduced corn and soybeans modified to reduce insecticide use and make herbicide more effective. Critics considered the new “Frankenfoods” an affront to nature and a hazard to the environment.

Impoverished nations that could have benefited from the technology worried that their citizens would be used as guinea pigs. More recently, opponents stood in the way of field trials in Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya by spreading unfounded scare stories about “killer cassava.” As the benefits of biotech crops have become more widely recognized, criticism has faded.

Hopefully, once it’s ready for widespread introduction, biocassava will cut through the usual superstition and politics. After all, Americans have consumed genetically modified food ingredients regularly for years. No ill effects so far.

Biotech isn’t the only way that plant science can feed a hungry world. Traditional plant breeding techniques have undergone a revolution as well, thanks to gene mapping and ever more powerful computers. No one should doubt that the work going on in labs like Nigel Taylor’s can save lives. The Midwest remains the global center of this fast-evolving industry. Let’s keep it that way.

Note to readers:   The Danforth Center’s work with Cassava is  focused on Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya.  The diseases targeted include two viruses, Cassava Brown Streak and Cassava Mosaic Virus.

On April 13, 2011 The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced an $8.3 million grant to fund Phase II of BioCassava Plus (BC Plus) led by the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.

Smallholder farmer cassava fields

The project is focused on Africa, primarily Nigeria and Kenya, where cassava is eaten two to three times a day and other nutritious food is scarce, unavailable or too expensive. Yet, cassava does not contain adequate amounts of Vitamin A, iron or protein that is necessary for healthy lives. The health consequences of these nutrient deficiencies are devastating.

Roughly one-third of the world’s population does not get enough nutrients from the food that they eat. According to the World Health Organization, children under five years of age shoulder the largest burden, accounting for 93 percent of the mortality relating to Vitamin A deficiency and 68 percent attributed to iron deficiency. Nutrient deficiencies also deeply affect women who are pregnant or nursing. Geographically, the burden falls in Sub-Sahara Africa and Southeast Asia where staple foods contain inadequate nutrients.

Here’s a look back on BioCassava Plus project’s history:

• In 1988, the first coordinated effort to bring the tools of modern plant biotechnology to focus on cassava improvement was initiated at International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT, its Spanish Acronym), Cali, Colombia; this meeting led to the establishment of the Cassava Biotechnology Network (CBN), a consortium of scientists dedicated to improving cassava through biotechnology.
• In 1996, the first successful transgenic cassava was developed by Drs. Claude Fauquet and Ingo Potrykus using transgenes expressing visible marker phenotypes.
• In 2003, the first transgenic cassava plants with reduced cyanogens and elevated starch yields were developed in Dr. Richard Sayre’s lab at The Ohio State University.
• In 2004, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the Grand Challenges in Global Health Program and awarded a $7.5 million grant to BC Plus , making it the largest coordinated cassava research development and deployment program involving more than 25 research investigators on five continents.
• In May of 2008 the Gates Foundation granted a supplemental award of $4.6 million to identify farmer-preferred varieties in Nigeria and Kenya and to accelerate the translational aspects of the program.  In addition, the funding supported the training of African scientists at the Danforth Plant Science Center in cassava transformation, phenotype analyses and conducting confined field trials.
• In December 2007, Dr. Richard Sayre, Director and Principal Investigator of BioCassava Plus, and Ph.D. advisor of Dr. Siritunga, visited confined field trial of transgenic plants currently maintained at UPRM and the field trial sites at Isabela, Puerto Rico.  The visit afforded him the opportunity to assess the phenotype of the transgenic plants.
• In 2008, biosafety studies and economic analyses were initiated. The results of these studies indicated multiple benefits of a nutritionally enhanced cassava.
• By 2009 BC Plus had received more than $12.1 million in grants and attracted a team of international scientists, including genetic engineers and seasoned breeders,   to genetically engineer a range of valuable traits into the nutrient poor, virus-prone root crop that also has a short shelf life and long processing time.
• Using the tools of modern biotechnology, the research team succeeded in developing cassava plants that have 20 times as much beta-carotene and four times as much iron as traditional cassava.  These increased levels reflect what is needed to furnish the minimum daily requirements for a child.
  

  (left) Cassava roots fortified with beta carotene next to a wild type cassava roots lacking in beta carotene.

• In March 2009, the FIRST application for transgenic crop field trials in Nigeria was approved to test pro-vitamin A enhanced cassava; a major milestone and measure of the success of BC Plus.
• In October of 2010, the National Biosafety Committee (NBC) in Kenya announced the approval of a CFT permit for Kenya at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) Station, Alupe. �
  

  BC Plus high nutrition cassava plants growing at the confined field trial site (CFT) at National Root Crop Research Institute (NRCRI) in Nigeria.

• 2010- Dr. Martin Fregene became the Director of the BioCassava Plus program. Dr. Fregene is a plant geneticist and molecular breeder with over 17 years of experience in genetics and breeding of cassava. He began his career at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1991 as a cassava breeder. African ownership and engagement in the project is critical for adoption, acceptance and longer term development of improved cassava.
• 2011- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awards an $8.3 million grant to continue the foundation’s support of the project and fund further research and safety testing.
• BioCassava Plus will be available to farmers in the same way it is being offered today and will have no royalty fees. This means farmers will be able to freely multiply, save and share their planting materials.
  

  Cassava is one of the few crops that you can find at the market year around.

Project Aims to Develop Cassava with increased Vitamin A, Iron and Protein to Help Farmers Provide Healthier Food for their Families

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center announced today that it has received an $8.3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance its work to improve the health and wellbeing of farmers, their families, and other consumers of cassava living in Nigeria and Kenya.

Women buying cassava roots at rural African market

ST. LOUIS, MO April 13, 2011–

Funds will be used to support Phase II of BioCassava Plus (BC Plus), an innovative project that aims to reduce malnutrition by increasing the nutritional value of cassava, a staple crop consumed by more than 250 million sub-Saharan Africans and nearly 700 million people worldwide.  Dr. Martin Fregene will serve as the lead investigator.

Those who depend on cassava for food often suffer from chronic malnutrition, or insufficient intake of essential nutrients and vitamins including pro-vitamin A, iron and protein. According to the World Health Organization, this malnutrition often leads to blindness and other illnesses, disability and death for an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 children each year.

“Beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A, and iron are contained in various foods today, but those foods are scarce, unavailable, or too expensive for many people in Nigeria and Kenya,” said Dr. Fregene, the project director.  “Increasing nutrients in local cassava varieties will make it both accessible and affordable for communities to improve their own nutrition.”

In Nigeria alone, 60 percent of pre-school children are deficient in vitamin A.  Approximately 30 percent of Kenyan preschool children also are vitamin A deficient, in addition to suffering from inadequate iron and protein.  Effects of iron deficiency include anemia, death for women in childbirth; and inadequate levels of protein causes stunting and wasting in children below the age of five. In Nigeria and Kenya, millions of people eat cassava two times a day, so researchers are focused on increasing the levels of pro-vitamin A and iron in this familiar food to provide them with healthier food that will enhance their diet and improve livelihoods.

The research team includes the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and its partners in Nigeria at the National Root Crops Research Institute and at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute who are well-trained in genetics and biosafety and are intimately familiar with farmer and community needs.  In phase I of the project the research team met or exceeded all targets to date. Using the tools of modern biotechnology they were able to develop cassava plants that have 30 times as much beta-carotene and four times as much iron as traditional cassava.  These increased levels reflect what is needed to provide the minimum daily dietary requirements for a child.

“In Nigeria, we often eat cassava two or three times a day, but it contains little vitamin A or iron. As a result, many people suffer from disease or have poor growth caused by a lack of important nutrients.  BioCassava Plus is an opportunity to help people, especially in rural areas throughout Africa. It will give people the vitamins and other important nutrients they need through a food they already grow and eat,” said Chiedozie Egesi, product development director, BioCassava Plus Nigeria.

The enhanced cassava created by the BioCassava Plus project will be available to farmers in the same way it is being offered today and will have no royalty fees. This means farmers will be able to freely multiply, save and share their planting materials.

“While the consequences of malnutrition are dire, especially for children, there is enormous potential for nutritionally enhanced foods to make substantial improvements to people’s health,” said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “If small farmers chose to grow these new improved crops, we expect to see not only their health improve, but also a ripple effect that means more prosperous lives.”

The grant continues the foundation’s support of the project and will fund further research and safety testing.

BioCassava Plus images

Interview with Dr. Martin Fregene, Director, BioCassava Plus

Interview with Dr. Chiedozie Egesi, Product Development Manager, BioCassava Plus Nigeria

BioCassava Plus Project Brief

Danforth Plant Science Center Cassava Fact Sheet

About Cassava

Cassava is a staple crop for more than 250 million sub-Saharan Africans. It grows productively in poor soils with little rainfall. Roots are consumed freshly boiled, or processed into a wide variety of granules, pastes and flours. Additionally, tubers can be left in the ground for up to three years, so if drought or disease kills off other crops, farmer’s families can still fend off starvation by eating cassava.

About The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Founded in 1998, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a not-for-profit research institute with a mission to improve the human condition through plant science. Research at the Danforth Center will feed the hungry and improve human health, preserve and renew the environment, and enhance the St. Louis region and Missouri as a world center for plant science. The Danforth Center’s work is funded through competitive grants and contract revenue from many sources, including the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. For more information please visit www.danforthcenter.org, featuring interactive information on the Center’s scientists, news and research.

Biosafety Resources Network, part of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, will assist project partners in collecting data relevant to the safety assessments of BioCassava Plus. This includes planning, training and generating data to assess food and environmental safety in accordance with international standards and in compliance with national regulatory requirements. BRN will also help develop communications and stewardship plans.

About The National Root Crop Research Institute

NRCRI, with the national mandate for the genetic improvement, farming systems, processing, utilization and marketing of root and tuber crops was established as a provincial farm in 1923 and assumed the current status of a research institute in 1975. The mandate crops are cassava, yams, cocoyam, ginger, potato and sweet potato. More recently, the Institute has also commenced research and development activities on sugar beet and other minor root crops grown in the country. With its headquarters in the south-eastern Nigeria rainforest belt, NRCRI has six research stations situated across the different agro-ecologies of the country, a strategy that facilitates multi-locational trials of breeding materials and the development of agronomic packages tailored to specific farming systems and ecologies. The Institute’s research facilities include 1000 ha of experimental fields including 250 ha at the headquarters; several glasshouses and laboratories. The laboratories include a cell and tissue biology facility that serves also as germplasm repository. Also, the Institute has a molecular biology laboratory.

NRCRI’s R&D programs are characterized by a continuing integration of the novel crop improvement strategies, molecular breeding (including genetic transformation) and in vitro techniques with conventional breeding strategies. The Institute collaborates actively with centers of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research and several advanced laboratories and participates in several multi-country projects.  NRCRI, with its recent inception of a confined field trial of genetically modified cassava – under statutory biosafety regimen, has become the first institute in Nigeria to be so accredited. With a staff strength of about 1000 (made of 96 scientists, 500 technical support staff and 300 in administration), the Institute’s outputs include the official release and registration of 33 and 14 improved varieties of cassava and yam, respectively.

About The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute

KARI was established under the Science and Technology Act of 1979 and is the premier national agricultural research institution contributing to the agricultural sector through generation of technologies, new knowledge and innovations and serving as a vehicle for economic development in Kenya. KARI contributes to sustainable improvements in the livelihoods of Kenyan citizens by increasing agricultural productivity, post-harvest value of agricultural and livestock products, and conserving the environment.  In pursuit of this Mission, KARI proactively seeks to acquire and contribute knowledge and creative solutions that are participatory and client-oriented, holistic, gender-sensitive and affordable to its stakeholders

KARI places a high value on biotechnology and knows its potential to improve Kenyan agriculture.  In designing its crop biotechnology program, KARI has sought to employ biotechnology first to complement the Institute’s traditional methods of of crop and livestock improvement, and secondly as a strategy for generating entirely new products.  Collaborative technology development and transfer projects have proved especially effective in strengthening Kenya’s genetic engineering capabilities.  The KARI Biotechnology Center is one of the very few African institutions with capacity and experience in the genetic transformation of crops.  KARI was the first institution in Africa, outside of the Republic of South Africa, to conduct a confined field trial of a genetically-modified crop.

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by Zoraida Portillo

Cassava's nutrient content could be increased by traditional breeding or GM methods. Flickr/DDPSC

[LIMA] The transformation of cassava from a starchy staple lacking in protein to a cheap supply of protein for food, feed and industry, may have come a step closer now that scientists have boosted the crop’s protein content.

Cassava is a staple food in many developing countries but has little protein and micronutrients. But although cassava is rich in energy, only 2–3 per cent of its tubers (the edible roots) are made up of protein, giving it one of the lowest protein-to-energy ratios of any staple. Cereals, for example contain 7–14 per cent of protein.

But new research shows that cassava can be genetically modified to contain zeolin protein — increasing its protein levels to 12.5 per cent. The findings were published in PLoS ONE last month (25 January) by a team of US and Puerto Rican scientists.

According to the authors, a two-year-old child that gets half of their energy from cassava could increase their protein intake from 35 per cent of their daily requirement to more than 100 per cent by switching to the GM crop.

“This illustrates that genetic modification of cassava could be a potentially important component of delivering enhanced nutrition to at-risk populations in the tropics,” the paper says.

The research is part of ongoing efforts to improve cassava’s nutritional quality.

“The goal is to stack several traits such as vitamin A, protein, iron and zinc,” Claude Fauquet, lead author and the director of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center’s International Laboratory for Tropical Agricultural Biotechnology, United States, told SciDev.Net. “For now we have stacked vitamin A and protein and it is possible to get yellow roots with 40 parts per million carotene [about 11 times the normal level in cassava roots] and ten per cent dry weight protein,” he said, adding that the plants are being assessed in the field.

But Nagib Nassar, a professor emeritus and well-known cassava breeder, said that the crop suffered from the same problem as all GM crops in that it has “a new genetic structure — not natural — that has not passed through natural selection, so we don’t know how this genotype adapts to the environment”.

He added that the paper had not provided information about the productivity or palatability of the new cassava strain.

Rodomiro Ortiz, an advisor leading international institutes on crop breeding, said transgenic biofortification was just one of many options for improving cassava, and added that wild and indigenous cassava varieties “are an important source of genes” to improve cassava’s micronutrient levels.

Both Ortiz and Nassar referred to the success of a variety of cassava root obtained by conventional breeding and released in Brazil, which tastes good and contains more than 50 times the amount of beta carotene than common varieties.

Link to full article on PLoS one.