Plant modification may hold key
increasing food
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - It's
. like trying to find a genetic needle
in a haystack, but it could bold one
of the keys to feeding a growing
world population showing no signs
of losing its appetite.
Isolating and genetically in
ducing beneficial plant mutations
could give us disease-resistant
food crops in the future or even
produce the world’s first tomato
capable of growing in soil now
considered unfit to support life,
according to a botany researcher
for the Maryland Agricultural
Experiment Station.
But reaching down, in a manner
of speaking, into the genetic coding
of agricultural, food crops and
producing selectively Just the right
mutation to accomplish this has
been a hit-or-miss proposition in
the past, says MAES genetic
researcher Paul Bottino.
Bottino says his studies at the
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University of Maryland, College
Park, may enhance the odds
enough so that someday resear
chers possibly could produce
specific beneficial mutations- at
will to surmount any number of
obstacles Mother Nature has
placed before agriculture’s efforts
to increase food production.
“Nature may produce a better
com or soybean plant through its
own mutation process, but the odds
of that are at best maybe one-in-a
million,” Bottinosays.
“If, on the other .hand, we are
able to induce artificially a
mutation at the cellular level for,
say, a tomato plant capable of
growing in salt-laden soil,-then
we’ve come a long way in changing
thbse odds in our favor.” - •
Specifically, Bottino’s work
involves a sleuth’s campaign to
find individual mutagens or
mutation-causing agerits that
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to
will produce mutations in high
frequencies.. The work is geared
toward genetically engineering
' mutations to make plants more
tolerant to environmental stress
such as disease and toxic sub
stances in the soil and en
vironment.
Increased disease resistance and
th? ability to raise food crops on
land considered marginal for crop
production may take researchers a
long way toward moving
agricultural food production a
quantum leap beyond'its present
pace.
Bottino says his current work
differs from previous efforts to
produce, beneficial mutations in
that this study moves from the
chancy whole-plant level down to
the cellular level.
Once a proper mutagen is found
to produce mutations, the single
cell or group of cells is nourished in
an artificial selective environment
where only the mutations can
reproduce, giving their offspring
genetic coding identical to the
parent cells.
This form of genetic
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manipulation, says Bottino, can
cany the mutation all the way
back to the plant level where the
newly-created mutant plant can, in
turn, pass its mutation genetically
through its offspring.
“Horticulturists, as well as
geneticists like me, are interested
in this technique because of all the
Sunflower meal offers
protein substitute
in poultry rations
WASHINGTON, D.C. -
Dehulled and defatted high fiber
sunflower seed meal (SSM) offers
an effective protein substitute for
soybean meal, fish meal, meat and
bone meal, and other high protein
materials, according to James L.
McNaughton, Agricultural
Research Service, research
nutritionist for the South Central
Poultry Research Laboratory.
• “SSM’s useage is especially
important when low-protein
complete diets are desirable for
mature poultry—for instance,
commercial layers, turkey and
broiler breeders, and commercial
egg-type puliets,” says Mc
-Naughton.
McNaughton reports that using
dehulled, defatted sunflower meal
containing 36 to 38 percent protein
will satisfy the protein
requirements of commercial
layers and broiler hens. He sees
SSM as more valuable in layer
diets 1 than in broiler diets and its
use is accompanied by a reduction
in levels of soybean meal and
methionine (an amino acid) and
increases in the level of fat.
To determine the effectiveness
of high-fiber SSM as a replacement
for soybean meal, two experiments
were conducted using commercial
laying hens to evaluate replacing
33,66, and 100 percent protein from
soybeari meal with high-fiber SSM
Mt. Joy, PA 17552
production
potential benefits,” says Bottlno.
“And although it falls shut of
replacing classical plant breeding
methods, genetic manipulation in
cell culture can develop new plant
types in one chemical step that
breeders could use in developing
new varieties through traditional
breeding methods.”
(36.1 percent protein).
Neither body weight change, egg
production, egg weight, nor
eggshell breaking strength was
affected by the addition of SSM,
McNaughton reports.
Data from the two experiments
indicate that SSM may replace 100
percent soybean meal without
adversely affecting laying-hen
performance.
In practical broiler diets, the
maximum amount of SSM
tolerated by broiler chicks without
adversely affecting broiler per
formances, appears to be 15
percent in all mash diets and 30
percent in pelleted feeds.
Laying hens may tolerate as
much as 100 percent replacements
of supplemental protein, such as
soybean meal, by sunflower meal.
Although feed consumption tends
to increase when using high-fiber
SSM, this factor must be con
sidered when evaluating
economical alternatives.
McNaughton cautions that when
formulating broiler, broiler
breeder, laying-hen and turkey
diets, it is important to remember
that SSM is relatively low (1.02 to
1.78 percent) in lysine, protein’s
most important amino acid in the
poultry diet. Therefore, improving
low-lysme sunflower meal with
synthetic lysine is one possible
economical consideration
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