Pretty,
and this is an example of how PB applies to animal breeding too.
http://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/precision-breeding-dehorning
How could we use PB in bee breeding to improve current technics and methods?
P.David Quesda
Honey Bee Pathology Lab
Extremadura, Spain
2017-07-09 21:05 GMT+02:00, randy oliver <[log in to unmask]>:
> Hi All,
>
> Christina and I recently had a brief discussion on precision breeding (AKA
> genetic engineering) of plant cultivars. I'm currently in New Zealand,
> where one of the hot topics is Myrtle Rust, which threatens many important
> bee forage plants (manuka, eucalyptus, etc) here, in Australia, and South
> America.
>
> One of the solutions is the selection of resistant cultivars, which could
> take many years to select, improve, and develop. A shortcut would be
> precision breeding--splicing in a gene from another plant to confer
> resistance. But then those trees and shrubs would be producing GMO honey,
> according to some interpretations.
>
> Another example is the American Chestnut, which used to cover Eastern
> forests, providing a huge amount of nutritious nuts to wildlife, and pollen
> and nectar to pollinators. A human-introduced fungus destroyed the
> Chestnut trees, which were a keystone species in forests from Maine to ,
> thus changing the entire ecology of formerly Chestnut-dominated ecosystems.
>
> Due to it taking 5 years for the chestnut to produce its first seeds,
> conventional breeding for resistant cultivars (dependent upon chance
> mutations) could take a very long time. But by using precision breeding, a
> cultivar developed by a non profit is already waiting to regulatory
> approval (article here
> <http://theconversation.com/new-genetically-engineered-american-chestnut-will-help-restore-the-decimated-iconic-tree-52191>).
> In short, a gene from bread wheat was spliced into the tree's genome. The
> wheat gene produces an enzyme called oxalate oxidase (OxO), which
> detoxifies the oxalate that the fungus uses to form deadly cankers that
> kill the tree.
>
> Since most Americans eat wheat every day, they wouldn't be exposed to any
> new gene, yet there are alarmists that are fighting even this exemplary
> example of the benefits of precision breeding.
>
> --
> Randy Oliver
> Grass Valley, CA
> www.ScientificBeekeeping.com
>
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