PowerPoint presentation by Peter Beyer at IFPRI Policy Seminar "Leveraging Agriculture to Improve Human Nutrition: Prospects for Golden Rice" April 14, 2011

1. Golden Rice on a Mission
IFPRI Policy Seminar, April 2011
Peter Beyer, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Germany

2. Golden Rice is a genetically
modified plant
Prototype
Golden Rice cannnot be achieved by
breeding
The transfer of two biosynthetic genes
is required coding for
a plant enzyme (phytoene synthase)
a bacterial phytoene desaturase (CrtI)
Ye et al., (2000) Science 287:303

3. Prototypes were improved
Prototype 1.6 µg/g
Golden Rice 1 5-7 µg/g
Promoter exchange, high-throuput transformation
Golden Rice 2 31 µg/g
Exchange of the phytoene synthase gene daffodil → maize
Paine et al. (2005) Nat. Biotechnol.23:482-7.

4. Towards a useful product: breeding of ß-carotene loci
into popular Asian varieties
9 events into 11 selected varieties (MAS), preceding event selection
such as:
IR64 & IR36: Mega-varieties with broad Asian coverage
BRRI dhan 29 : The most popular boro rice variety in Bangladesh
PSB Rc82: The most popular rice variety in the Philippines
OS 6561: Most popular in Vietnam
Chehirang: Leading variety in Indonesia
Swarna Important in India
Partner Institutions:
o IRRI (Int.)
o Philrice (Philippines)
o BRRI (Bangladesh)
o CLRRI (Vietnam)
o IARI (India)
o TNAU (India)
o DRR (India)

5. Event selection (All single locus intact ingtegration)
Which event(s) produce consistent levels of povitamin A across cultivars?
Which event(s) reproduce consistently the characteristics of the recurrent
parents?
The big question
Which level of provitamin A must be delivered by GR to be effective?
Human bioavailability study
Conducted at TUFTS University
Bioconversion determined:
3.8-to-1
Tang et al., (2009) Golden Rice is an effective source of vitamin A. Am J Clin Nutr89:1776–83

6. Event selection completed
Golden Rice
Licensee Network
members being
informed of lead
& backup event.
All other events are
being destroyed
IRRI, March 2009

7. From a technical perspective we are now „ready to go“ to
fulfill „The Mission“:
“…to effect the free transfer of the Golden Rice technology into local crop
varieties within appropriate biosafety and regulatory structures, for provision to
defined resource poor farmers who may grow, locally sell or consume the resulting
crop (the “Mission”)”1
Vitamin A-Deficiency
Areas
Golden Rice Humanitarian Board Mission Statement