19-Jul-2002

ViaLactia in 'Industries Of The Future' (Venture magazine)

Plant genomics is likely to have very important implications for the dairy industry.

Plant genomics is likely to have very important implications for the dairy industry. Dr Kieran Elborough, leader of the ViaLactia team researching forage genomics, says the dairy industry in New Zealand faces two major seasonal forage grass problems. These are the flowering of ryegrass in the spring, resulting in reduced nutrition for dairy cows, and the effects of the New Zealand high summer on pasture growth. Ryegrass already stops growing in February, a pause that can be exacerbated by drought and in future by global warming. Global warming might extend the pasture plant growth deficit seen mainly in February further into the dairy season, lowering the productivity of one of New Zealand’s biggest export industries.

Dr Elborough says the ryegrass genome is relatively untouched by breeding compared with, say, corn which has been bred for thousands of years and has lost much of its natural resistance to disease in the process. “The ryegrass genome has approximately 40,000 genes, 10,000 or so more than humans! Most of the traits we need to assist ryegrass to adapt to climate change, such as tolerance to drought, already exist in the genome – they just have to be encouraged to be switched on.”

If GM is permitted, and both the farmer and the customer wants it, then Dr Elborough says it would be possible to make major changes very quickly, accelerating what might take hundreds or thousands of years naturally. Using second generation GM techniques to mitigate many of the present public concerns, he says, the DNA used would be from ryegrass itself to modify ryegrass traits.

ViaLactia has already perfected a molecular map of ryegrass –a tool to allow breeders to breed pasture plants in the conventional way more quickly and to select for traits which would lead to better dairy output. “For instance, using the map they could identify the trait for drought resistance and breed for it in a much shorter time frame. This is the first ryegrass molecular map of its kind produced in the world – it’s an immensely valuable tool and there’s no GM involved.” Both European and New Zealand organizations have shown an interest in the molecular map, which will be commercialised soon.

ViaLactia have a unique blend of in house expertise and the best contracted genomics research in the world. The small and highly trained forage genomics team at ViaLactia have identified most of the ryegrass genes in a year through a revolutionary technique discovered recently in the USA. Dr Elborough says the information gained from the ryegrass genome is also directly applicable to plants that have been heavily bred over the millennia such as wheat, rice and corn. “Overseas producers are desperate for the types of genes and their regulators (promoters) we have available in ryegrass – ryegrass genes could be a very significant product for the future.”

(from issue 13 of Venture, produced by New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.)