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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0271.157 2012-2014 DENNIS "FRESH"ONISHI PHONE: 808 961-8396 Council Member : :4 ,,�,.�'�, ' FAX: (808)961-8912 District 3 EMAIL:donishi @co.hawaii.hi.us HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL 25 Aupuni Street,Hilo,Hawai`i 96720 MEMORANDUM DATE: July 3, 2013 ,-..I o c-) on TO: J Yoshimoto, Chair c-. o And Members of the Hawai`i County Council FROM: Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Council Member r-� SUBJECT: A study regarding pollen drift from transgenic "Rainbow"to nontransgenic "Kapoho" papaya. AMMO -= Attached is the first page of a study authored by Dr. Dennis Gonsalves regarding the ability of pollen to drift from transgenic papaya to nontransgenic varieties. Please distribute this to Council members for discussion purposes. DO:ps Comm. N )9-7 • IS 7 Ref.To: C. Hawai`i County is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer. Ref. Dote Tropical Plant Biol.(2012)5:153-160 DOI 10.1007/s 12042-011-9090-5 Assaying for Pollen Drift from Transgenic `Rainbow' to Nontransgenic `Kapoho' Papaya under Commercial and Experimental Field Conditions in Hawaii D. Gonsalves•C. Gonsalves•J. Carr•S. Tripathi• T. Matsumoto•J. Suzuki•S. Ferreira•K. Pitz Received: 30 September 2011/Accepted: 13 December 2011/Published online: 12 January 2012 © Springer Science+Business Media,LLC(outside the USA)2012 Abstract In 1992, papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) was dis- Pollen drift averaged 1.3% of tested embryos in field plots covered in the Puna district of Hawaii island where 95%of where individual hermaphrodite `Kapoho' trees were adja- the state of Hawaii's papaya was being grown. By 1998 cent to two or four `Rainbow' trees. In contrast, 67.4% of production in Puna had decreased 50%from 1992 levels.A tested embryos were GUS positive in similarly located fe- PRSV-resistant transgenic papaya`Rainbow' containing the male `Kapoho' trees. The very low transgene flow to close- coat protein gene of PRSV was released commercially in by`Kapoho'plantings is likely due to the fact that hermaph- Hawaii in 1998, and saved the papaya industry from further rodite trees are used commercially in Hawaii and that these devastation. In the ensuing years since the release of the trees are largely self-pollinated before the stigma is exposed transgenic papaya,a number of farmers grew hermaphrodite to external pollen. nontransgenic `Kapoho'papaya in close proximity to plant- ings of hermaphrodite transgenic `Rainbow' papaya. These Keywords Coexistence•Pollination•Risk assessment• plantings provided a unique opportunity to assay for Transgene flow•Hawaiian solo papaya transgenic-pollen drift under commercial conditions. Between 2004 and 2010, assays for the GUS (beta-glucu- Abbreviations ronidase) transgene in embryos were done to study PRSV papaya ringspot virus transgenic-pollen drift in commercial `Kapoho' plantings GUS beta-glucuronidase and in replicated field plots. Very low pollen drift (0.8%) was detected in fruit of`Kapoho' trees in the border row of one plantation when 90 embryos were assayed per fruit, Introduction while no pollen drift was detected in four other commercial plantings in which eight embryos were tested per fruit. Hawaii's papaya industry suffered severe damage starting in May 1992 when papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) was ob- Communicated by:Ray Ming served in Hawaii island's district of Puna, where 95% of the state's papaya was being grown (Gonsalves 1998). The D.Gonsalves(E)•J.Carr•T.Matsumoto•J. Suzuki PRSV-susceptible Hawaiian solo variety `Kapoho' was the USDA Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, 64 Nowelo Street, dominant variety at the time. PRSV, an aphid transmitted Hilo,HI 96720,USA potyvirus (Gonsalves et al. 2008), spread rapidly in Puna e-mail:dennis.gonsalves @ars.usda.gov and by 1995 a great majority of papaya in Puna was infected C.Gonsalves by PRSV.By 1998,papaya production in Puna was down to 789 Hoolaulea Street, 11,793 metric tons as compared to 24,040 metric tons in Hilo,HI 96720,USA 1992. Hawaii's papaya industry was in a crisis. In the mid 1980s we started research to develop virus- S.Department S.Ferreira•K.Pitz ro resistant transgenic papaya anticipating that PRSV would Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa, eventually enter Puna and would likely devastate produc- Honolulu,HI 96822,USA tion. We used the then new `pathogen-derived resistance' Springer