.::. ÖGGGT .::. Austrian Association for Genetics and Genetic Engineering .::.

News

News, Events, Calls, Seminars, Conferences

• ÖGGGT Newsletter March 2008
• VBC Seminars online
• MFPL Seminars
• Salzburg Seminars
• ESF Functional Genomics Conference - Innsbruck / Austria
• EUROCORES Call for themes 2008 - Now OPEN -
• 2008 Call for Proposals For ESF Research Conferences to be held in 2010

Conferences

Press Releases

• Salad & Salmonella - Food Poisoning as a Side Dish
• Insects Use Plants Like A Telephone
• Genome Biology publishes a key resource for pea genetics
• Wittgenstein Award 2007
• Bacteria Use Plant Defence for Genetic Modification
• Radical Research Results on the Oxidation of Vitamin E

ÖGGGT Research Award For Young Scientists

Stefan Ameres is the winner 2007 of the Research Award for Young Scientists, sponsored by THP. His publication together with Javier Martinez and Renée Schroeder "Molecular Basis of Target RNA Recognition and Cleavage by Human RISC" published in     Cell   , accomplished the jury consisting of the ÖGGGT's Board of Governors. The award was handed over on the FEBS2007 Congress in Vienna where Stefan Ameres could present his work in a plenary lecture. As every year the entries for the ÖGGGT's Research Award for Young Scientists were of premium quality and prove the extraordinary potential of our young scientists. One may be curious for next year's award.

Travelling Grants for Young Scientists

The ÖGGGT allocates contributions to facilitate the participation in national and international conferences and meetings for young scientist (graduates, doctorands and post-docs). The contributions are granted by the respective provincial division of ÖGGGT (Graz, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna).

If you want to apply for a travelling-expenses grant just send an informal application to the head of your provincial division department.

Be sure to meet the following prerequisites:
· Membership at ÖGGGT
· Presentation of a poster or lecture at the conference

Please attach:
· An abstract of your lecture/poster-presentation
· A short curriculum vitae including a list of publications
· Statement of travelling expenditures
· Original receipts (will be handed back)

Please do not forget to specify your address, telephone number, e-mail address and bank account (bank, bank code and account number).

The maximum amount to be granted depends on where the conference takes place. At present € 125.00 are paid for conferences in Austria, € 250.00 for conferences in Europe and for conferences overseas a maximum amount of € 500.00 will be paid.

Seminars and Lectures

ÖGGGT (through its provincial divisions) partly together with other scientific associations, finances seminars and lectures concerning genetics, genetic engineering and molecular biology partly in cooperation.

ÖGGGT Research Award For Young Scientists 2008

This year the Austrian Association for Genetics and Genetic Engineering again invites entries for its research award endowed with the sum of

€ 2.500,00

sponsored by THP Medical Products

The award is focused on young scientists in Austria for excellence in genetics and genetic engineering

The Research Award includes an invitation to the "ÖGGGT Lecture"

The participation on this competition requires the following prerequisites:

1. "key factor": A publication in an accredited scientific journal. The publishing author has to be mentioned in 2006 or 2007 for the first time and must be accepted for the publication. The subject of the publication will be a "ÖGGGT Lecture's" item
2. A CV including the scientific career and a publication list
3. Additional requirements:
   • The publication's main scientific work must have happened at an austrian scientific laboratory. The publication must not be awarded elsewhere.
   • Applicants must not be older than 35 years at the time of participation
   • There are no rules to nationality
   • Authorisation from all co-editors or co-authors for the application
   • Applicants should be members of the ÖGGGT

Dead line for receiving applications will be 10. June 2008 at the ÖGGGT's branch. The Board of Governors as the jury will nominate the winner.

The awards ceremony will be held at the ÖGGGT's Annual Meeting

ÖGGGT General Meeting 2008

The General Meeting 2008 will be held in September in Graz

Details will follow soon

ÖGGGT Annual Meeting 2007

The meeting was held Wednesday, 11. July 2007

• Stefan Ameres is the winner 2007 of the Research Award for Young Scientists, sponsored by THP. The award was handed over by Johannes Grillari on the FEBS2007 Congress in Vienna where Stefan Ameres could present his work in a plenary lecture.

• Josef Glössl was elected for the chairman of the board

• Roland Foisner left the advisory board after 6 years of contribution. The successor of the Vienna Branch is Ernst Muellner

ÖGGGT About us

ÖGGGT's Focal Point Activities

• Scientific lectures and symposia concerning topics of immediate interest

• Granting of traveling scholarships to young scientists working in Austria

• Annual award of ÖGGGT´s research award

• Information events and public discussions, e.g. the exhibition "Genetic Engineering pro & con"

• Provision of materials concerning topical issues, e.g. flyers, folder "Genetic Engineering and Useful Plants"

• Answering of questions on the side of the public (Coordinating Office for Public Relations)

The ÖGGGT as a Scientific Association

• As communication is an indispensable basis of all science, ÖGGGT periodically invites national and international scientists to hold lectures, conferences, seminars and workshops.

• Further education and promotion of Austria´s young scientist generation is very important to the ÖGGGT: Traveling scholarships make it possible for young scientists to participate in international conferences while expert courses offer the possibility of further education. Additionally a research award, connected with an invitation to an ÖGGGT´s Lecture and a financial acknowledgment is alloted on the occasion of ÖGGGT´s annual conference since 1996 .

ÖGGGT as an Interface of Science and Society

• To inform and to keep contact with the public are vital points of focus of ÖGGGT´s work. The aim of these activities is to improve the level of knowledge concerning genetics and genetic engineering in Austria to diminish unrealistic expectations on the one side and unfounded fear on the other and to create a better understanding of research and its useful and wise application.

• These tasks are carried out in cooperation with related institution as for instance within the framework Platform "dialog‹›gentechnik. In 1999 the Coordinating Office for Public Relations was set up to be a central information point.

ÖGGGT Statuten pdf (articles of association German Only)

ÖGGGT Board of Governors

Chairman of the board - President o. Prof. Dr. Josef Glössl

Institute of Applied Genetics and Cell Biology
Dept. of Applied Plant Sciences and Plant Biotechnology
University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna
Muthgasse 18
A-1190 Vienna
Phone +43-1-36006-6351
Fax. +43-1-36006-6392

josef.gloessl@boku.ac.at

Vice-chairman of the board

Univ. Prof. Dr. Kurt Zatloukal

Institute of Pathology
Medical University of Graz
Auenbruggerplatz 25
A-8036 Graz
Tel: +43 / 316 / 385 2228
Fax: +43 / 316 / 384 329

kurt.zatloukal@meduni-graz.at

Treasurer

Associate Professor Johannes Grillari

Aging and Immortalization Research
Institute of Applied Microbiology
BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences
Muthgasse 18
1190 Vienna
Tel: +43 1 36006 6230
Fax: +43 1 3697615

j.grillari@iam.boku.ac.at

Secretary

a.o.Univ.Prof.DI.Dr. Reingard Grabherr

Department of Biotechnology
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
Muthgasse 18
A-1190 Vienna
Tel: +43-1-36006-6242
Fax: +43-1-3697615

r.grabherr@iam.boku.ac.at

Graz Branch

Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Helmut Bergler

Institute of Molecular Biosciences
Graz University
Universitätsplatz 2
A-8010 Graz
Tel: 0316-380-5629
Fax: 0316-380-9898

helmut.bergler@uni-graz.at

Innsbruck Branch

Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Rainer Schneider

Institute of Biochemistry
Innsbruck University
Peter Mayrstrasse 1a
A-6020 Innsbruck
Tel: 0512-507-0
Fax: 0512-507-0

Rainer.Schneider@uibk.ac.at

Salzburg Branch

Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Fritz Aberger

FB Molecular Biology
Salzburg University
Hellbrunnerstr. 34
A-5020 Salzburg
Tel: 0662-8044 5792

Fritz.Aberger@sbg.ac.at

Vienna Branch

Ao. Univ.-Prof. Ernst Muellner
Vienna Biocenter
Max F. Perutz Laboratories
Department of Medical Biochemistry
Medical University Vienna
Dr. Bohrgasse 9/2
A-1030 Wien
Tel: +43 1 4277-61760
Fax: +43 1 4277-9617

Ernst Muellner

ernst.muellner@univie.ac.at

Advisory Board

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Mathias Müller

Institut für Tierzucht und Genetik
Vet.-Med.Universität Wien
Veterinärplatz 1
A-1210 Wien

mathias.mueller@boku.ac.at

Dr. Friedrich Scheiflinger

Baxter AG
Wagramerstrasse 17-19
A-1220 Wien

scheiff@baxter.com

Prof. Dr. Helmut Bachmayer
Novartis Forschungsinstitut
Brunner Straße 59
1235 Wien

Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Zacherl
Institut für Molekulare Pathologie
Dr. Bohrgasse 7
1030 Wien

Dr. Alois Haslinger
BM:BWK, Präs. 4
Minoritenplatz 5
1014 Wien

ÖGGGT Membership

Everybody may apply for membership to the Austrian Association for Genetics and Genetic Engineering

The annual fee for full membership is € 22.00
reduced fee for students € 7.00
for companies € 450.00
reduced fee for startups € 200.00

Die ausführlichen Statuen der ÖGGGT (articles of association German Only)

If you like to apply for membership, please fill in the online-questionnaire

Application for membership

to the Austrian Association for Genetics and Genetic Engineering

ÖGGGT Genetics

Genetics (from the Greek genno γεννω = give birth) is the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms. The word "genetics" was first suggested to describe the study of inheritance and the science of variation by the prominent British scientist William Bateson in a personal letter to Adam Sedgwick, dated April 18, 1905. Bateson first used the term "genetics" publicly at the Third International Conference on Genetics (London, England) in 1906.

Heredity and variations form the basis of genetics. Humans applied knowledge of genetics in prehistory with the domestication and breeding of plants and animals. In modern research, genetics provides important tools for the investigation of the function of a particular gene, e.g., analysis of genetic interactions. Within organisms, genetic information generally is carried in chromosomes, where it is represented in the chemical structure of particular DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecules.

Genes encode the information necessary for synthesizing the amino-acid sequences in proteins, which in turn play a large role in determining the final phenotype, or physical appearance, of the organism. In diploid organisms, a dominant allele on one chromosome will mask the expression of a recessive gene on the other.

The phrase to code for is often used to mean a gene contains the instructions about how to build a particular protein, as in the gene codes for the protein. The "one gene, one protein" concept is now known to be simplistic. For example, a single gene may produce multiple products, depending on how its transcription is regulated. Genes code for the nucleotide sequences in mRNA, tRNA and rRNA, required for protein synthesis.

Genetics determines much (but not all) of the appearance of organisms, including humans, and possibly how they act. Environmental differences and random factors also play a part. Monozygotic ("identical") twins, a clone resulting from the early splitting of an embryo, have the same DNA, but different personalities and fingerprints. Genenetically-identical plants grown in colder climates incorporate shorter and less-saturated fatty acids to avoid stiffness.

History of Genetics

In his paper "Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden" ("Experiments in Plant Hybridization"), presented in 1865 to the Brunn Natural History Society, Gregor Mendel traced the inheritance patterns of certain traits in pea plants and showed that they could be described mathematically. Although not all features show these patterns of Mendelian inheritance, his work suggested the utility of the application of statistics to the study of inheritance. Since that time many more complex forms of inheritance have been demonstrated.

The significance of Mendel's work was not understood until early in the twentieth century, after his death, when his research was re-discovered by other scientists working on similar problems.

Mendel did not understand the nature of inheritance. We now know that some heritable information is carried in DNA. (Retroviruses, including influenza, oncoviruses and HIV, and many plant viruses, carry information as RNA.) Manipulation of DNA can in turn alter the inheritance and features of various organisms.

Timeline of notable discoveries

• 1859 Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species
• 1865 Gregor Mendel's paper, Experiments on Plant Hybridization
• 1869 Friedrich Miescher discovers a weak acid in the nuclei of white blood cells that today we call DNA (Hartl and Jones).
• 1880-1890 Walther Flemming, Eduard Strasburger, and Edouard van Beneden elucidate chromosome distribution during cell division
• 1903 Chromosomes are discovered to be hereditary units
• 1906 The term "genetics" is first introduced publicly by the British biologist William Bateson at the Third International Conference on Genetics in London, England.
• 1910 Thomas Hunt Morgan shows that genes reside on chromosomes, and discovered linked genes on chromosomes that do not follow Mendel's law of independent allele segregation
• 1913 Alfred Sturtevant makes the first genetic map of a chromosome
• 1913 Gene maps show chromosomes containing linear arranged genes
• 1918 Ronald Fisher publishes On the correlation between relatives on the supposition of Mendelian inheritance - the modern synthesis starts.
• 1927 Physical changes in genes are called mutations
• 1928 Frederick Griffith discovers a hereditary molecule that is transmissible between bacteria (see Griffiths experiment)
• 1931 Crossing over is the cause of recombination (see Barbara McClintock and cytogenetics)
• 1941 Edward Lawrie Tatum and George Wells Beadle show that genes code for proteins; see the original central dogma of genetics
• 1944 Oswald Theodore Avery, Colin McLeod and Maclyn McCarty isolate DNA as the genetic material (at that time called transforming principle)
• 1950 Erwin Chargaff shows that the four nucleotides are not present in nucleic acids in stable proportions, but that some general rules appear to hold (e.g., the nucleotide bases Adenine-Thymine and Cytosine-Guanine always remain in equal proportions). Barbara McClintock discovers transposons in maize
• 1952 The Hershey-Chase experiment proves the genetic information of phages (and all other organisms) to be DNA
• 1953 DNA structure is resolved to be a double helix by James D. Watson and Francis Crick, with the help of Rosalind Franklin
• 1956 Jo Hin Tjio and Albert Levan established the correct chromosome number in humans to be 46
• 1958 The Meselson-Stahl experiment demonstrates that DNA is semiconservatively replicated
• 1961 The genetic code is arranged in triplets
• 1964 Howard Temin showed using RNA viruses that Watson's central dogma is not always true
• 1970 Restriction enzymes were discovered in studies of a bacterium, Haemophilus influenzae, enabling scientists to cut and paste DNA
• 1972, Walter Fiers and his team at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the University of Ghent (Ghent, Belgium) were the first to determine the sequence of a gene: the gene for Bacteriophage MS2 coat protein.
• 1976, Walter Fiers and his team determine the complete nucleotide-sequence of Bacteriophage MS2-RNA
• 1977 DNA is sequenced for the first time by Fred Sanger, Walter Gilbert, and Allan Maxam working independently. Sanger's lab complete the entire genome of sequence of Bacteriophage Φ-X174
• 1983 Kary Banks Mullis discovers the polymerase chain reaction enabling the easy amplification of DNA
• 1985 Alec Jeffreys discovers genetic finger printing.
• 1989 The first human gene is sequenced by Francis Collins and Lap-Chee Tsui. It encodes the CFTR protein. Defects in this gene cause cystic fibrosis
• 1995 The genome of Haemophilus influenzae is the first genome of a free living organism to be sequenced.
• 1996 Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the first eukaryote genome sequence to be released
• 1998 The first genome sequence for a multicellular eukaryote, C. elegans is released.

ÖGGGT Genetic Engineering

Genetic engineering, genetic modification (GM) and gene splicing are terms for the process of manipulating genes, usually outside the organism's natural reproductive process.

It involves the isolation, manipulation and reintroduction of DNA into cells or model organisms, usually to express a protein. The aim is to introduce new characteristics or attributes physiologically or physically, such as making a crop resistant to a herbicide, introducing a novel trait, or producing a new protein or enzyme, along with altering the organism to produce more of certain traits. Examples can include the production of human insulin through the use of modified bacteria, the production of erythropoietin in Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, and the production of new types of experimental mice such as the OncoMouse (cancer mouse) for research, through genetic redesign.

Applications

The first Genetically Engineered drug was human insulin approved by the USA's FDA in 1982. Another early application of genetic engineering was to create human growth hormone as replacement for a drug that was previously extracted from human cadavers. In 1986 the FDA approved the first genetically engineered vaccine for humans, for hepatitis B. Since these early uses of the technology in medicine, the use of GE has expanded to supply many drugs and vaccines.

One of the best known applications of genetic engineering is that of the creation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

There are potentially momentous biotechnological applications of GM, for example oral vaccines produced naturally in fruit, at very low cost.

A radical ambition of some groups is human enhancement via genetics, eventually by molecular engineering. See also: transhumanism.

Genetic engineering and research

Although there has been a tremendous revolution in the biological sciences in the past twenty years, there is still a great deal that remains to be discovered. The completion of the sequencing of the human genome, as well as the genomes of most agriculturally and scientifically important plants and animals, has increased the possibilities of genetic research immeasurably. Expedient and inexpensive access to comprehensive genetic data has become a reality with billions of sequenced nucleotides already online and annotated. Now that the rapid sequencing of arbitrarily large genomes has become a simple, if not trivial affair, a much greater challenge will be elucidating function of the extraordinarily complex web of interacting proteins, dubbed the proteome, that constitutes and powers all living things. Genetic engineering has become the gold standard in protein research, and major research progress has been made using a wide variety of techniques, including:

• Loss of function, such as in a knockout experiment, in which an organism is engineered to lack the activity of one or more genes. This allows the experimenter to analyze the defects caused by this mutation, and can be considerably useful in unearthing the function of a gene. It is used especially frequently in developmental biology. A knockout experiment involves the creation and manipulation of a DNA construct in vitro, which, in a simple knockout, consists of a copy of the desired gene which has been slightly altered such as to cripple its function. The construct is then taken up by embryonic stem cells, where the engineered copy of the gene replaces the organism's own gene. These stem cells are injected into blastocysts, which are implanted into surrogate mothers. Another method, useful in organisms such as Drosophila (fruit fly), is to induce mutations in a large population and then screen the progeny for the desired mutation. A similar process can be used in both plants and prokaryotes.

• Gain of function experiments, the logical counterpart of knockouts. These are sometimes performed in conjunction with knockout experiments to more finely establish the function of the desired gene. The process is much the same as that in knockout engineering, except that the construct is designed to increase the function of the gene, usually by providing extra copies of the gene or inducing synthesis of the protein more frequently.
• 'Tracking' experiments, which seek to gain information about the localization and interaction of the desired protein. One way to do this is to replace the wild-type gene with a 'fusion' gene, which is a juxtaposition of the wild-type gene with a reporting element such as Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) that will allow easy visualization of the products of the genetic modification. While this is a useful technique, the manipulation can destroy the function of the gene, creating secondary effects and possibly calling into question the results of the experiment. More sophisticated techniques are now in development that can track protein products without mitigating their function, such as the addition of small sequences which will serve as binding motifs to monoclonal antibodies.

Bioethics

Bioethics is the ethics of biological science and medicine.

Bioethics is concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among biology, medicine, cybernetics, politics, law, philosophy, and theology. Disagreement exists about the proper scope for the application of ethical evaluation to questions involving biology. Some bioethicists would narrow ethical evaluation only to the morality of medical treatments or technological innovations, and the timing of medical treatment of humans. Other bioethicists would broaden the scope of ethical evaluation to include the morality of all actions that might help or harm organisms capable of feeling fear and pain. Thus bioethics has a comprehensive scope, including human health, human life, animal and vegetable life; in other words, all issues related to life.

Bioethics involves many public policy questions that are sometimes politicized and used to mobilize political constituencies, hence the emergence of biopolitics and its techno-progressive/bioconservative branches. For this reason, some biologists and others involved in the development of technology have come to see any mention of "bioethics" as an attempt to derail their work and react to it as such. Some biologists can be inclined to this line of thought, as they see their work as inherently ethical, and attacks on it as misguided.

The questions begged by the idea of bioethics as a distinct area of academic inquiry (why must it exist apart from philosophy? isn't everyone an 'ethicist'?) are largely answered by the needs of institutions. Bioethicists today are not hired or engaged in conversation (and thus "named") because of their opinions or because they have special skills of reasoning, but because they know and can put to work the enormous body of research and history of discussions about bioethics in a fair, honest and intelligent way.

Genetically modified food

A genetically modified food is a product developed from a different genetically modified organism (GMO) such as a crop plant, animal or microorganisms, such as snails. Genetically modified foods produced by genetic engineering have been available since the 1990s. The principal GM foods derived from plants are soybean, maize, canola, cocoa beans, and cotton seed oil.

Development and application

The general principle of producing a GMO is to add novel genetic material into an organism's genome to cause both new and useful traits. The origins of this genetic engineering were a series of sequential scientific advances from the discovery of DNA to the production of the first recombinant bacteria (E .coli) expressing a frog gene in 1973. This led to concerns in the scientific community about the possible risks from genetic engineering and led to biologists meeting at the Asilomar Conference in Pacific Grove, California. The recommendations laid out from this conference were that government oversight of recombinant DNA research should be established until the technology was deemed safe. Herbert Boyer then founded the first company to use recombinant DNA technology, Genentech, and in 1978 the company announced that it had produced a strain of E. coli that could produce the human protein (insulin).

First crops

The first commercially grown genetically modified food crop was a tomato created by California company Calgene called the FlavrSavr.This tomato was made more resistant to rotting, by adding an antisense gene which interferes with the production of the enzyme polygalacturonase. Calgene submitted it to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for assessment in 1992; the agency determined that the FlavrSavr was in fact a tomato, did not constitute a health hazard, and did not need special labeling. Calgene was allowed to release it into the market in 1994, where it was welcomed by consumers who purchased the fruit at two to five times the price of standard tomatoes. However, production problems, and competition from a conventionally bred Long-Shelf-Life (LSL) variety prevented the product from becoming profitable, and Calgene was bought by Monsanto in 1995. A variant of the FlavrSavr was used by Zeneca to produce tomato paste which was sold in Europe during the summer of 1996. Its labelling and pricing were designed as a marketing experiment which proved that, at the time, European consumers would accept genetically engineered foods. This attitude would be drastically changed after outbreaks of Mad cow disease weakened consumer trust in government regulators, and protesters rallied against the introduction of Monsanto's Roundup-Ready soybeans.

The next GM crops included insect protected cotton, introduced into the United States and Australia in 1997, and herbicide tolerant soybeans. These crops have been widely adopted both in the United States, and in countries that (unlike the European Union) depend heavily on unsubsidised farming (e.g. the Australian cotton industry). They have also been extensively planted in several developing countries (Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, India, and China) where agriculture is a major part of the total economy. Other successful GM crops include insect protected maize and herbicide tolerant maize cotton and rapeseed varieties.

Commercial crops

Transgenic crops; plants that possess a gene or genes that have been transferred from a different species, are grown commercially or in field trials in over 40 countries and on 6 continents. In 2000, about 109.2 million acres (442,000 km²) were planted with transgenic crops, the principal ones being herbicide- and insecticide-resistant soybeans, corn, cotton, and canola. Other crops grown commercially or field-tested are a sweet potato resistant to a US strain of a virus that affects one out of the more than 89 different varieties of sweet potato grown in Africa, rice with increased iron and vitamins such as golden rice, maize with enhanced levels of the essential nutrient lysine which provides better quality protein for animal feeds, and a variety of plants able to better tolerate non-biological stresses which are commonly encountered in a normal growing season, such as water, and nitrogen limitation, or survive extreme growing conditions, such as high-salinity or acidic soils, or hot weather. Such traits can provide more reliable crop performance over an extended period of cultivation.

Transgenic rice has been developed by a Californian company to improve oral rehydration therapy for diarrhea. In sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Latin America and Asia, diarrhea is the number-two infectious killer of children under the age of five, accounting for some two million deaths a year. Recent 2005-6 trials in a Peruvian Hospital have demonstrated that specialized milk proteins lactoferrin and lysozyme made in transgenic rice plants improve the effectiveness of oral rehydration solution used to treat diarrhea.

Abundance of GM crops

Between 1996 and 2005, the total surface area of land cultivated with GMOs had increased by a factor of 50, from 17,000 km² (4.2 million acres) to 900,000 km² (222 million acres), of which 55% were in the United States. Within the next ten years millions more will be added.

Although most GM crops are grown in North America, in recent years there has been rapid growth in the area sown in developing countries. For instance in 2005 the largest increase in crop area planted to GM crops (soybeans) was in Brazil (94,000 km² in 2005 versus 50,000 km² in 2004. There has also been rapid and continuing expansion of GM cotton varieties in India since 2002. (Cotton is a major source of vegetable cooking oil and animal feed.) It is predicted that in 2006/7 32,000 km² of GM cotton will be harvested in India (up more than 100% from the previous season).

Indian national average cotton yields have been boosted to close 50% above the long term average yield during this period. The publicity given to transgenic trait Bt insect resistance has encouraged the adoption of better performing hybrid cotton varieties, and the Bt trait has substantially reduced losses to insect predation. Economic and environmental benefits of GM cotton in India to the individual farmer have been documented.

In 2005 the crops were grown by 8.5 million farmers in 21 countries, 90% of whom were resource-poor farmers from developing countries, and 60% of global soybean area, 28% cotton, 18% canola, and 14% global maize were sown to genetically modified varieties. The area sown in 2002 was 145 million acres (587,000 km²) and for 2003 was 167 million acres (676,000 km²). In 2004, the value was about 200 million acres (809,000 km²).

Four countries represent 99% of total GM surface in 2001: United States (68%), Argentina (22%), Canada (6%) and China (3%). It is estimated that 70% of products on U.S. grocery shelves include GM-derived ingredients. In particular, Bt corn, which produces the pesticide within the plant itself is widely grown, as are soybeans genetically designed to tolerate glyphosate herbicides. These constitute "input-traits" that financially benefit the producers, yet have only indirect environmental and marginal cost benefits to consumers.

In the US, by 2006 89% of the planted area of soybeans, 83% of cotton, and 61% maize was genetically modified varieties. Genetically modified soybeans carried herbicide tolerant traits only, but maize and cotton carried both herbicide tolerance and insect protection traits (the latter largely the Bacillus thuringiensus Bt insecticidal protein). In the period 2002 to 2006, there were significant increases in the area planted to Bt protected cotton and maize, and herbicide tolerant maize also increased in sown area. The Grocery Manufacturers of America estimate that 75% of all processed foods in the U.S. contain a GM ingredient.

Future developments

Future envisaged applications of GMOs are diverse and include drugs in food, bananas that produce human vaccines against infectious diseases such as Hepatitis B, metabolically engineered fish that mature more quickly, fruit and nut trees that yield years earlier, and plants that produce new plastics with unique properties. While their practicality or efficacy in commercial production has yet to be fully tested, the next decade may see exponential increases in GM product development as researchers gain increasing access to genomic resources that are applicable to organisms beyond the scope of individual projects. Safety testing of these products will also at the same time be necessary to ensure that the perceived benefits will indeed outweigh the perceived and hidden costs of development.

ÖGGGT Links

The Federal Biological Research Centre (BBA) focusses on the health and productivity of plants.
Guiding principle for the BBA is that food plants as well as ornamental plants are cultivated and retained in a healthy state.

club biotech
Club Biotech is an interdisciplinary project to improve Austrian research.

dialog ‹› gentechnik
dialog‹›gentechnik functions at the interface between science and the public. It fosters and supports dialogue and facilitates a broad access to information about gene technology and related topics. dialog‹›gentechnik is an independent non-profit society, dedicated to provide competent and reliable scientific information. All activities are financed exclusively by public funding.

Scientific Research Programms and Funding

European Science Foundation
ESF Programme on Integrated Approaches for Functional Genomics

FWF Der Wissenschaftsfond The Austrian Science Fund

Österreichisches Genomforschungsprogramm GEN-AU
(German Only)

Austrian Council for Research and Technology Development

Scientific Associations

ANGT The Austrian Network for Gene Therapy

Österreichische Gesellschaft für Biochemie und Molekularbiologie
(Austrian Association for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
partly English

ÖGBT Österreichische Gesellschaft für Biotechnologie
(Austrian Society for Biotechnology

Federation of European Biochemistry Societies

ÖGGGT Contact

Chairman of the board - President o. Prof. Dr. Josef Glössl

Institute of Applied Genetics and Cell Biology
Dept. of Applied Plant Sciences and Plant Biotechnology
University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna
Muthgasse 18
A-1190 Vienna
Phone +43-1-36006-6351
Fax. +43-1-36006-6392

josef.gloessl@boku.ac.at

Vice-chairman of the board

Univ. Prof. Dr. Kurt Zatloukal

Institute of Pathology
Medical University of Graz
Auenbruggerplatz 25
A-8036 Graz
Tel: +43 / 316 / 385 2228
Fax: +43 / 316 / 384 329

kurt.zatloukal@meduni-graz.at

Treasurer

Associate Professor Johannes Grillari

Aging and Immortalization Research
Institute of Applied Microbiology
BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences
Muthgasse 18
1190 Vienna
Tel: +43 1 36006 6230
Fax: +43 1 3697615

j.grillari@iam.boku.ac.at

Secretary

a.o.Univ.Prof.DI.Dr. Reingard Grabherr

Department of Biotechnology
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
Muthgasse 18
A-1190 Vienna
Tel: +43-1-36006-6242
Fax: +43-1-3697615

r.grabherr@iam.boku.ac.at

Graz Branch

Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Helmut Bergler

Institute of Molecular Biosciences
Graz University
Universitätsplatz 2
A-8010 Graz
Tel: 0316-380-5629
Fax: 0316-380-9898

helmut.bergler@uni-graz.at

Innsbruck Branch

Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Rainer Schneider

Institute of Biochemistry
Innsbruck University
Peter Mayrstrasse 1a
A-6020 Innsbruck
Tel: 0512-507-0
Fax: 0512-507-0

Rainer.Schneider@uibk.ac.at

Salzburg Branch

Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Fritz Aberger

FB Molecular Biology
Salzburg University
Hellbrunnerstr. 34
A-5020 Salzburg
Tel: 0662-8044 5792

Fritz.Aberger@sbg.ac.at

Vienna Branch

Ao. Univ.-Prof. Ernst Muellner
Vienna Biocenter
Max F. Perutz Laboratories
Department of Medical Biochemistry
Medical University Vienna
Dr. Bohrgasse 9/2
A-1030 Wien
Tel: +43 1 4277-61760
Fax: +43 1 4277-9617

Ernst Muellner

ernst.muellner@univie.ac.at

Advisory Board

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Mathias Müller

Institut für Tierzucht und Genetik
Vet.-Med.Universität Wien
Veterinärplatz 1
A-1210 Wien

mathias.mueller@boku.ac.at

Dr. Friedrich Scheiflinger

Baxter AG
Wagramerstrasse 17-19
A-1220 Wien

scheiff@baxter.com

Prof. Dr. Helmut Bachmayer
Novartis Forschungsinstitut
Brunner Straße 59
1235 Wien

Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Zacherl
Institut für Molekulare Pathologie
Dr. Bohrgasse 7
1030 Wien

Dr. Alois Haslinger
BM:BWK, Präs. 4
Minoritenplatz 5
1014 Wien

ÖGGGT .::. News .::.      Seminars      Calls      Conferences      Press Releases

  ÖGGGT Newsletter March 2008     VBC Seminars online     MFPL Seminars     Salzburg Seminars  

01 - 04 October 2008 | 3rd ESF Functional Genomics Conference - Innsbruck / Austria

Reduced Early Registration Fee of € 95,- for graduate students

Travel Bursaries Available

Abstract submission deadline: 30. May 2008

Early registration deadline: 30. June 2008

Register Now

EUROCORES Call for themes 2008 - Now OPEN -

The European Science Foundation is inviting well developed proposals for new EUROCORES programmes (EUROCORES themes). It is envisaged that ESF will select about 5 EUROCORES theme proposals from this Call for further development into Open Calls for proposals.

Further Details

Deadline for proposals: 02 June 2008

2008 Call for Proposals For ESF Research Conferences to be held in 2010

The European Science Foundation invites individual scientists to submit proposals for high-level research conferences to take place in 2010 within the framework of its Research Conferences Scheme.

Submission deadline: 15 September 2008

More Information

Conferences

Molecular Cell Biology

Gordon Research Conference

June 1 - 6 | 2008 | New London, NH 03257 | United States

PLANT SENESCENCE

Gordon Research Conference

June 15 - 20 | 2008 | South Hadley, MA | United States

EPSO Conference "Plants for Life"

June 22 - 27 | 2008 | Toulon (Côte d'Azur) | France

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Gordon Research Conference

June 22 - 27 | 2008 | South Hadley, MA | United States

Biochemistry of Cell Regulation - 32rd FEBS Congress & 11th IUBMB Concerence

June 28 - July 3 | 2008 | Athens, Greece

CELLULAR & MOLECULAR FUNGAL BIOLOGY

June 29 - July 4 | 2008 | Holderness, NH | United States

Dreiländer-Kongress Mitochondriale Medizin

July 10 - 12 | 2008 | Salzburg | Austria

PLANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Gordon Research Conference

July 13 - 18 | 2008 | Holderness, NH | United States

19th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research

July 23 - 27 | 2008 | Montreal | Canada

ISPL Inter'l Symposium on Plant Lipids

July 13 - 18 | 2008 | Bordeauy | France

PLANT & FUNGAL CYTOSKELETON

Aug 3 - 8 | 2008 | Il Ciocco | Lucca (Barga) | Italy

Intern'l Symposium on Induced Mutations in Plants (ISIM)

Aug 12 - 15 | 2008 | Vienna | Austria

CO2 ASSIMILATION IN PLANTS: GENOME TO BIOME

Gordon Research Conference

Aug 17 - 22 | 2008 | Biddeford ME 04005 | United States

FESPB 2008 - XVI Congress

Aug 17 - 22 | 2008 | Tampere | Finland

International Peroxidase Symposium

Aug 17 - 24 | 2008 | Tampere | Finland

ICPP Intern'l Congress of Plant Pathology

Aug 24 - 29 | 2008 | Torino | Italy

ELSO 2008 Frontiers of cellular, developmental and molecular biology

Aug 30 - Sept 2 | 2008 | Nice | France

60th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology (DGHM) e.V.

Sep 21 - 24 | 2008 | Dresden | Germany

3rd ESF Functional Genomics Conference

Oct 1 - 4 | 2008 | Innsbruck | Austria

ICCB Intern'l Congress on Cell Biology

Oct 7 - 10 | 2008 | Coex, Seoul |: Korea

ESF-EMBO Symposium PROTEIN DESIGN AND EVOLUTION FOR BIOCATALYSIS

Abstract submission: 6 June 2008

Oct 25 - 30 | 2008 | Sant Feliu de Guixols | Spain

Press Releases

    Salad & Salmonella - Food Poisoning as a Side Dish

Salmonella can also infect plant cells and successfully evade all the defence mechanisms of plants. As a result, cleaning the surfaces of raw fruits and vegetables, e.g. by washing, is not sufficient to protect against food poisoning. This surprising discovery, made during a project supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, has been published today. The results of the project are based on a model plant, which also represents the ideal basis for future development work on treatment and testing systems in the area of food safety.

1.5 billion (!) cases of food poisoning are caused by Salmonella bacteria each year (World Health Organisation). If the bacteria survive particularly well in a person, they can even infect intestinal cells and persist for longer. Previously, the only known sources of infection were infected meat products and plants that had come into contact with contaminated water. However, work by the Unité de Recherche en Génomique Végétale (URGV) in Evry, France, and the Max F. Perutz Laboratories (MFPL) in Vienna, Austria, has now shown that this is not entirely true.

Fruit & Veggies & Bacteria
Work carried out by a team led by geneticist Prof. Heribert Hirt, and published today in PloS ONE, shows that the strain of bacteria known as Salmonella typhimurium can also invade, and multiply inside, plant cells. It is already known that Salmonella can survive for up to 900 days in contaminated soils, which creates a rich source of infection for plant material. However, Prof. Hirt's team can now show that bacteria from such a source can actively achieve the infection of plant cells, thereby disproving the previous assumption that infection was coincidental and - as regards the bacteria - passive.

read more »

Full Publication

    Insects Use Plants Like A Telephone

Dutch ecologist Roxina Soler and her colleagues have discovered that subterranean and aboveground herbivorous insects can communicate with each other by using plants as telephones. Subterranean insects issue chemical warning signals via the leaves of the plant. This way, aboveground insects are alerted that the plant is already 'occupied'.

Aboveground, leaf-eating insects prefer plants that have not yet been occupied by subterranean root-eating insects. Subterranean insects emit chemical signals via the leaves of the plant, which warn the aboveground insects about their presence. This messaging enables spatially-separated insects to avoid each other, so that they do not unintentionally compete for the same plant.

In recent years it has been discovered that different types of aboveground insects develop slowly if they feed on plants that also have subterranean residents and vice versa. It seems that a mechanism has developed via natural selection, which enables the subterranean and aboveground insects to detect each other. This avoids unnecessary competition.

Via the 'green telephone lines', subterranean insects can also communicate with a third party, namely the natural enemy of caterpillars. Parasitic wasps lay their eggs inside aboveground insects. The wasps also benefit from the volatile signals emitted by the leaves, as these reveal where they can find a good host for their eggs. The communication between subterranean and aboveground insects has only been studied in a few systems. It is still not clear how widespread this phenomenon is.

Source: Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

  Genome Biology publishes a key resource for pea genetics

The field of pea genetics received a boost today with the publication of a resource of pea mutants in Genome Biology.

The pea, Pisum sativum, is one of the most famous tools used in genetics: school children today learn that the 19th century monk Gregor Mendel studied the pea - for example, whether the seeds are wrinkled or not - and showed that this and other traits are inherited in a predictable way.

Peas have kept many of their other genetic clues secret, however, as they are unsuited to the genetic modification techniques that are commonly used to work with plants. Scientists, led by Abdelhafid Bendahmane, at the french Plant Genomics Research Unit (URGV) used an early flowering pea cultivar, called Caméor, to study mutant plants at different developmental stages (from seedling through to fruit maturation). The team studied DNA samples from 4,704 plants and identified many essential genes. From this they created a database called UTILLdb, which describes each mutant plant at each developmental stage studied, and incorporates digital images of the plants. UTILLdb contains phenotypic as well as sequence information on mutant genes, and can be searched plant traits of interest.

This new tool has implications for both basic science and for crop improvement, and the authors hope that it will fulfill the expectation of crop breeders and scientists who use the pea.

The full article was published 26 February in Genome Biology and has received considerable attention in the media. The London Times features both a news item on the science, and a lead editorial celebrating the preeminent role of the humble pea in the progress of scientific understanding.

UTILLdb, a Pisum sativum in silico forward and reverse genetics tool (Full pdf Version)

  WittgensteinAward 2007

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christian Krattenthaler of Vienna University, Faculty of Mathematics and Univ.-Prof. Dr. Rudolf Zechner of Karl Franzens University Graz, Institute of Molecular Biosciences,

The award ceremony held on Nov. 12, 2007 within the "40 Years FWF" celebration

Press Release FWF

  Bacteria Use Plant Defence for Genetic Modification

October 2007

Bacteria that cause tumours in plants modify plant genomes by skilfully exploiting the plants' first line of defence. Utilising the plant's own proteins, bacterial genes infiltrate first the nucleus then the plant genome, where they reprogramme the plant's metabolism to suit their own needs. This process was recently discovered as part of an Austrian Science Fund FWF project and was published today (Oct 19, 2007) in SCIENCE.

The genetic manipulation of plants is both, a subject of great controversy in Europe and a tactic already practiced by certain bacteria. The soil bacterium known as crown-gall bacterium (Agrobacterium) manipulates the genetic make-up of plants by inserting its own DNA into the nuclei and, consequently, into the genetic material of the plant cells. The genetically modified plants are then reprogrammed to ensure uninhibited cell division and produce nutrients to feed the bacteria. What was not previously understood is exactly how bacteria genes infiltrate the cell's nucleus - particularly as the defence mechanisms of plant cells react so rapidly to bacterial invasion.   read more

Original Publication: Trojan horse strategy in Agrobacterium transformation - Abusing MAPK-targeted VIP1 defence signalling Armin Djamei, Andrea Pitzschke, Hirofumi Nakagami, Iva Rajh, Heribert Hirt, Science 318, 453 (2007).

  Radical Research Results on the Oxidation of Vitamin E

FWF News Article

Vienna, Sept 24, 2007

Recent research results have challenged conventional understanding of the oxidation of the "radical scavenger", vitamin E. Cutting-edge analysis methods have revealed that the intermediates commonly believed to be involved in the process do not occur. This surprising finding has been systematically documented and published as part of a project supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. The new findings are also extremely important for a follow-up project that is focusing on the synthesis of "super antioxidants" based on a polymeric vitamin E.
ACS Publications