
Transforming Pollen for Better Plants for
the Pharm By Don Comis June 29, 1999Alfalfa has long been sold in health
food stores but its now on its way to becoming a manufacturer of
mainstream medicines, thanks to a technique patented by the
Agricultural Research Service for
altering future plants through pollen. The technique, pollen
electro-transformation, was first developed about seven years ago by ARS
biochemists James A. Saunders and Benjamin F. Matthews in Beltsville, Md. ARS
is the USDA's chief scientific arm. BTG International, Inc., in Gulph
Mills, Pa., licensed the ARS technique in 1993. Now, BTG has granted a
sub-license to Medicago Inc., Québec City, Québec, Canada, to
create pharmable varieties of perennial forage legumes such as
alfalfa and clover. In pharming, gene-engineered plants make medicinal
ingredients that pharmaceutical firms can harvest or extract directly from
plants. This may be less expensive than having microbes make the
pharmaceuticals in fermentation vats. In electro-transformation, pollen receives an extremely brief electrical
shock that moves the desired new genes into the pollen cells' genetic material.
After this pollen is used to pollinate new flowers, the plants bear seeds coded
for the new genes. This eliminates the tedium of nourishing gene-engineered
cells into tiny plantlets in lab dishes and, ultimately, into seed-bearing
plants. It also saves time and money. ARS and BTG scientists worked together to
put the technology into practice for tobacco, corn and alfalfa. Medicago, Inc.--named for the alfalfa plant genus--plans on using the
technique to create alfalfa varieties that produce enzymes, proteins and other
compounds for human and animal medicines, vitamins, skin care products, food
additives and other products. This is the latest sub-license from research
agreements between ARS and BTG since 1993. Research agreements with BTG
resulted in the ARS patent. BTG and ARS also have sub-licensing or option agreements with
American Cyanamid Co., Princeton, N.J.,
for soybeans and sugarbeets;
Sanford Scientific,
Inc., Waterloo, N.Y., for ornamentals; and
Okanagan
Biotechnology, Inc., Summerland, B.C., Canada, for cherry, peach and other
stone fruits. BTG officials are evaluating potential sub- licenses for other
crops and uses. Scientific contacts: James A. Saunders, ARS
Climate Stress Laboratory,
Beltsville, Md., phone (301) 504-7477, fax (301) 504-6626,
[email protected];
Benjamin
F. Matthews, ARS
Soybean and
Alfalfa Research Laboratory, Beltsville, Md., phone (301) 504-5730, fax
(301) 504-5320, [email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |