A comparison between transgenic cassava species (left) and a regular one (right).
Recently, the field test of transgenic cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) for enhanced starch production by the Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology & Ecology (SIPPE) of the CAS Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences proved successful. Through application of transgenic technologies in cassava, the starch quality of this tropical root crop was largely improved. The new cassava cultivars are believed to have a tremendous potential for industrial application in the future.
Cassava is an important root crop in the tropics and subtropics where it is traditionally processed for food, starch and alcoholic beverages. Due to the ever increasing demands by the industries of bioethanol, modified starch, food, chemical engineering and textile, the improvement in production becomes a key issue. However, to enhance the starch quality by seed breeding, a traditional technique to evolve crops, has proved inefficient to meet the needs. Scientists were prompted to find a unique way by which the production could be increased with less labor and cost.
The ISPPE researchers, who are pioneers in China in genetic transformation study of the plant, obtained a series of cassava cultivars with diversified amylose and amylopectin content by using the RNA interference technology to generate the expression of the starch-synthesizing genes.
At present, the enlarged field experiment is under advancement in the south China's Hainan Province and more cassava cultivars are expected by the scientists, raising new solutions for industrial application.
