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ПЛЕНАРНЫ Е ДО КЛ А ДЫ
PLANTBIOTECHNOLOGY
yu r ig le b a
InternationalInstitute ofcell biology, Kiev, Ukraina andAmerican CyanamidCo.,
Princeton,
During this century, the world's population has increased from 1.5 to
over 5.5 billion, and is expected to reach 8 billion by the year 2020. Crop
yields in the world have increased over 2.5 in the last 40 years; half of the
gain being due to breeding; the rest due to fertilizers, crop protection and
husbandry; but further increases are unlikely.
Current agricultural practices are not sustainable; we've lost 15% of our
topsoil over last 20 years, and the petrochemicals we rely on are not
renewable. Most arable land is already under cultivation.
Experts agree that biotechnology is the only science that will move us
toward sustainable agriculture. Biological discoveries are being published at
a breathtaking speed. Sequencing of yeast genome and of 11 bacterial
genomes is completed; Arabidopsis genome will be completed by 2000;
human genome - by 2005. Sophistication level of our genetic engineering
has dramatically increased: during last year or so, cloning of mammals was
achieved; first artificial human chromosomes have been engineered; mice
has been created that express megabase human immunoglobulin loci, etc.
Biotechnology has become a mature and useful science: in 1996, public
biotech companies earned $12.4 billion (up 28% from 1995); most of the
revenues are coming from pharmaceutical recombinant proteins ($7 billion
in 1996, expected to reach $10 billion by the year 2000), but plant
biotechnology is catching up. This year, transgenic plants occupied over 8
million hectares, up from 1,5 million ha in 1996. Most of plant biotech products
currently on market are so called input traits: resistance to herbicides
(glyphosate, phosphinothricin, imidazolinones), insects (Colorado Beetle,
European Com Borer, etc.), viruses, etc.
Discovery and development of a new product is extremely expensive
procedure: average cost is $250 million per new drug and $130 million per
new agricultural product. Therefore, the number of potential players in
commercial biotechnology is very limited (less than 25 in pharma and less
than 10 in agchem business); those agchem companies that have resources
are, understandably, working on high-profit crops (com, rice, wheat, soybean,
canola, cotton, sugar beets) and on potentially highly profitable traits. That
imposes serious restrictions on medium-size or small biotech groups,
including academic labs: in most cases, in order to bring a product to the
market, they have to collaborate with major companies or form alliances
that have adequate resources. Working through a big company means that
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