HORTICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY IN BRAZIL

Biotechnology is considered one of the key means to the country to achieve the goals of development strategies. The current Brazilian biotechnology was established through active groups in the area of molecular biology during the half seventies, like the efforts carried out at University of Brasilia (UnB), creating in 1974 the graduate program in molecular biology, and similar activities developed at University of São Paulo (USP) and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation’s (EMBRAPA) involvement with agricultural biotechnology started in 1982 through the creation of Genetic Resources and Biotechnology Center (EMBRAPA-CENARGEN), responsible for initials studies of gene expression in plants and manipulation of these aiming to improve nutritional quality in legumes. Nowadays, there are several research groups spread all over the country, and dedicated to projects in horticultural biotechnology, quite strategic in the short- and long-term runs, as follows: development of insect or disease resistant crops and tolerant to abiotic stresses; improvement of nutritional composition of edible crops; manipulation of secondary metabolite routes in plants; reduction of post-harvest storing losses, shorting juvenile cycles for rapid improvement of native and exotic forest and fruit trees, and reduction of lignin content in wood species. In the past ten years, the scientific community developed a remarkable capacity to manipulate new biotechnology tools, as the emerging technologies of recombinant DNA, genomics and proteomics. The Brazilian Genome Consortium became notorious for sequencing the genome of the bacteria Xyllela fastidiosa, the causal agent of citrus variegated chlorosis (CVC). Currently, there are four plant genome projects ongoing in Brazil: eucalyptus, cocoa, sugarcane and citrus. Brazil has today a technical staff highly competent in several areas involved in the generation of biotech applied to agriculture, totalizing in 2003 more than 8,000 researchers spread in more than 2,000 research groups. Several well-succeeded projects carried out by public Brazilian Institutions, for instance, common beans with transgenic resistance to golden-bean mosaic virus, papaya resistant to papaya ringspot virus, passionfruit resistant to passionfruit woodiness virus, and soybean resistant to herbicide. However, these biotech products have been impaired to further evaluations by the ongoing biosafety regulation constraints, making impossible to run field trials of the transgenic material. CTNBio (National Biosafety Commission) the government sector encharged of regulating matters related to biotechnology field, and a Biosafety National Law is expected to be voted in by the National Congress, in order to regulate legislation on GMOs. In spite of the ever growing interest of public and private sectors to run businesses in horticulture, mainly in tissue culture of several vegetable, ornamental and fruit species, there are currently impairments of various natures, from political to social reasons. It is believed that responsible application of biotechnology is compatible with and has much to contribute to agricultural and environmental sustainability. New licensing structures for enabling technologies generated in universities and public research institutions may be particular helpful for emerging countries like Brazil. Indeed, in Brazil, public institutions have traditionally played a major research role in horticultural crops, and this is also true of horticultural biotechnology. However, public institutions generally do not have access to the full range of enabling technologies and trait genes, nor the resources to satisfy the regulatory and stewardship requirements needed to develop a commercial biotech variety, making public-private partnerships an attractive avenue for development. The scenary is extremely favorable to bilateral cooperation with partners worldwide in various R&D areas. An important net has helped significantly the interchange of experience in scientific field, namely REDBIO (Rede Latino Americana de Biotecnologia), which integrates the Caribbean and South America countries opening possibilities for exchange of basic and applied knowledge in scientific field.