The Drumbeat: Africa Bioscience Trends

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31ST OCTOBER 2019

ISSUE NO.21

Welcome to issue 21 of the DrumBeat!

In this issue, we bring you recent stories and developments in Africa's bioscience landscape. In our Story of the Month, Rose Mukonyo, an award winning radio journalist from Kenya reflects on her journey into biotechnology reporting. Rose unearths how one study tour to a GM crops confined field trial site converted her into a believer of the technology, and has cascaded into an avalanche of opportunities for her career. Our Video of the Month presents voices and opinions of select African biosafety regulators and researchers on the direction Africa should take in regulating products of genome editing. This was during the 3^rd Africa Biennial Biosciences Communication (ABBC) Symposium which took place on 29^th and 30^th August 2019, in Pretoria, South Africa. In the Opinion Piece section, Jennifer Thomson, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Cape Town, talks about the role of genetic engineering in improving Africa's food security. She also shares her experience from ABBC2019. The Drumbeat wishes to congratulate Giulia Di Tommaso on her appointment as the new CEO and President of CropLife International. We wish Giulia all the very best as she takes lead of the plant science industry and its mission in delivering sustainable solutions to farmers.

Enjoy your read!

REGULATOR'S CORNER

Country	Crop	Modified trait	Date of approval
Argentina	Maize	Stacked- Herbicide Tolerance + Insect Resistance	October 10^th 2019
Brazil	Cotton	Stacked- herbicide tolerance	October 10^th 2019
Brazil	Cotton	Stacked- Herbicide Tolerance + Insect Resistance	October 10^th 2019
Niger	Parliament passes National Biosafety Law		October 17^th 2019

VIDEO OF THE MONTH

ABBC2019: - Regulating Genome editing, which way for Africa?

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UPCOMING EVENTS IN BIOSCIENCES, AFRICA

STORY OF THE MONTH

My Journey into Biotechnology Reporting

Rose Mukonyo, an award winning radio journalist from Kenya reflects on her journey into biotechnology reporting. Rose unearths how one study tour to a GM crops confined field trial site converted her into a believer of the technology, and has cascaded into an avalanche of opportunities for her career.

Inheritance of resistance to Cercospora leaf spot disease of cowpea

Cercospora leaf spot (CLS) is an important disease affecting cowpea production in Nigeria. This study investigated the inheritance of CLS disease in cowpea under natural epiphytotic field condition involving two CLS resistant parents and a CLS susceptible parent. The result showed that F1 populations involving UAM09-1055-6 × IT99K-573-1-1 and UAM09-1055-6 × IT99K-216-24 were resistant to CLS in the 2 crosses suggesting the presence of gene dominance in the control of the disease.

Extreme resistance to late blight disease by transferring 3 R genes from wild relatives into African farmer-preferred potato varieties

Three late blight resistance (R) genes from wild potato species were transferred as a stack into the farmer-preferred varieties ‘Tigoni’ and ‘Shangi’ and the transgenics tested. R gene expression analysis in 18 transgenic events showed different transgenic events exhibiting different levels of expression in the three genes. However, that pathogen induction and/or high R gene expression are necessary for extreme resistance when transgenic events bear a stack of three R genes was not observed.

Response of Selected Kenyan Rice Cultivars to Infection by Root Knot Nematode

Meloidogyne incognita causes huge yield losses in rice which is the third most important cereal crop in Kenya. The aim of this study was to identify M. incognita-resistant rice cultivars from Kenya and relate the responses to known resistance pathways. Results of this study provide an insight on sources of M. incognita resistance in Kenyan rice and forms an interesting starting point for further studies on defense responses of common rice varieties to root knot nematode infection.