Physiological responses related to increased grain yield under drought in the first biotechnology-derived drought-tolerant maize.

Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays L.) is highly susceptible to drought stress. This work focused on whole-plant physiological mechanisms by which a biotechnology-derived maize event expressing bacterial cold shock protein B (CspB), MON 87460, increased grain yield under drought. Plants of MON 87460 and a conventional control (hereafter 'control') were tested in the field under well-watered (WW) and water-limited (WL) treatments imposed during mid-vegetative to mid-reproductive stages during 2009-2011. Across years, average grain yield increased by 6% in MON 87460 compared with control under WL conditions. This was associated with higher soil water content at 0.5 m depth during the treatment phase, increased ear growth, decreased leaf area, leaf dry weight and sap flow rate during silking, increased kernel number and harvest index in MON 87460 than the control. No consistent differences were observed under WW conditions. This indicates that MON 87460 acclimated better under WL conditions than the control by lowering leaf growth which decreased water use during silking, thereby eliciting lower stress under WL conditions. These physiological responses in MON 87460 under WL conditions resulted in increased ear growth during silking, which subsequently increased the kernel number, harvest index and grain yield compared to the control.

Assessing the Safety of Pesticides in Food: How Current Regulations Protect Human Health.

Understanding the magnitude and impact of dietary pesticide exposures is a concern for some consumers. However, the ability of consumers to obtain and understand state-of-the-science information about how pesticides are regulated and how dietary exposure limits are set can be limited by the complicated nature of the regulations coupled with an abundance of sources seeking to cast doubt on the reliability of those regulations. Indeed, these regulations are sometimes not well understood within health care professions. As such, the objective of this review is to provide a historical perspective as to how modern pesticides were developed, current trends in pesticide use and regulation, and measures taken to reduce the risk of pesticide use to the consumer. Throughout the review, we provide specific examples for some of the concepts as they apply to glyphosate-a pesticide commonly used by both farmers and consumers. In addition, we describe current efforts to monitor pesticide use. We are confident that this succinct, yet thorough, review of this topic will be of interest to myriad researchers, public health experts, and health practitioners as they help communicate information about making healthful and sustainable food choices to the public.

Glyphosate in livestock: feed residues and animal health1.

Glyphosate is a nonselective systemic herbicide used in agriculture since 1974. It inhibits 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate (EPSP) synthase, an enzyme in the shikimate pathway present in cells of plants and some microorganisms but not human or other animal cells. Glyphosate-tolerant crops have been commercialized for more than 20 yr using a transgene from a resistant bacterial EPSP synthase that renders the crops insensitive to glyphosate. Much of the forage or grain from these crops are consumed by farm animals. Glyphosate protects crop yields, lowers the cost of feed production, and reduces CO2 emissions attributable to agriculture by reducing tillage and fuel usage. Despite these benefits and even though global regulatory agencies continue to reaffirm its safety, the public hears conflicting information about glyphosate's safety. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determines for every agricultural chemical a maximum daily allowable human exposure (called the reference dose, RfD). The RfD is based on amounts that are 1/100th (for sensitive populations) to 1/1,000th (for children) the no observed adverse effects level (NOAEL) identified through a comprehensive battery of animal toxicology studies. Recent surveys for residues have indicated that amounts of glyphosate in food/feed are at or below established tolerances and actual intakes for humans or livestock are much lower than these conservative exposure limits. While the EPSP synthase of some bacteria is sensitive to glyphosate, in vivo or in vitro dynamic culture systems with mixed bacteria and media that resembles rumen digesta have not demonstrated an impact on microbial function from adding glyphosate. Moreover, one chemical characteristic of glyphosate cited as a reason for concern is that it is a tridentate chelating ligand for divalent and trivalent metals; however, other more potent chelators are ubiquitous in livestock diets, such as certain amino acids. Regulatory testing identifies potential hazards, but risks of these hazards need to be evaluated in the context of realistic exposures and conditions. Conclusions about safety should be based on empirical results within the limitations of model systems or experimental design. This review summarizes how pesticide residues, particularly glyphosate, in food and feed are quantified, and how their safety is determined by regulatory agencies to establish safe use levels.

A comparison of two methods for fractionating complex mixtures in preparation for toxicity analysis.

Chemical fractionation is a widely used tool for the chemical and toxicological characterization of complex mixtures. The objective of this research was to compare two frequently employed methods for fractionating a wood preserving waste (WPW) containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and pentachlorophenol (PCP). The first method involved fractionation of the WPW into acid, base, and neutral fractions using a liquid-liquid acid/base/neutral (A/B/N) technique. The second method utilized alumina column chromatography to produce two fractions, A1 and A2. Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry were used to quantify the chemical components in all fractions. The alumina method recovered 473,338 mg of total PAHs (tPAHs) per kilogram crude, while the A/B/N method yielded only 193,379 mg tPAHs/kg crude. In contrast, the A/B/N method recovered 13.7 mg PCP/kg crude while the alumina method yielded only 0.5 mg PCP/kg crude. Three bioassays were used to determine the toxicity of the crude extract and fractions. The neutral and A1 fractions contained the highest levels of tPAHs and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) but failed to induce a positive response in the Salmonella/microsome assay with concentrations containing as much as 1800 and 2500 ng BaP/plate, respectively. In the Escherichia coli prophage induction assay, the acid fraction, which contained 472 mg PCP/kg fraction, induced a positive response, as did the base fraction, which did not contain detectable PCP. Significant reduction of gap junctional intercellular communication in hepatic cells occurred with the crude extract and acid, base, and neutral fractions. Overall, the results of these bioassays suggest that PCP genotoxicity was expressed in the acid fraction, whereas the cumulative genotoxicity of genotoxic PAHs appeared to be masked in the isolates from either fractionation method. The optimal fractionation method for a mixture of chlorophenols and PAHs may involve a refined hybrid method.