NICE, France _ Potatoes grown in Russia and Belorus face threenatural enemies _ potato viruses X and Y, and the Colorado potatobeetle. Four, if one counts the "extremely conservative breeders andfarmers." A leading Russian biotechnologist, Konstantin Skryabin,made this point here yesterday, in a plenary lecture on plantbiotechnology.

The BioEngineering Research Center that Skryabin directs at theRussian Academy of Sciences in Moscow has developed transgenicpotatoes armed against both viral species and the beetle. In field trialsthe last two growing seasons, Skryabin told his audience, they havedemonstrated highly effective resistance to these pests, "with adrastic decrease in survival of the beetle larvae in the field."

As Skryabin told BioWorld Today in an interview, "I have very goodcontacts with the Belorussian Institute of Potato Digging. That's whythey are eager to work together with us."

But Russia itself is a different story. "I can tell you it's a very bigproblem in Russia, because we didn't have really very well developedcompanies for seeds, distribution and so forth.

"In Russia," he added, "we have started to discuss it with thebreeders, who need to check that our new pest-resistant potato is notgoing to harm the good features of their traditional cultivars."

He continued, "After convincing the breeders, and after muchbroader field tests, we can really say that we have a new type ofpotato cultivar, and just go for the bigger home market."

To fight off the Colorado potato beetle, the Russian plant scientistssynthesized a specific gene of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). "There'sonly one known structure for the Bt toxin," Skryabin observed, "andwe've just made completely synthetic genes, specific to Coloradobeetle. It's the one structure used all over the world."

But the problem all over the world is that the gene from the bacillusyields very low expression of Bt in the plant. "Therefore," Skryabinsaid, "we needed to change the triplet codons, and vary the structureslightly." He hopes thereby in the future to make the constructshorter.

"Up to now the synthetic works," Skryabin observed, "but there willstill be a patent problem this year." He foresees such difficulties withPlant Genetics Systems, of Ghent, Belgium, and possibly fromPioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., of Des Moines, Iowa.

All in all, Skryabin said, "I have a feeling that the plantbiotechnology area will be very complicated, legally and also interms of the real field application."

To immunize potatoes against viruses X and Y, the plant virologiststurned originally to genes that encode the viral coat protein. Then,Skryabin recalled, "They found out it was not the coat protein that'sprotective, but a region of the viral genome. When we expressed this,it gave us very good protection, both in the greenhouse and in thefield tests." (See the article at right.)

Out Of The Laboratory, Into The Marketplace

To commercialize his institute's agricultural research, Skryabin setup a company called AgroKlon. To do the same for pharmaceuticalproduction, he established a second enterprise, BioReaktor Ltd. in1993. He is board chairman of both.

BioReaktor produces steroid hormones for contraception. "It alreadyhas five products on sale," Skryabin said, "and we are increasing theassortment."

At BioReaktor too, he added, "jointly with a Lithuanian company, wehave just finished human growth hormone produced by geneticengineering, and it's now pending approval by the authorities. I hopeby the middle of summer it will be on the Russian market."

This recombinant product is already registered in Lithuania, and "weare looking for its registration in Ukraine and Uzbekistan this year.That's why I hope that '95 will be the launching year for sales."

From Nice In 1995 To Budapest In 1997

At a brief ceremony Thursday evening, closing this SeventhEuropean Biotechnology Congress, its president, Francois Grosupdated the numbers of what he termed "the over-all flow of people"to the Congress. They totaled 3,681, of which 2,008 were payingattendees, 1,605 were visitors to the "BioExpo" only and 68 werejournalists. n

-- David N. Leff Science Editor

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.