Science Matters : Spring 2011

science matters

Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D

An integrated approach This issue recognizes the importance of integrated crop solutions to help farmers around the world to grow more from less Filling the rice bowls of the future Soybean under attack from insects and diseases Sweet success with sugar beet and sugar cane Giving customers a better flower Winning ways with wheat Special article – an external perspective on 100 important questions facing agriculture

Spring 2011

Contents Science Matters is a magazine supported by the Syngenta Fellows – a leading community of Syngenta scientists – whose aims include recognizing and promoting Syngenta’s excellence in science. Here is an overview of the articles in this issue: 03 Integrated crops – Sandro Aruffo Head of Research and Development Sandro Aruffo talks about our new strategy and how we are providing integrated solutions to the grower.

04 Good news about food (and fuel and flowers) – Ian Jepson This issue of Science Matters is dedicated to new developments in improving the crops which feed the world. Ian Jepson sets the scene introducing the science we are delivering to provide integrated solutions for our customers.

06 Filling the rice bowls of the future – Stuart Harrison Rice is the world’s number one staple crop. As the world’s population increases this century, so rice production will have to keep pace, with very little increase in the land devoted to growing it. That might just be possible thanks to innovations from Syngenta’s rice R&D, as Stuart Harrison explains.

08 WIZZARDTM casts a winter spell over sugar beet – Thomas Kraft & Jan Gielen Sugar beet is a major global crop – 250 million tonnes are grown annually – from which is extracted 30% of the world’s sugar. Thomas Kraft and Jan Gielen show how research at Syngenta has found ways in which the plant can be modified so that it can be sown in autumn rather than spring and thereby greatly increase its yield.

10 Designer genes of the future will be shaped by computer – Laura Potter & Mike Nuccio Syngenta’s team of scientists are combining their expertise in bioinformatics with trait and crop knowledge, aiming their combined skills at more challenging targets, as Laura Potter and Mike Nuccio explain.

12 Soybean alert number one – fungus attack! – Fernando Gallina & Sergio Paiva More than 100 million tonnes of soybean are grown every year, but a few years ago the Brazilian crop was under threat from an insidious fungus disease which has since spread rapidly.

Syngenta’s Priori Xtra® now provides an answer, as Fernando Gallina and Sergio Paiva discuss.

14 Soybean alert number two – aphid attack! – Virgil Sparks Syngenta can celebrate an industry first: an integrated approach to controlling soybean aphids which blight this key crop. Virgil Sparks explains that the secret weapon is a combination of an aphid-resistant native trait and a targeted systemic insecticide which does not threaten beneficial insects.

16 Innovation, art and science give customers a better flower experience – Sabine Lorente & Dick van Kleinwee In Syngenta Lawn & Garden, they are asking if the art of flower breeding can come together with today’s science to give our customers an even better experience. Sabine Lorente and Dick van Kleinwee show how they are bringing innovation, art and science together to breed beautiful new flowers.

18 Syngenta has PleneTM to talk about – Ian Jepson Ian Jepson talks about how innovation in adjacent technologies and a partnership with John Deere has transformed the sugar cane business with a new approach to planting called PleneTM.

20 Winning ways with wheat – Derek Cornes Seed choice is one of the most important decisions a cereal grower makes – it is the key to higher yields and better quality grain. However, wheat breeding is still largely traditional and productivity is variable. Derek Cornes explains how Syngenta is planning to change things.

22 Making melons resistant to Fusarium fungus – Bruno Foncelle Melons are grown around the world but in many countries they are threatened by a soil-borne disease which causes the plants to wilt.

Syngenta has developed a resistant strain and this year it looks set to conquer a large section of the market.

Bruno Foncelle explains.

24 Syngenta turns its big guns on a deadly menace – Phil Wege The Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its aim is to help find new tools to kill insects that transmit human diseases such as malaria. Syngenta has been a leading collaborating partner since 2006.

Phil Wege explains more.

26 External Perspective – 100 questions facing agriculture – Jules Pretty This ‘external perspective’ focuses on the challenges facing agriculture. Jules Pretty from the University of Essex, discusses the output from a Foresight Group of 55 experts who generated 100 questions facing agriculture today.

28 Out and About Snippets – Carolyn Riches Reporter Carolyn Riches writes about scientific snippets from across the world on an integrated crops theme.

30 Editor’s comments – Stuart John Dunbar Stuart reviews the output of the survey from the last edition.

Our integrated approach Agriculture has never been more central to the world’s social, political and economic development.

To enable a projected global population of 9 billion in 2050 to live well and within the limits of the planet, agriculture must achieve a doubling of world food production while conserving water and energy. This can only happen through a holistic and long term vision of the way we grow food. This vision is reliant on scientific innovation and its adoption by farmers, the food value chain and consumers.

Syngenta is working hard to make this vision a reality. In February 2011, we introduced our new strategy, which is based on three core objectives: Integrate, Innovate and Outperform. Our aim is to bring together Crop Protection and Seeds to develop a fully integrated offer on a global crop basis. We will use the best technologies in chemistry, genetics, and “adjacent technologies” − either alone or in combination − to address the challenges of growers worldwide and drive agricultural productivity to a higher level in a sustainable way.

We are already seeing the tangible results of our integrated approach. For example, Plene™ is a breakthrough technology in sugar cane planting, combining chemistry, plant genetics and application technology to provide a truly integrated solution. With Plene™ there is a shift from manual to mechanical planting, which will improve convenience and safety. Plene™ will also allow for more frequent re-planting and therefore higher overall yields with less impact on the environment.

We are further expanding our integrated offer with the introduction in India of Tegra™, a solution for small-scale rice growers. This solution consists of planting high quality seed coated with seed treatment, followed by a new system of mechanical transplantation of the seedlings to reduce labor input and improve yields.

This edition of Science Matters is dedicated to Syngenta’s integrated approach to provide better solutions for the challenges faced by growers. It highlights some of the innovative approaches our scientists are developing for the major staple crops of rice, wheat, soybean and sugar cane. It also looks at how our new WIZZARD™ breakthrough technology might transform sugar beet production, how we have developed a new fungus resistant melon strain and how the latest innovations in flower breeding will give our customers a better experience. In addition, you will learn more about the role of bioinformatics in designing the genes of the future and how our science, via our collaboration with the Innovative Vector Control Consortium, is having a positive impact in related fields such as the development of insecticides to kill the mosquitoes that transmit malaria.

Sandro Aruffo Head of Research & Development

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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Good news about food (and fuel and flowers)

This issue of Science Matters is dedicated to new developments in improving the crops which feed the world. Ian Jepson sets the scene introducing the science we are delivering to provide integrated solutions for our customers.

The number of humans on this planet increases by around 80,000 every day. This year it will increase by 30 million, and by the middle of this century the world population will reach 9 billion. We will all need food. Hopefully, no one will go hungry, and ideally all will be adequately fed from existing farmland and without encroaching on wildlife habitats. This can be done, but it will need the skills

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of agribusiness companies like Syngenta if it is to be achieved.

Few companies can offer the range of skills we have at our disposal both in terms of our crop protection assets and our breeding and biotechnology capabilities. Through a closer working relationship between them we are bringing about remarkable advances in crop yield via an integrated approach.

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

While our competitors have generally focussed on crop protection chemicals or the development of seeds and biotechnology products, Syngenta has established strong capabilities and infrastructure in both areas. In the past we may have focussed on marketing a single active ingredient or variety, but now we are increasingly offering integrated crop products such as our seed treatments, our herbicide tolerance packages of traits, germplasm, and

By the time you have read this article more than 80 people have been added to the world, all needing food, fiber and fuel without any additional land being available. An integrated approach will be essential to help provide for their needs.

Sugar cane is becoming increasingly important as a vital source of both food energy and biofuel energy

Nor should we forget that while hunger stalks the world in some places, in others it is the mosquito which takes the biggest toll on young lives. Syngenta is now involved with the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC), funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, whose aim is to eradicate malaria. Philip Wege is our man behind that project.

Although beautiful blooms may not be an essential requirement when it comes to enjoying what the earth can yield, the pleasure of growing and showing flowers can be very rewarding. Dick van Kleinwee and Sabine Lorente are designing ones which they hope will one day win first prizes at garden festivals. herbicides, and our lawn and garden products. In this edition of Science Matters, we will see the power of chemistry and genetics being harnessed to bring a range of innovative solutions to farmers.

Rice, wheat, and soybean are three of the world’s staple crops on which the population depends for its daily intake of calories and nutrients. Rice is the number one staple, but can it keep pace with the rising population? Stuart Harrison has some good news to report.

Wheat is number two, and Derek Cornes recounts the efforts being made to improve its yields.

Sugar is also a key agricultural commodity, and a vital source of both food energy and biofuel energy. It is grown both as sugar cane and sugar beet. Our efforts to boost sugar cane productivity in Brazil is described in my article on the novel planting technology PleneTM. This offers the grower germplasm, chemistry and new planting technology, the last of these is in association with John Deere, the world’s leading manufacturer of farming equipment. Thomas Kraft reports on sugar beet with news of

a revolutionary approach which will increase production by 25%.

Another major crop is soybean and it too can be used both as food or fuel, yielding either edible oil and protein, or bio-diesel. Syngenta’s new variety provides an answer to the fungal disease which is threatening it, as Fernando Gallina and Sergio Paiva report, while Virgil Sparks explains about Syngenta’s integrated approach to pest management that is designed to protect this crop against aphids.

So welcome to this edition of Science Matters, and discover some remarkable advances that are being made by Syngenta people.

John Deere is a trademark of Deere & Company.

Ian Jepson Sugar Cane R&D Business Partner Syngenta Biotechnology Inc. North Carolina

Effort has also been directed at protecting a fruit crop, namely melons, which are attacked by a soil fungus. Bruno Foncelle has news about the work to develop a strain that can resist this and which is now about to come to market.

Gene technology can, in theory, solve many of the problems concerning food crops. The first wave of commercial products have been relatively simple gene traits such as herbicide resistance. Future products will require more sophisticated methods to discover ways to influence traits such as droughtresistance, and this requires advanced computing skills which Laura Potter and Mike Nuccio are developing.

USA

Ian graduated with a BSc in biology from the University of Durham and has a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Birmingham. He joined ICI Seeds at Jealott’s Hill in 1989, and has held a number of management positions in Seeds and Crop Protection: Bioscience Manager; Head of Trait Research; Biotechnology Traits Portfolio Leader; and Head of Enzymes R&D. Currently he is Sugar Cane R&D Business Partner for both Crop Protection and Seeds and is based at Syngenta Biotechnology Inc., North Carolina, USA.

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Contact: ian.jepson@syngenta.com

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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Filling the rice bowls of the future Rice is the world’s number one staple crop. As the world’s population increases this century, so rice production will have to keep pace and ideally with very little increase in the land devoted to growing it.

That might just be possible thanks to innovations from Syngenta’s rice R&D, as Stuart Harrison explains.

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Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

Life without rice would be unthinkable in many countries, especially in Asia where it forms the backbone of the daily diet and where its production represents the livelihood of much of the population. More than three billion people eat rice every day, and 90% of that produced in Asia is consumed as food.

The science behind Syngenta’s hybrid rice

In the Asia Pacific (APAC) region rice is grown on 140 million hectares, an area five times larger than Vietnam or the Philippines. Three quarters of this is produced in South and South East Asia where it feeds a population of two billion that is growing fast and it is the main source of food calories, so a drive to increase its productivity is vital. Yet rice yields there have reached a plateau and the area devoted to rice cultivation is likely to remain unchanged.

Rice in brief

Keeping pace with population Assuming no further land becomes available for rice production, then to keep pace with population growth, the yield per hectare will have to increase from the current average of 4.3 tonnes per hectare to 5.3 tonnes per hectare by 2020. The current rate of increase will attain only half this yield, so clearly innovation is needed. The increase will have to come from the intensification of production, and essential to this will be hybridization and trait technologies. Syngenta’s technology teams in India, Vietnam, Philippines and China are destined to play a critical role.

• It is an excellent source of complex carbohydrates – the best source of energy. However, a lot of these nutrients are lost during milling and polishing, which turns brown rice into white rice by removing the outer rice husk and bran to reveal the white grain.

Stuart: “Over the next decade, Syngenta will focus on several innovations in rice.

From a seed perspective, developing hybrid rice containing the critical biotic and abiotic traits will be key. Our research projects are in the early stages of discovery, but already several innovative products are emerging from our work in Hyderabad, India.

• Domestication of rice ranks as one of the most important developments in history.

• Rice has fed more people over a longer period than any other crop.

• Rice is rich in nutrients and contains a number of vitamins and minerals.

• Two species of rice are considered important as food species for humans: Oryza sativa, grown worldwide; and Oryza glaberrima, grown in parts of West Africa.

• Both of these belong to a bigger group of plants (the genus Oryza) that includes about 20 other species.

• For thousands of years different parts of the rice plant have been used in religious and ceremonial occasions, as medicine, and as inspiration and medium for a great number of artworks.

“The current breeding program is aimed at unlocking the genetic potential of rice, and the breeding programs and technology platforms have made a significant start.”

Once the genetic potential of rice has been unlocked, and the benefits of the new varieties have been shown to boost yields, then farmers will be offered a robust crop-care program as part of an integrated package. Hybrid rice is an essential component of any rice offer as far as Asian growers are concerned.

Combined with other technologies, it will go a long way to ensuring that the rice basket of Asia remains full for the rest of this century, and that Syngenta products will be there to help.

Stuart Harrison R&D Lead APAC

Stuart studied biochemistry at the University of Queensland in Australia where he graduated with a BSc Hons and then went on to do a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. His first employment was at the John Innes Centre in

Syngenta has built its research efforts around a 3-line hybrid platform utilizing a stable cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) system. Current hybrid breeding globally utilizes 10 CMS lines which limits the value added traits that can be incorporated. The physical characteristics of these 10 CMS, or female lines, is having a huge impact on the ability of hybrid rice to penetrate the market because their agronomic and grain qualities are not applicable to all markets. The key backbone of the Syngenta breeding program is to focus a significant breeding effort in generating additional female lines with a range of durations (time of plant to maturity), grain types, as well as having resistance to infections such as bacterial leaf blight.

Although rice is a field crop, it needs to be considered more like a vegetable when it comes to R&D. Like vegetables, the characteristics of rice that define local eating and grain quality are extremely diverse across Asia. Variability in grain shape, aroma and stickiness (which depends on its amylose content) are all important for the consumer.

In addition there are characteristics demanded by the processors, such as low cracked grain content and thresholds in head rice recovery.

The number one target for the trait program is to meet the quality needs of the milling and consumer market.

Initial efforts have focused on a panel of phenotypic assays for key critical characteristics, screening the germplasm and incorporating these screens into the hybrid selections.

The program is now evolving to include metabolic and carbohydrate profiling to understand how the constituents of rice grains that contribute to quality traits can be paired with the genetic information which underlies diversity.

Norwich, UK, studying recessive resistance genes to viruses, before joining Zeneca Mogen in 2000 as project leader of the Fungal Control (GM) group.

Currently Stuart is R&D Lead APAC and is based in Singapore.

Further information For more details on rice we can recommend the website of the International Rice Research

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Contact: stuart.harrison@syngenta.com

Institute at http://irri.org/

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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WIZZARD casts a winter spell over sugar beet TM

Sugar beet is a major global crop – 250 million tonnes are grown annually – and from which is extracted 30% of the world’s sugar. Research at Syngenta has found ways in which the plant can be modified so that it can be sown in autumn rather than spring and thereby greatly increase its yield. Known as WIZZARDTM, this has the potential to transform the sugar beet industry.

Sugar beet is a biennial plant. In nature it needs to experience a cold winter followed by long daylight hours, a process known as vernalization, before it will bolt and produce flowers. This is undesirable in the commercial crop because bolting draws on the sugar stored in the root, leading to yield losses, which is why sugar beet has to be sown in spring. In that way the crop remains vegetative, unless a late cold spell causes early bolting.

To date, drilling in autumn is not an option, because then the sugar beet crop would inevitably bolt and set seed in the early spring. Would it be possible to develop a sugar

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beet that could be sown in autumn as winter beet and which would not bolt? That was the challenge which faced Syngenta researchers in Sweden, and stepping up to the mark were Thomas Kraft, Elizabeth Wremerth Weich, Jan Gielen, and Pierre Pin. Controlling the ‘master switch’ Until recently, it was poorly understood at the all-important molecular level why beet is biennial and what genetic factors control its bolting. The Syngenta team have now found the reason, and they did this working in conjunction with Professor Ove Nilsson and his team at the Umeå Plant Science Centre.

This is Sweden’s renowned centre

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

of excellence in plant biology. Together they have discovered the ‘master switch’ that sugar beet uses to regulate bolting and flowering. The results were published in the leading journal, Science, last December, testifying to the quality of the research – and to the benefits of outside collaboration (see separate box).

In addition to transgenic applications, the research on flowering time has also delivered advances in marker-assisted selection which can replace expensive and time-consuming greenhouse and field tests. Allelic variation of the key genes can now be exploited, leading to more efficient in-house breeding.

WIZZARDTM brings necessary focus Within Syngenta, the R&D project goes under the name of WIZZARDTM, and its manager is Elisabeth Wremerth Weich.

Its key objective is to transform the sugar beet industry, especially in Europe, where it might one day become a major source of biofuel. WIZZARDTM was registered in 2004 and the same year collaboration began with Südzucker, the world’s largest producer of sugar from beet.

Pierre Pin is the Research Lead and he fully supports the way WIZZARDTM is working. “It brings together a truly global team in an integrated and complementary way, each contributing their strong expertise in the area of plant functional biology,” he says.

Native trait project leader Thomas Kraft sees their work having wider implications for marker-assisted breeding for flowering time control.

Thomas: “We have only scraped the surface so far.

For example, normally we check the extent to which commercial beet seeds have been contaminated with annual wild beet by sowing a seed sample in the open and counting the number of bolters. That takes time. Now that we know the genes that make the difference between the two, we can do this assessment much more easily and much earlier by means of markers.”

The magic from WIZZARDTM has only just begun.

The benefits of a winter beet crop will be to boost yields by 25%, but additional benefits are anticipated regarding the ecological balance, especially by way of better nitrogen and water efficiency.

By being able to plant early significant yield increases are possible

The science in the Science paper* This paper reports the research that has thrown new light on the way that the interplay between two paralogs of the FLOWERING LOCUS T (aka FT) genes controls the regulation of flowering time in Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris. The FT1 gene behaves as an inhibitor that prevents the plants from bolting and flowering prior to vernalization, while the FT2 gene promotes flowering in response to photoperiod and vernalization. The interaction of both FT genes is crucial for the vernalization response in beet. The findings suggest that beet has evolved a different strategy with regard to vernalization relative to plants like cereals and Brassica species including Arabidopsis, which is a model plant commonly used to study plant genetics and plant genomics.

These novel findings open a range of opportunities for flowering time control in sugar beet. Both genes are currently the subject of a Syngenta patent application which will be an outstanding addition to the company’s intellectual property portfolio.

Winter beet

Spring beet

Thomas Kraft

Jan Gielen

Genetics Projects

Program Leader for

Lead for sugar beet

Applied Genomics

Thomas got his PhD in genetics from the University

Jan graduated from the Agricultural University

of Lund in 1999, and then took up a position as

at Wageningen in the Netherlands, and joined

a data analyst at Syngenta in Landskrona,

Syngenta Seeds in 1987 to become project leader

* ‘An antagonistic pair of FT homologs

Sweden. From 2002 to 2010 he was head of the

for Transgene Biotechnology. In 1994 he moved

mediates the control of flowering time in sugar

sugar beet marker lab, and he is now Genetics

to France, to take the position of program leader

beet’, P.A. Pin, R. Benllock, D. Bonnet,

Projects Lead for sugar beet and is responsible

for Applied Genomics.

E. Wremerth Weich, T. Kraft, J.J.L. Gielen, and

for native trait research.

O. Nilsson, Science, vol.330, p. 1397, 2010.

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Contact: thomas.kraft@syngenta.com

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Contact: jan.gielen@syngenta.com

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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Designer genes of the future will be shaped by computers Simple methods of genetic engineering have had their successes in delivering herbicide tolerance and making plants insect resistant. However, more complex approaches are now needed if we are to tackle traits like drought resistance and crop yield. Syngenta’s team of scientists are combining their expertise in bioinformatics with trait and crop knowledge, aiming their combined skills at more challenging targets, as Laura Potter and Mike Nuccio explain.

The development of plants resistant to drought will allow farmers to grow more crops using less water

The first generation of plant genetic engineering was based on the simple concept of one gene defining one trait. This approach led Syngenta to the development of some successful corn varieties, namely the insect-resistant Bt-11 which was approved for use in Europe in 2004, the herbicidetolerant GA21 which was approved in 2006, and VipteraTM which provides resistance to lepidopteran corn pests, and which received approval in the US in 2010.

However, the ‘one gene, one trait’ approach has not proven as successful for other positive traits like water optimization, improved plant response to the environment, and increasing crop yields. While some success has been reported by Syngenta and others, it now appears that introducing such traits requires several genes. Indeed, we now

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know that traits such as flowering time involve the interactions of more than 50 genes. So-called quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis of many different complex traits bears this out.

Recognizing biological complexity The new generation of plant genetic engineering recognizes the biological complexity which underlies traits that we would like to improve. Many opportunities exist, and Syngenta Biotechnology Inc. (SBI) has three research groups – Bioinformatics, Omics, and Agronomic Traits – working to develop and integrate experimental and computational biology tools that will enable multi-gene traits to be engineered.

Mike: “Computational biology extends our ability to address complex trait development, and the technology is constantly improving. We have access

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

to faster, more powerful hardware, and there are new, more efficient, algorithms.

Data visualization tools are becoming more user friendly.”

The Syngenta team is now able to undertake trait dissection, which involves integrating and interrogating complex data sets for insights into the biological processes which underlie complex traits. It is now possible to develop new, and testable, hypotheses around trait components and even to predict individual or combinations of genes for manipulation in trait improvement projects, a particularly powerful capability.

Narrowing the number of solutions The cost of testing constructs in stable transgenic plants is quite high. This constrains the ability to test trait development ideas. Because the number of gene candidates can be

Maize Drought Network The maize drought network is an integrated set of interactions between genes and small molecules in the context of drought stress.

Drought-specific interactions were manually curated from the scientific literature on Arabidopsis thaliana and computationally translated to maize.

The complex science of genetic modelling New and powerful data generation technologies are now being developed and deployed, such as next generation sequencing, and high throughput gene and metabolite expression profiling.

Complex bioinformatics algorithms,

large, the use of computational biology techniques, particularly computer modelling, makes it possible to narrow the number of solutions down to a manageable few that can be tested.

Laura: “In many cases there is a large number of possible combinations of 2, 3 or 4 genes, and it is difficult to analyze how groups of genes might interact with each other to affect the phenotype.

Here’s where mathematical models of key biological pathways can help to predict gene combinations that might improve the trait phenotype.”

The powerful combination of advanced data generation and computational excellence now available to Syngenta researchers is enabling the company to probe such issues at levels previously thought impossible to understand.

mathematical models, and sophisticated software applications are being developed to manage and mine these data. Combined with advances in precision phenotyping, Syngenta scientists are in a good position to tackle complex traits.

Recent advances in these techniques will generate mountains of data,

leaving biologists with the enormous task of organizing and using those data effectively. It is unlikely that trait development will remain a simple genetics activity.

While in the past the focus was on the gene, now it is the pathway, the network, and even the genome which are centre stage – see illustration.

More than anything, trait development is a quest for knowledge.

There is a need to understand how plants interact with the environment and with each other and that’s proving to be a much more complex issue than previously thought.

Mike Nuccio

Laura Potter

Principal Research

Team Leader

Scientist, Agronomic

Pathways and

Traits group.

Networks team, Bioinformatics

Mike graduated in 1997 from Texas A&M University

Laura graduated in 2001 from North Carolina

in the USA. He then did post-doctoral work in plant

State University in the USA. She worked as a

metabolic engineering for three years before joining

mathematical modeller at GlaxoSmithKline before

Syngenta in 2000 as a research scientist supporting

joining Syngenta in 2008 as a senior computational

the pathway engineering group. Currently he is a

biologist. Currently she leads the Pathways and

Principal Research Scientist in the Agronomic

Networks team in the Bioinformatics group.

Traits group.

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Contact: mike.nuccio@syngenta.com

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Contact: laura.potter@syngenta.com

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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This picture clearly shows how the crop on the left hasn’t reached its full potential due to fungal disease whereas the treated crop on the right is much healthier.

Soybean alert number one

fungus attack!

More than 100 million tonnes of soybean are grown every year, but a few years ago the Brazilian crop was under threat from an insidious fungus disease which has since spread rapidly. Syngenta’s Priori Xtra® now provides an answer, as Fernando Gallina and Sergio Paiva explain.

Soya became an important crop in Brazil in the 1970s. It was relatively free of fungal diseases, at least until the turn of the century, and what little infection there was could be controlled by growers with one application of fungicide.

Then disaster struck in the form of a much more powerful invader.

The fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi (aka soya Asian rust, SAR) was first observed in Brazil in 2002, but it spread rapidly and when it reappeared a year later the soybean growers in Bahia state suffered very high losses caused by it. Within weeks it prompted a crisis for the soya business; growers were dealing with something they had never experienced before. Phakopsora is highly aggressive, it infects rapidly, it is difficult to control, and it is more destructive than any other disease which affects soya. Soon it was to be found all across Brazil.

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An effective fungicide was now essential and the Brazilian Government moved quickly and granted registration to five fungicides that were already used in Brazil for other diseases, and which were used to control rust in other crops around the world. Two of them were the Syngenta fungicides Priori® and Score®.

However, these were not ideal agents for SAR control, so Syngenta scientists had to come up with an alternative solution to the problem – and they did.

Taking a preventative approach One suggestion from the R&D people was to change the modus operandi for dealing with the disease. This was in contrast to the normal advice that was being given which was to apply fungicide only after rust was observed in the crop. That may have been more economical, but Syngenta suggested that this would not be the best way to deal with the disease and promoted

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

the idea of preventative treatment as being more effective.

Sergio: “While it seemed to some to be advice that was self-serving in terms of increased sales, it was in fact the right suggestion and proved to be one of the most successful ways to control the disease – and it is still being followed.”

What Syngenta R&D also observed was that soya is most vulnerable to attack by Phakopsora when the plant is changing from the vegetative growth state, when it produces new leaves, to the reproductive stage, when it forms soya grains. That is the time to apply a fungicide if it is to have maximum effect.

At the time SAR arrived in Brazil, Syngenta was in the process of developing a fungicide mixture based on the strobilurin azoxystrobin and

“This integrated approach, where we are developing a range of new soybean varieties and chemical solutions, gives us an advantage with our customers, the growers.” the triazole difenoconazole, and while this worked well against leaf spots, it was not the most effective against rusts.

As the SAR crisis deepened, the R&D people reformulated a new mixture and the result was Priori Xtra® which is a suspension of azoxystrobin and cyproconazole.

Providing early warning Meanwhile, the Syngenta Technical Support team developed a simple but effective method of fighting Phakopsora and this they launched as Syntinela. It consisted of planting small plots of soya 30 days in advance of the main crop.

These then alerted growers that a SAR attack was imminent. Syntinela was a huge success and soon there were more than 1,000 such plots around the country, and it received official approval when it was adopted by government research institutes.

Registration of a new chemical in Brazil takes up to three years. The government knew that SAR was an emergency, and offered a faster track for products that were proved to be effective against the disease. The Syngenta regulatory team put together all the Priori Xtra® information needed for a submission and registration was granted in a record time of four months. Growers soon

discovered that Priori Xtra® was the best fungicide with which to fight Phakopsora. Up to the launch of Priori Xtra®, marketing was based on the strategy of only selling Priori® and Score® if no SAR was present in an area.

Fernando: “This policy clearly limited sales and Syngenta lost market share but we gained credibility as a result.

Product recommendation for Priori Xtra® was to apply it preventatively and it quickly established itself as the market leader and reference agent for soya rust control. Sales are now over $300 million per year.”

Fernando Gallina Soybean R&D Business Partner

Fernando graduated in Agronomy from the University of Pelotas, in Brazil, in 1981.

He joined Syngenta in 1982 as a field agronomist.

Currently he is Soybean R&D Business Partner.

Contact: fernando.gallina@syngenta.com

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Syngenta is unique in being able to provide integrated offers for soybean and it is paying dividends regarding our customer relationships.

Sergio Paiva Product Biology Manager for Fungicides,

Fernando: “Our focus now is on the development of new varieties of soybean with an inbuilt genetic defense against Phakopsora, and a new generation of seed care and foliar fungicides which, when combined, will ensure improved control and yield and differentiate Syngenta, thereby strengthening our market leadership.”

Latin America

Sergio graduated in 1982 from the University of São Paulo. He then went to work on his MSc, before joining Syngenta in 1984 as a field agronomist. Currently he is Product Biology Manager for Fungicides, Latin America.

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Contact: sergio.paiva@syngenta.com

The devastating spread of rust The images below show how in a matter of weeks a soybean crop can be devastated by rust.

May 1

May 6

May 13

May 27

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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Soybean alert number two

aphid attack!

Syngenta can celebrate an industry first: an integrated approach to controlling soybean aphids which blight this key crop. The secret weapon for season long control is a combination of an aphid-resistant native trait, a systemic insecticide and the maintenance of beneficial insect populations.

Aphids can multiply rapidly; a thousand aphids can become a million after only one month. If left untreated, soybean aphids can overtake soybean plants, spread viruses and reduce yields by 50 percent or more.

The challenge that faced the Syngenta team, headed by Virgil Sparks, was to find a way to clad all soybean plants in anti-aphid armor. To help him he recruited an army of specialists including Soybean Seeds Breeder Keith Bilyeu, Seed Care scientists Cliff Watrin and

Steve Sanborn, Seeds Entomologist Mitch Meehan, and Seeds Trait Project Leader, Ju-Kyung Yu. The first indication that the war might be won came when the University of Illinois announced that scientists there had found native trait resistance in three cultivars from the USDA germplasm collection. Thousands of cultivars in the collection had been screened and the first known resistance to aphids was discovered in cultivars Dowling, Jackson, and PI71506. Seeds of these cultivars were ordered and sent to

Syngenta’s winter nursery in Oahu, Hawaii, where they were planted in December of 2003. The following February, the first cross was made with elite conventional proprietary soybean varieties.

Screening successes Because the aphid resistance was contained in unadapted germplasm, it was necessary to do a number of backcrosses to high yielding parents.

Working with the university, a screening method was developed to aid in breeding the trait into elite varieties.

Aphids are being targeted in an integrated way to allow soybean crops to reach their full potential

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Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

Now Syngenta has an integrated approach called the Aphid Management System (aka AMS™) to fight these pests while at the same time reducing the likelihood of a biotype counterattack.

Later, molecular markers were used to confirm the presence of the gene for aphid resistance (Rag1), and these would eventually prove to be the preferred breeding tool.

AMSTM in brief Syngenta is the first to market the industry’s first fully-integrated Aphid Management System™ (AMS™) to help soybean growers safely and effectively control yield-robbing aphid infestations.

AMS is an environmental stewardship approach using multiple modes of action. The system combines: • Soybean genetics and aphid resistant trait

• CruiserMaxx® Beans insecticide/ fungicide seed treatment • Beneficial insect activity

In 2006, testing began at several North American sites, including Arva, Ontario, where aphids had been a constant threat since 2002. Two important discoveries were made at that site.

The first of which was that test varieties with Rag1 showed excellent resistance to the soybean aphids in the area.

The second, and more surprising, was that border rows of soybeans around the aphid nursery showed little damage from aphids, even though that variety was susceptible. In fact the border rows had been treated with CruiserMaxx®, Syngenta’s insecticide/fungicide seed treatment.

Beneficials help boost defences Clearly a systemic insecticide might offer some help as a second mode of action and its use with host plant resistance could provide season-long control. Because pests may develop resistant biotypes, there needs to be multiple modes of control. New genes and a combination of insecticide, crop rotation, and/or seed treatment would be needed to keep up the fight. It was later observed that the combination of host plant resistance and CruiserMaxx® allowed insects that prey on aphids to increase their numbers and join in the battle as a third mode of control.

The exact method of aphid host plant resistance is not well understood, but it is likely to be antibiosis, in which the host plant interferes with the feeding or reproduction of the pest insect, or antixenosis, in which the host plant is not the preferred host. Whichever it is, we are now working with multiple modes of gene action to help us win the war against aphids.

• An insecticide treatment if population exceeds economic threshold levels By utilizing multiple modes of action and integrated pest management practices, AMS™ is designed to maximize soybean yield and performance and provide seasonlong aphid control. The combination of multiple technologies reduces the risk of resistance development and increases plant vigor while protecting against seedling diseases and insects.

The AMS™ assurance program provides growers with additional peace of mind and demonstrates that Syngenta stands behind its fully integrated system.

Virgil Sparks Head of Corn and Soybean Product Evaluation in North America

Virgil graduated in 1979 from Southeast Missouri State University after which he worked for the University of Missouri. In 1990 he was employed by the Garst® Seed Company, and then joined Syngenta in 2004 as Regional Head of Soybean Product Development. Currently he is Head of Corn and Soybean Product Evaluation in North America.

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Contact: virgil.sparks@syngenta.com

The differences between susceptible (left) and resistant (right) are clear to see with the aphids avoiding the resistant crop

The science behind the new defences being built against aphids The Native Trait project leader is Ju-Kyung, and it is her role to integrate the Rag1 gene into Syngenta’s germplasm and select breeding lines of Rag1 using MAS (Marker Assisted Selection). MAS is an indirect selection process using molecular markers with a linked allele associated with the gene and/or the locus of interest.

In 2006, a marker assisted selection program had been initiated with simple sequences repeats (SSR); markers which flank the Rag1 gene and were about 12 cM away from it (1cM is equal to a 1% chance that a marker at one genetic locus will be separated from a marker at a second locus due to crossing-over in a single generation). Today we have developed, highly accurate, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, which flank the Rag1 gene (approximately 1cM away).

Ju-Kyung: “The Native Traits project is now focused on integrating four new resistant genes into our germplasm using newly developed SNP markers. We are exploring various gene combinations to determine the efficacy of each combination.

We have found that some of the gene stacks show stronger resistance to aphids than the current Rag1 gene and likely provide separate modes of action in the control of soybean aphid. Native Traits is now testing the aphidresistance of stacked gene varieties treated with Syngenta’s seed treatment, CruiserMaxx®, to develop the next generation of products for the Aphid Management System.”

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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Syngenta breeders are combining innovation, art and science to breed better flowers

Innovation, art and science give customers a better flower experience Balancing art and science is leading to innovation in the development of new flower varieties according to Sabine Lorente and Dick van Kleinwee.

For years, breeders have developed innovative new varieties in ornamental crops by selecting plants with desirable traits and making crosses to develop new and interesting flower breeds.

Traditional flower breeding can result in practical benefits such as grower friendly habits or earlier and more continuous flowering.

Aesthetic benefits such as more vibrant colors or bigger flowers can also be the result of this balance between art and science.

All of these benefits move our consumers toward having a great flower experience.

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Combining art and science In Syngenta Lawn & Garden, we ask if the art of flower breeding can come together with today’s science to give our customers an even better experience.

Are there technological advancements available to allow Syngenta breeders the ability to offer high quality and predictable plants that are both beautiful and resilient that can fundamentally change the market and the way consumers interact with flowers? Our breeders certainly think so.

Sabine Lorente, Technology Flowers Scientist in Enkhuizen, Netherlands works every day to find the answers to these questions. In the past, crops were improved by simply selecting the best

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

plants within their natural population.

However, by making specific crosses and continuing to select with ornamental value in mind, the resulting varieties can change a market. A good example of this would be Syngenta’s own Pelargonium (or geranium to the nonhorticulturist).

“Today’s geraniums look so much more different from their ancestors with brighter colors and bigger flowers,” remarks Dick van Kleinwee, breeder for Syngenta flowers.

You would expect that, in today’s world, genetic modification would be the most valuable toolhas to increase variation The orang-utan become a symbol of in ornamentalin crops.

However, to date, conservation the forests of Indonesia

“It is a great example of how cultivated flower breeding can change a market and give consumers a better plant experience.” most ornamental breeding programs are still using “old” ways to create variation.

Technology is mostly used to increase efficiency by applying physical or chemical treatments to plants, or in-vitro tissue culture, to produce a higher frequency of mutations and polyploidization. However, there is one technological advancement that Syngenta is using to deliver unique and valuable products to our customers, interspecific breeding.

What is interspecific breeding?

Interspecific hybrids are bred by mating two species, normally from within the same genus. The offspring display traits and characteristics of both parent species. However, this is easier said than done. Breeders and scientists

meet huge challenges on their way to the creation of a successful new interspecific variety, such as embryo abortion and male sterility.

The challenges with interspecific breeding are clear, but to develop a resulting species that is resistant to a devastating disease or has other desirable qualities, is clearly worth the effort. The introduction of CalliopeTM Pelargoniums a few years ago is a stellar example of this marriage between science and art. This heat resistant Pelargonium with unique big red flowers has become our number one selling Pelargonium variety and signifies that we are well on our way to delivering that unsurpassed flower experience to our customers worldwide.

Calliope™ is our number one selling Pelargonium. Bred to provide color all summer long, it is drought-tolerant and is a great example of innovation in flowers

Our new Lanai® Twister Pink verbena clearly shows that innovation, art and science can combine to provide a truly spectacular result

The Interspecific Toolbox for breeders and scientists Combining different species of flowers to create new varieties is difficult. This difficulty stems from the fact that nature would rather prevent movement of genes from one species to the other. Below outlines some of the common challenges associated with interspecific breeding and how our breeders and scientists overcome these challenges to provide Syngenta with flowers that will help shape the market for years to come.

Pre-fertilization barriers mean that pollen may not germinate on the stigma or may not reach the ovules.

This can be overcome by the breeder by having a specific cutting style, using irradiated pollen or using a reciprocal cross, or making a cross, with the phenotype of each sex reversed, compared with the original cross, to test the role of parental sex on inheritance pattern.

Sabine Lorente

Dick van Kleinwee

Plant Breeding

Senior Breeder

Scientist, Technology Processes Department, Enkhuizen

Sabine graduated in plant sciences and

Dick studied plant breeding at the University of

ornamentals at the INH (Institut National

Wageningen in the Netherlands and then went on

d’Horticulture) in Angers, France, in 2009, after

to become a lily breeder before joining Syngenta

doing her thesis within Syngenta. She was then

in 2003 as a senior breeder. He has worked on

hired by the company and is now a plant

various bedding plant crops over the years.

breeding scientist at the Technology Processes

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Another barrier is sterility. Polyploidisation techniques (doubling of chromosome number) in the lab may lead to restoration of fertility which is advantageous to the breeders.

Further information

Department in Enkhuizen.

Contact: sabine.lorente@syngenta.com

Post fertilization barriers mean that the fertilization has taken place but the embryo is aborted by the plant.

Growing the embryo on specific artificial media in the lab may rescue this embryo and allow the breeding to continue.

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For an explanation of polyploidy visit Contact: dickvan.kleinwee@ syngenta.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyploidy

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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Syngenta has Plene to talk about

TM

Brazil is the world’s largest producer of sugar and the second largest producer of the sustainable biofuel ethanol. Sugar cane is the source and now the introduction of Syngenta’s PleneTM technology is transforming this crop, as Ian Jepson explains.

When Shell Oil plans to invest $12 billion in a joint Brazilian venture to produce ethanol from sugar cane, then clearly they see this as one of the major transport fuels of the future. In fact is it the cheapest source of biofuel, costing around 50 cents per liter to produce. The crop from which it comes can be made to yield as much as 260 tonnes per hectare, although the current average is around 80 t/ha.

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Growing importance of sugar cane Historically, sugar cane was not a high priority crop for Syngenta. However, its growing importance in the world’s economy led to its being reviewed in 2008 and a number of unmet needs were identified. Two key ones were the relatively primitive planting methods and the increased impact of pests due to the phasing out of the crop-burning stage. Other issues to be targeted were the stress caused by drought, and the need to raise sugar and ethanol yields.

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

Brazil was clearly the country to concentrate on – see box – and one pressing need was a more efficient planting system. To this end, in 2008 Syngenta announced its intention to develop PleneTM technology.

Conventional planting of sugar cane is either done manually, costing overall about $2,600 per hectare, or mechanically, costing about $2,800 per hectare. The former method is labor intensive, the latter method causes

Sugar cane is now a strategic crop for Syngenta, and the company has applied integrated technology solutions to meet the various challenges.

Brazil is big when it comes to sugar and ethanol Brazil is the world’s largest producer of sugar cane, harvesting 590 million tonnes annually, more than a third of global production.

Brazil produces 38 million tonnes of sugar per year with around 26 million tonnes being exported.

Brazil has 8.5 million hectares (21 million acres) of land growing sugar cane, and expected to reach 13.5 million by 2020. None of this will impinge on the Amazon rainforest.

Specially developed planting equipment is helping to establish a good sugar cane crop

PleneTM results in stronger crops from the roots upwards

soil compaction because of the heavy equipment used. PleneTM is very different. It involves the mechanical planting of single bud setts using much lighter equipment reducing soil damage.

mechanical equipment is employed, and there are fewer operations involved.

The setts are treated with Syngenta products to protect them against termites, nematodes and fungal pathogens. PleneTM offers growers the elimination of nurseries, and a reduction in the amount of planting material needed (only 2 tonnes per hectare) which is also healthy stock and genetically pure. More efficient Serendipity science What caused Syngenta to became a major force in sugar cane started out as an entirely different project.

In 2007 the company began to study the effect of the insecticide thiamethoxam on various crops, one of which was sugar cane.

As part of the test, the sugar cane was cut into small pieces each containing one bud sett. What the researchers hadn’t expected to see was just how vigorous and strong rooting these proved to be. This became the focus of an investigation and resulted in a completely new approach to planting this major crop. More than 200 test fields were involved and from this there followed a process of fine tuning of the active ingredients, packaging, storage, and transportation.

The planting equipment has been developed in partnership with John Deere. Thanks to PleneTM, the expansion in sugar cane is more sustainable and not limited by the lack of labor in some regions.

The demand for ethanol is driving the expansion, and 10 new sugar/ ethanol mills were built in 2010.

Brazil produces around 27 billion liters of bio-ethanol a year – and exports 2 billion liters. (One hectare of sugar cane can produce 4,000 liters of ethanol, enough to run the average family car for two years).

PleneTM was launched in April this year and sales are expected to contribute significantly to the growth of Syngenta business in Latin America over the next five years.

To complement the PleneTM planting technology, Syngenta is enhancing the crop protection portfolio to address the rise in biotic pressures which are increasing in Brazil due to the phasing out of pre-harvest burning. Recent product launches include the insecticide EngeoTM Pleno targeting a broad spectrum of insect pests and the fungicide Priori Xtra® (to protect against orange rust, which is a relatively new pathogen in Brazil).

To meet the needs not addressed by crop protection chemistry, Syngenta also began a Seeds (biotechnology and breeding/markers) program in 2009.

So far there has been excellent technical progress with a number of traits performing well in field trials. This work has been assisted by external partnerships which allow access to enabling technologies as well as to traits of commercial interest including sugar and second generation biofuels technology.

John Deere is a trademark of Deere & Company.

an Jepson Sugar Cane R&D Business Partner Syngenta Biotechnology Inc. North Carolina USA

Ian graduated with a BSc in biology from the University of Durham and has a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Birmingham. He joined ICI Seeds at Jealott’s Hill in 1989, and has held a number of management positions in Seeds and Crop Protection: Bioscience Manager; Head of Trait Research; Biotechnology Traits Portfolio Leader; and Head of Enzymes R&D. Currently he is Sugar Cane R&D Business Partner for both Crop Protection and Seeds and is based at Syngenta Biotechnology Inc., North Carolina, USA.

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Contact: ian.jepson@syngenta.com

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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Winning ways with wheat Seed choice is one of the most important decisions a cereal grower makes – it is the key both to higher yields and better quality grain. However, wheat breeding is still largely traditional and productivity is variable. Derek Cornes explains how Syngenta is planning to change things.

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Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

Wheat is the most widely grown crop covering an area of 225 million hectares worldwide. 70% of the crop goes into foods like bread and pasta making it the world’s second most important food crop after rice.

breeders derives from royalties, so it is difficult to generate income for R&D. Witness to this is the cereals seeds royalties market of $300 million compared to the crop protection market of $6.8 billion.

three wild grass species, making its genetics very complicated. Moreover it is normally self-pollinated and as its pollen is relatively heavy it does not travel very far, making outcrossing difficult.

Wheat productivity is variable with some countries producing an average of only 2 t/ha while others produce 8 t/ha. The highest ever recorded yield for wheat at 15.6 tonnes per hectare (t/ha), produced in 2010 by a New Zealand farmer, is five times the global average! The differences in productivity are partly due to unavoidable factors such as soil type, climate, moisture, and the length of the growing season.

However, poor farming practices and lack of investment in technology are also reasons for low yields and this is where Syngenta can play a key role.

The company is unique in having both a cereals seed business and a crop protection business, being number one in cereal seeds and number two in cereal agrochemicals. This allows us to design integrated solutions spanning the entire growing cycle from seed to harvest.

Derek: “Growers tend to be passionate about seed choice and having leading varieties can be the way to capture their interest.”

Derek remains positive that success will come: “Our experience in producing barley hybrids convinces us that commercially viable wheat hybrids are also possible. It may take 8 to 10 years to reach the goal but we are currently leading the race.”

To keep pace with population growth, wheat yields need to increase annually by 2.1%. Currently yields are increasing, but the rate has slowed over the past 10 years to around 1%, and lags behind crops such as corn, where yields are increasing by 2% or more. The reason wheat lags behind is mainly due to a lack of investment in breeding.

Wheat remains a traditional crop with farmers saving seeds from one year to sow the next. Consequently the seed market is weak. Moreover there are no wheat hybrids or GM (genetically modified) traits, and the income for

“By understanding their needs, Syngenta will combine the best varieties with our crop protection products so that we can ensure growers get a rewarding return on their investment. Syngenta is already using state-of-the-art technology to ensure our leadership in breeding over the short to mid-term. However, the future of wheat will be hybrids, which bring higher yields and guarantee uniformity. They also provide an income for breeders, because seed must be purchased every year.” The company has had success with one cereal crop: barley. It recently introduced the only commercially available barley hybrid into Europe. It outperforms all conventional varieties and growers appear willing to make the switch. Producing wheat hybrids is more difficult. Wheat is a hexaploid species (i.e. it has three sets of paired chromosomes per cell) and it resulted from the hybridization of

Other research is directed towards traits such as better use of water, better use of nutrients, disease resistance, herbicide tolerance, and grain quality All of these are ways in which wheat can be improved. However, because so many people are suspicious of GM cereals, the focus in the short to mid-term has to be on introducing native traits. Syngenta researchers are using the best technology available, such as marker-assisted breeding and doubled haploids, to track the desired traits in our breeding programs.

Developing countries are a growth area for cereals and Syngenta has entered into a strategic partnership with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT or Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo) to extend its reach into such countries and to access diverse germplasm collections.

Through its network, CIMMYT can demonstrate to smallholders the benefits of integrated systems and thereby improve production. CIMMYT’s mission is to lift farmers out of subsistence agriculture and there is every likelihood those farmers will one day become customers.

Derek Cornes R&D Crop Lead for Cereals Crop

Derek: “Cereal growing is on the cusp of a dramatic change, particularly in the seeds area. This is where Syngenta’s unique understanding of cereal seeds, chemicals, and integrated solutions gives the company an edge and one we are determined to maintain.”

Protection

Derek graduated in Applied Biology from the University of Bath in the UK. He joined the company in 1984 as a trials officer working at Whittlesford and moved from there to Basel into global development in 1993. He has recently become R&D Crop Lead for Cereals Crop Protection.

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Contact: derek.cornes@syngenta.com

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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Making melons resistant to Fusarium fungus Melons are grown around the world and come in many different types and sizes, but in many countries they are threatened by a soil-borne disease which causes the plants to wilt. Syngenta has developed a resistant strain and this year it looks set to conquer a large section of the market. Bruno Foncelle explains.

There are melons to suit every taste and climate. The popular varieties are: • Charentais in France, • Piel de Sapo in Spain, • Hami and honeydew in China, • Italo-american melon in Italy and the USA, • Western Shipper also in the USA, • Yellow and Galia in Brazil and around the Mediterranean.

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Melon is one of the world’s most widely cultivated fruits. The native species, Cucumis melo originated in Asia, but today it is grown around the world and as a result of selective breeding down the centuries it exhibits considerable diversity in terms of size, color and taste – see box left.

A limiting factor to melon production worldwide is vascular wilt, caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. melonis (Fom). This affects growers particularly in France, Italy, Japan, and China. The fungus develops during a cold spring and plants that are invaded display a characteristic wilt. Once it has entered the plant’s vascular system,

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

it rapidly colonizes the host, resulting in underdeveloped fruits with low sugar content.

Fom is difficult to control because the fungus can survive for extended periods in the soil as thick-walled spores and it remains active even in the absence of the host roots. Although long crop rotations are used, it can still colonise the roots of other plants without causing symptoms. At one time the soil fumigant methyl bromide was used to defeat it, but this has now been phased out and no other chemical treatment is currently available for growers to use.

Long rotation periods (up to 5-10 years) are orang-utan leading growers to arent new The has become symbol of fields far away from packing facilities conservation in thetheir forests of Indonesia

Like all crops, melons are threatened by diseases, insects, and drought. The major challenge for the melon breeding community is to develop cultivars able to cope with such stresses. and warehouses, a situation that imposes extra costs and limits profitability.

One method of controlling the disease is grafting on interspecific hybrids C. maxima X C. moshata which are resistant to Fom and, while this can enhance productivity, it can have a negative effect on melon taste. This method is also expensive and used mostly under plastic, whereas open fields are the main growing areas for melon. Public institutes and seed companies have worked extensively on genetic resistance to this disease – see box right.

Syngenta’s Charentais and Italoamerican melon breeding program is based in Sarrians near Avignon in Southeast France. Bruno has been greatly assisted in the research by two colleagues, Marc Oliver, who is Genetic Project Lead, and Stéphane Le Caro, who is area Product Manager for Charentais melon.

Bruno: “We scouted the period 1996– 2000 where we found hundreds of Far East attempts to find alternative

sources of resistance to Fusarium.

We also collected entries from germplasm banks and we did artificial fusarium tests in phytotron (sealed greenhouse) conditions.”

As a result of their research they selected two interesting entries and started introgressing the resistance into Charentais and Italo-american elite lines in 2000. They focussed mainly on one source of resistance which was not linked to fruit shape problems.

Nevertheless, it was tightly linked to green flesh color and so they had to break that linkage because their target was to introgress the resistance in orange flesh types.

In 2006 hybrid prototypes with this new resistance were validated in the field under natural infection conditions, and in 2008 a patent was filed. In 2009, sales and marketing teams developed a new brand, QualifuzTM, to emphasize Syngenta melon’s unique combination of Fusarium resistance and fruit quality.

In 2011, sales of their Godiva and Pendragon melons are expected to account for 25% of turnover.

The science behind the fight against Fusarium Based on the host resistance genes associated with Fom infection, four physiological races have been identified and designated as 0,1,2, and 1.2.

Two dominant resistance genes, Fom-1 and Fom-2, control resistance to races 0 and 2 and 0 and 1 respectively. Fom isolates classified as race 1.2 are able to induce disease in melon lines or hybrids carrying the described resistance genes.

Many sources of resistance to Fom races 0, 1, and 2 have been reported. However, partial resistance to race 1.2 controlled by polygenic recessive was only detected in a few Far Eastern accessions which are externally and organoleptically (i.e. taste and smell) far from the melons accepted by Western markets.

These accessions allowed breeding of partially resistant lines to Fom race 1.2 such as Isabelle, which was developed by INRA (Institut National de Recherche Agronomique) during the 1970s.

Breeding companies have been developing varieties using this source of resistance to Fom race 1.2. but these resistance factors are tightly linked to fruit misshaping characteristics. Such varieties were showing intermediate resistance in the field but had a reduced marketable yield and only slow genetic progress was made.

From field to fork, Syngenta is protecting melons from Fusarium Bruno Foncelle Melon Breeding Project Lead

Bruno graduated with a degree in horticulture engineering in 1985 from INH (Institut National d’Horticulture) in Angers, France. He then worked on the Ivory Coast on banana tissue culture before

Bruno: “A recombinant inbred line population was developed and used for the molecular characterization of Fom race 1.2 resistance of our new source.

Phenotypic and genotypic data enabled us to identify three major resistance factors located on chromosomes 3, 9 and 10. The effect of these was validated, and diagnostic marker assays were developed and used in marker assisted breeding.”

Success followed.

joining Syngenta in 1989. He moved to melon breeding in 1993. Currently he is the Melon Breeding Project Lead.

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Contact: bruno.foncelle@syngenta.com

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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Syngenta turns its big guns on a deadly menace The Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and its aim is to help find new tools to kill insects that transmit human diseases such as malaria. Syngenta has been a leading collaborating partner since 2006 and is extending the partnership by searching for new insecticides to kill the cause of the disease: Mosquitoes. Phil Wege is leading the fight.

Around three billion people in the world are at risk of malaria, and there are more than 240 million cases a year of this disease, resulting in almost a million deaths, mainly of children under five and mainly in Africa. When it comes to killing the mosquitoes that spread the disease, there are few with the firepower that Syngenta can bring to bear.

Syngenta is already committed to fighting malaria as reported in Science Matters number 3 (2008). The company developed the Icon速 Maxx treatment for mosquito nets which remains active even after 20 washings, and a range of other key products which are used to fight disease causing insects around the globe. Now the search is on for a new insecticide which can be deployed

Mosquitoes kill nearly a million people each year by spreading malaria

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Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

as a new tool to fight mosquitoes that transmit disease.

The IVCC and Syngenta have already successfully partnered to create a new formulation, Actellic速 300CS, which is due for launch in 2011 to control malarial mosquitoes resistant to the most commonly used insecticides.

Additionally, brand new classes of

insecticides are needed to sustain long term control of mosquitoes and successful public health programs.

Over the years, chemists within Syngenta and its legacy companies created thousands of active chemical compounds, some with insecticide potential. Only a tiny fraction made it to the market place, while the rest of these biologically-active compounds languish in Syngenta’s chemical archives. Amongst this collection of more than one million compounds, there might be one or two which can do the job.

Searching Syngenta for the solution The IVCC has funded Syngenta to search its collections to see if any specifically worked against mosquitoes.

The aim was to find one with a novel mode of action to overcome resistance, which in mosquitoes has developed towards the insecticides currently in use. The first step, however, was the successful negotiation of a collaborative agreement between Syngenta and IVCC, which would safeguard Syngenta’s commercial and intellectual property rights. Then under the guidance of Phil Wege, who is based at Jealott’s Hill, one of the most comprehensive reviews of its insecticidal compounds was conducted.

The project has taken several routes: looking at current insecticide projects; trawling back through old books and reports; speaking to leading scientists; searching the databases of legacy companies; and computer modelling.

Meanwhile, scientists in Stein developed a unique high throughput screening setup which can determine the level of activity of more than 450 compounds a week against adult mosquitoes. Of the 16,000 compounds screened so

far, many hundreds of potent insecticidal compounds have been found among the collection which clearly show the potential to match the effectiveness of those currently used.

What are the requirements of a new mosquito insecticide?

1. It controls mosquitoes which are resistant to current insecticides.

2. It kills mosquitoes quickly and at low doses.

3. It meets human and environmental safety requirements.

4. It is cost effective to produce and it is patentable.

This last requirement might strike some people as surprising. However, the cost of developing a new product could be up to $180 million, and there is little commercial incentive to designing a specific mosquito insecticide from scratch – which is exactly why the IVCC’s product development partnership approach is so important.

The new active ingredient project aims to find an effective new insecticide that is deadly to mosquitoes, including the resistant strains which have developed in malarial areas. While that means a long and thorough program of research, to begin with the objective is to optimise the activity of the leading compounds uncovered so far – and this will be the goal of the next phase of the project.

Syngenta and IVCC are committed to finding an answer to the misery that the malaria-bearing mosquito inflicts on the human population in tropical parts of the world. Under Phil’s guidance there is every hope that this will be achieved.

Who are IVCC? The Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) is a Product Development Partnership (PDP) established as a not for profit company and registered charity to overcome the barriers to innovation in the development of new insecticides for public health vector control and to develop information systems and tools which will enable new and existing pesticides to be used more effectively.

The IVCC was established in November 2005 with a $50.7m investment from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

The Mission of the IVCC is to reduce transmission of insect borne pathogens through improved insect vector control with innovative products. Specifically they facilitate the development of improved public health pesticides and formulations, provide information tools to enable the more effective use of existing and new control measures, and work with the disease endemic country stakeholders and industry to establish target product profiles for new paradigms in vector control.

Further information Find out more about the IVCC at www.ivcc.com

Phil Wege Head of Biology Support Jealott’s Hill International

Phil: “Our expectation is that we’ll find useful compounds beyond those active on mosquitoes, and it is our hope that these will find utility against insect pests of agriculture, floriculture, and in the urban and household environments”.

Research Center

Phil graduated from Bradford University with a degree in applied biology, and University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne with a further degree in applied entomology. He worked for the Centre for Overseas Pest Research in London and then for Syngenta legacy companies since 1985 in various roles in insecticide research and development until moving to his present role of Head of Biology Support in 2005.

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Contact: philip.wege@syngenta.com

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The challenges facing the world’s agriculture are well known, we have to grow more with less. This includes less water and less land, increasing population and urbanization, whilst adapting to climate change and reducing the impact of agriculture on global warming.

These are huge challenges. A wide-ranging team of experts (including Syngenta) got together in 2010 to scope out the top 100 questions we have to address to feed the world’s population in a sustainable and equitable way in the future. In this ‘External Perspective’ Professor Jules Pretty from the University of Essex, one of the authors of the resulting paper, highlights some of these questions for us all to think about providing solutions for. More details can be found in the full paper referenced at the end of the article.

The Top 100 questions of importance to the future of global agriculture Jules Pretty, University of Essex All scientists and policy makers now agree that world food production will have to increase substantially this century. No one is quite sure by how much, as population is still growing and consumption patterns still converging on the unsustainable levels typical in industrialised countries.

But there are very different views about how this increase of 70-100% should best be achieved. Some still say agriculture will have to expand into new lands. Others say food production growth must come through redoubled efforts to repeat the approaches of the Green Revolution, or that agricultural systems should become organic. Traditionally, agricultural intensification has occurred in three ways: increasing yields per hectare, increasing cropping intensity (i.e. two or more crops) per unit of land, and changing land-use from low-value crops or commodities to those that receive higher market prices.

It is also now understood that agriculture can negatively affect the environment through overuse of natural resources as inputs or through their use as a sink for pollution. What has also become clear in recent years is that the success of some modern agricultural systems has masked significant negative external issues, with

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environmental and health problems documented and recently costed for many countries. These environmental costs suggest that alternatives which reduce negative external impact should be sought.

There is now growing acceptance that “sustainable intensification” is the way forward - producing more food from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts and at the same time increasing positive contributions to the environment (Royal Society, 2009; Foresight, 2011). In short – more food from the same land but with no negative environmental impacts.

But how can this be achieved, and what are the priorities?

Over the past year, the University of Essex on behalf of the Foresight project led a multi-disciplinary team of 55 agricultural and food experts from the world’s major agricultural organisations, professional scientific societies and academic institutions to identify the top 100 questions for global agriculture and food. The team was drawn from 23 countries and work in universities, UN agencies, international research institutes, NGOs, private companies, foundations and regional research secretariats. An initial list of 618 key questions was drawn up and then whittled down by the team to the final top 100. The findings were published in the International Journal

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

of Agricultural Sustainability, in November 2010 (Pretty et al, 2010).

The 100 questions covered a wide range of themes: 1) Climate, watersheds, water

resources and aquatic ecosystems; 2) Soil nutrition, erosion and use

of fertiliser; 3) Biodiversity, ecosystem services

and conservation; 4) Energy, climate change

and resilience; 5) Crop production systems

and technologies; 6) Crop genetic improvement; 7) Pest and disease management; 8) Livestock; 9) Social capital, gender and extension; 10) Development and livelihoods; 11) Governance, economic investment,

power and policy making; 12) Food supply chains; 13) Prices, markets and trade; 14) Consumption patterns and health.

The agricultural sector is now at the heart of an unprecedented combination of threats, and evidence-based policy will be essential. These 100 questions will help in setting these priorities.

Improved dialogue and information flow between policy makers and scientists is vital if agriculture is to overcome the challenges of dealing with population growth, dietary shifts, energy insecurity and climate change.

The full paper is available free to access at www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=503. It is available open access so that readers and researchers across the world can download the paper.

Examples of some of the top questions

Full link: www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ earthscan/ijas/2010/00000008/00000004/art00001

Editorial comment from Stuart John Dunbar: The top 100 questions listed in the paper, some of which are illustrated in this panel, are important for all of us in agricultural research and indeed society in general. There are no easy answers, no quick-fixes. However, as we begin to address the challenges associated with food security, we will need to use our science to influence policy makers to ensure we address the challenges laid down in these top 100 questions. Syngenta is well placed to engage in this with our integrated crop strategy and will be a key player in answering the challenge.

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References Foresight. 2011. The Future of Food and Farming. Government Office of Science, DBIS, London Pretty J, Sutherland W J, Ashby J, Auburn J, Baulcombe D, Bell M, Bentley J, Bickersteth S, Brown K, Jacob Burke, Campbell H, Chen K, Crowley E, Crute I, Dobbelaere D, EdwardsJones G, Funes-Monzote F, H. Godfray C J, Griffon M, Gypmantisiri P, Haddad L, Halavatau S, Herren H, Holderness M, Izac A-M, Jones M, Koohafkan P, Lal R, Lang T, McNeely J, Mueller A, Nisbett N, Noble A, Pingali P, Pinto Y, Rabbinge R, Ravindranath N H , Rola A, Roling N, Sage C, Settle W, Sha J M, Luo Shiming, Simons T, Smith P, Strzepeck K, Swaine H, Terry E, Tomich T P, Toulmin C, Trigo E, Twomlow S, Vis J K, Wilson J and Pilgrim S. 2010. The top 100 questions of importance to the future of global agriculture. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 8(4), 219–2361 Royal Society. 2009. Reaping the Benefits.

London

Q2: What would be the global cost of capping agricultural water withdrawals if environmental reserves were to be maintained?

Q14: What are the world’s stocks and reserves of phosphate, and are they sufficient to support food production globally for the next century?

Q17: What are the environmental consequences of drought-resistant crops in different locations?

Q24: What will be the risk of mass migration arising from adverse climate change, and how will this impact on agricultural systems?

Professor Jules Pretty OBE Vice-Chancellor University of Essex

Jules Pretty is Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Essex, and Professor of Environment and Society. His 18 books include This Luminous Coast (2011), Nature and Culture (2010), The Earth Only Endures (2007), and Agri-Culture (2002). He is a Fellow of the Society of Biology and the Royal Society of Arts, former Deputy-Chair of the government’s Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, and has served on advisory committees for a number of government departments. He was a member of the Royal Society working group that published Reaping the Benefits (2009) and was a member of the UK government Foresight project on Global Food and Farming Futures (2011). He received an OBE in 2006 for services to sustainable agriculture, and an honorary degree from Ohio State University in 2009.

Q34: What are the benefits and risks of embracing the different types of agricultural biotechnology (environmental impacts; sensitivity/resistance to environmental stressors such as heat, drought, salinity; dependence on/independence from inputs; risks of accelerated resistance; food safety, human health and nutrition; economic, social and cultural impacts)?

Q35: What are the advantages and disadvantages of organic production systems in terms of biodiversity, ecosystem services, yield and human health, particularly in resource-poor developing countries?

Q36: What practical measures are needed to lower the ideological barriers between organic and GM, and thus fully exploit the combined potential of both GM crops and organic modes of production in order to achieve sustainable intensification of food production?

Q45: What is the efficiency of different ways to genetically-improve the nutrient-use efficiency of crops and simultaneously increase yield?

Q51: How can intensive livestock systems be designed to minimise the spread of infectious diseases amongst animals and the risk of the emergence of new diseases infecting humans?

Q55: What are most effective policies and interventions to reduce the demand for animal products in societies with high consumption levels and how will they affect global trade in livestock products?

Q60: How much can agricultural education, extension, farmer mobilisation and empowerment be improved by the new opportunities afforded by mobile phone and web-based technologies?

Q64: What is the impact of agricultural subsidies in OECD countries on the welfare of farmers in developing countries?

Q72: Who will be farming in 2050, and what will be their land relationships (farm ownership, rental or management)?

Q73: What will be the consequences to low-income countries of the increased political roles of countries with growing economic and purchasing power (e.g. Brazil, China, India, Indonesia)?

Q78: What steps need to be taken to encourage young people to study agricultural science?

Q80: Where is food waste greatest in food chains in industrialized and developing countries and what measures can be taken significantly to reduce these levels of food waste?

Q89: As energy prices rise, how can agriculture increase its efficiency and use fewer inputs and fertilizers, yet still feed a growing population?

Q99: How effective are experiential and outdoor learning programs in promoting child nutrition, healthy child development, and prevention of obesity and diabetes?

More details can be found at www.essex.ac.uk/pvc/ sustainability and www.julespretty.com.

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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Out and About

Carolyn Riches has been tracking down scientific snippets from across the world on an integrated crops theme. Thanks go to everyone who has contributed to ideas, text and images for this edition of Out and About.

All in a cup

Amylase-ing!

At first glance, a NUCOFFEE specialty coffee is a rich dark liquid, but look deeper and you’ll see it’s about more than just a cup of coffee. It’s about research, training, certification and connections. It’s about recognizing the producer and valuing the origin.

NUCOFFEE, based in Brazil, is the first Syngenta initiative to act in the entire supply chain of a commodity. “It creates limitless integration opportunities for new services, technologies and concepts in coffee,” says Daniel Friedlander. It connects Brazilian coffee growers and cooperatives with international roasters in a transparent partnership. It also provides training workshops and coffee certification through links with the Coffee Quality Institute - a world authority in coffee.

A NUCOFFEE tasting workshop

NUCOFFEE has recently collaborated with the Universidade Federal de Lavras to develop a freely available simulation tool called ‘Pós-Café’. “It can make a huge difference in terms of revenue,” explains Daniel. Production variables and specific features are entered by the grower. The producer can select two processing types for comparison.

Calculations and reports are automatically generated by the application, which provides the comparative revenue, cost analysis and net margin for each processing type. “It supports clients in a sustainable way and can be used by other coffee growing countries to expand the total value of the coffee chain.”

Combining technology with teamwork and breeding expertise has helped Syngenta to set new standards in the South Asian tomato market. Growing viable tomato crops is a challenge in South Asia, where Tomato Leaf Curl Virus (TLCV), high temperatures and long distances to market can greatly impact economic yields.

Corn is being used to produce ethanol

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved Syngenta’s latest contribution to the ethanol production industry. Enogen™ (corn amylase Event 3272) corn is the first genetically modified output trait in corn for the ethanol industry and can now be cultivated in the U.S. Enogen™ corn seed not only offers growers an opportunity to cultivate a premium specialty crop but also substantially reduces carbon emissions and the consumption of energy and water used in ethanol production.

Additionally, this breakthrough technology increases ethanol output for producers.

In conventional ethanol production, liquid alpha-amylase enzyme is added to the process to reduce viscosity and prepare starch for the conversion to sugar, and ultimately ethanol. “What Syngenta has done with Enogen™ corn technology is to express a unique alpha amylase enzyme directly in the grain,” says Rene Quadt.

“Enogen™ technology allows producers to add more starch in their process and operate with much more flexibility. They see more gallons of ethanol produced per day, plus energy and chemical savings.”

“The technology improves the overall productivity and sustainability of the dry grind ethanol industry in ways that cannot be achieved with liquid amylase enzymes in use today,” says Rene. The project team also developed adjacent technologies like grain metering systems and rapid enzyme tests for use at the fuel ethanol plant that support Enogen™.

“Tackling these challenges required a comprehensive breeding strategy,” explains Syngenta’s Narendra Singh.

“It brought together plant breeding, pathology and molecular marker expertise to assemble the various traits in the parental lines and create high performing seeds.”

The resulting tomato variety ‘Abhinav’ is resistant to TLCV, has high yield, longdistance transportability and improved shelf life. Traders can ship ‘Abhinav’ tomatoes long distances to market, making tomatoes available to consumers in areas where it is difficult to grow the crop during certain seasons. Consumers can also store this premium fruit at room temperature for more than a week. Since its first launch in India, this consistently high performing variety has helped to shape the market and is now an undisputed leader. It quickly gained popularity amongst South Asian growers, traders and retailers – gaining total seed sales of $US 7.5m in 2010.

Today, Abhinav continues to help more than 100,000 growers realize high commercial gain whilst building Syngenta’s brand value in the vegetable seed industry.

Narendra Singh is Tomato Development Lead APAC, based in Bangkok, Thailand.

Daniel Freidlander is NUCOFFEE Marketing Manager, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Rene Quadt is Head Discovery Portfolio Management, based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., U.S.A

‘Abhinav’ tomato growing in South Asia

Contact: daniel.freidlander@syngenta.com

Contact: rene.quadt@syngenta.com

Contact: narendra.singh@syngenta.com

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Terrific tomato

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Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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Carolyn Riches Carolyn is a Communications Officer at Jealott’s Hill in the UK. Her degree is in soil and plant science, with an emphasis on the agricultural environment. Carolyn joined Syngenta in R&D nine years ago as part of the Discovery Biology Group, before moving into Communications.

Tasty Melons

“Batteries not included”

Syngenta’s world class analytical science platform is driving the flavor forward for our melon breeding programs. “The melon is a high value crop for Syngenta.

The challenge is to enhance melon shelf life without compromising flavor and our Analytical Sciences team has generated essential data for this,” explains Charlie Baxter.

A message often seen on the box of a new electronic gadget, but not associated with a bunch of roses!

However, a proof of concept system developed by Syngenta’s University Innovation Centre (UIC) in Manchester in the UK aims to tag Kenyan roses with a powerless sensor to verify shelf life.

A top of the range gas chromatography mass spectrometer (GCMS) is a key instrument for the team. The GCMS produces a chromatogram which identifies the pattern of metabolites and volatile compounds that determine flavor and aroma. “The data analysis is complex and we use robust statistical methods along with trained taste test panelists,” says Mark Seymour. The panelists are screened for their sensory abilities and taught how to describe the tastes that they are experiencing.

Mark Seymour with the new GCMS

If a melon is said to be tasty, its biochemical composition is confirmed and passed onto the seed breeders, who breed the ‘flavorsome’ metabolites into the melons. Charlie: “It’s a long process to breed in the characteristics and currently we have several target metabolites that will allow us to track flavor and develop new varieties.”

The UIC developed a demonstration prototype sensor that records three temperatures at two time points using polymer stabilized liquid crystals and radio frequency identification (RFID). “The challenge was to confirm that this innovative technology can produce information to help Kenyan growers prove that their roses meet European shelf life standards and ultimately increase rose market value,” explains Derek Scuffell.

The temperature stresses will be stored on the sensor tag as a box of roses travels through the supply chain. This creates a history, aiming to give the roses the edge in the European flower auctions.

“Passive RFID tags do not need a power supply, are cheap to produce and have a lower environmental impact than the powered tags,” says Derek. “The next challenge is to reduce the prototype tag size to less than 5mm and we’re currently looking for partners to develop this further.”

Derek Scuffell is a Program Manager for the Syngenta Sensors Steering Group, R&D based at Jealott’s Hill in the UK.

Cross-business working has been essential to the studies so far and the analytical techniques have also proven successful for tomato and measuring the mobility of pesticides in soil.

Helping corn prevent blindness

Crops like corn could help prevent blindness in children

Every year, up to 500,000 children go blind because of Vitamin A deficiency.

One promising way to tackle this globally is ‘biofortification’, increasing micronutrients in staple crops like corn. The Syngenta Foundation has brokered a research partnership between Syngenta, the International Maize & Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and HarvestPlus, a major international biofortification initiative. This collaboration focuses on the biosynthetic pathway of carotenoids. Its many enzymes and compounds include Vitamin A. The enzymes vary naturally across corn’s genetic diversity worldwide. To study these variations, researchers have collected HPLC data on enzyme quantity from over 500 publicly available corn lines. For each line, scientists have also generated genotypic data on 60,000 loci. By combining these data in a Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS), the partners aim to identify genome regions that determine Vitamin A production levels. The collaboration has additionally performed DNA sequencing on nine genes that code for specific enzymes in the pathway. This sequencing, along with the GWAS results, should enable development of markers that lead to higher levels of Vitamin A in corn from Syngenta and public breeding programs.

Such corn could potentially help prevent child blindness.

Charlie Baxter is the Global Lead Vegetable Trait Projects. Mark Seymour is the Analytical Sciences Group Leader and Syngenta Fellow. Both are based at Jealott’s Hill in the UK.

It could be easier to monitor the shelf life of roses

For further information on HarvestPlus, visit ‘Projects’ on www.syngentafoundation.org.

Contact: mark.seymour@syngenta.com

Contact: derek.scuffell@syngenta.com

Contact: syngenta.foundation@syngenta.com

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Editor’s comments Stuart John Dunbar explains the responses from the survey in the previous issue.

This issue of Science Matters links into our strategy of Integrated Crops.

Ian Jepson’s introduction to the area sets the scene so I am not going to build on the theme of the edition but, instead, let you know what happened to the survey results from the last ‘Soil’ edition.

The editorial team would like to thank everyone who replied. We had 137 responses which represents nearly 3% of the distribution. This is a huge response to an unsolicited survey.

Normally less than 1% is expected so we were very pleased to get such a high response rate.

Let’s look at what we found and what were going to do as a consequence.

Question 1 looked at how you receive your copy of Science Matters. 78% receive a personal copy, 13.3% pick it up from a display, 8.5% see it on screen and 0.2% print it from screen.

The comments associated with this question were mostly around how much people valued their personal copy but there were some comments about electronic versions. An electronic version is published in pdf format on mySyngenta for about a month, 4-6 weeks after publication. However, we currently do not have a permanent web archive and we are working on this. We also publish smaller versions of some of the articles throughout the following 6 months. We will put more effort to publicize these web-based aspects as a result of the feedback.

Question 2 asked how you read Science Matters. Although one person responded that they did not read it, the majority of you read most of it (72%), some of it (21%) or scan it (6%). Many people responded in Question 3 that they read previous editions as well.

The ‘Water’ and ‘Biodiversity’ editions seemed especially popular.

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Question 4 probed what you thought about the magazine and asked for suggestions for improvement. This was the question that sparked the most response. Only one responder felt they did not like the magazine (0.7%). The table highlights the fact that the vast majority of people felt the magazine was ‘good’ to ‘excellent’.

Question 5 asked about the depth of the science covered. 30% of you would like deeper science in the articles and 70% felt it was just the right level of science. We have tried to increase the science content, whilst still maintaining a generalist readership by using boxes on the page. We will try to do more of this in the future following this feedback.

The written comments were especially useful for both question 4 and 5. Some of these are highlighted in the box.

One comment worth mentioning was a request for more up-up date articles.

We try to get as up-to-date articles as we can. However, as the magazine has to be cleared for external use by our lawyers, it is very difficult to write about the absolutely latest data for commercial reasons. There were many useful comments and ideas from these questions that the editorial team will review. We will let you know what has changed as a result in the next autumn edition.

Question 6 looked at electronic web publishing. 7% felt it was not a good idea, 43% felt it was a good idea but they would prefer a hard copy and 50% thought it was a good idea and they would read it. This fits with our strategy of increasing the web presence of the magazine which we will be doing going forward.

were from R&D and 23% from nonR&D functions. 5 external recipients took the trouble to respond, all from European Universities. Generating an up to date distribution list is quite hard but if you, or someone you know, would like to receive a copy please let me know.

The magazine is cleared for external use and I am very keen that we make use of it highlighting our science to our collaborators and external organisations we work with.

Let me know if you would like me to send copies to external people as well.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who responded to the survey. It will definitely help us shape the future of the magazine!

Stuart John Dunbar Senior Syngenta Fellow and Editor of Science Matters Jealott’s Hill

Stuart’s degree is in Zoology from Nottingham University and he did a PhD in insect neurobiology.

After a couple of post-docs, Stuart joined the company 25 years ago as an insect electrophysiologist. He is currently a group leader of Biochemistry which is part of Bioscience Section at Jealott’s Hill and is project leader of the University Innovation Center on Systems Biology at Imperial College London.

The final questions asked about you and which part of the organization you are in. 77% of the internal employees

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011

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Contact: stuart.dunbar@syngenta.com

Summary of responses from Science Matters survey

Poor

Adequate

Good

Very Good

Excellent

What do you think about the choice of topics covered?

0.7 %

2.3 %

16 %

42 %

39 %

What are your views on the quality of the writing of the articles?

0.7 %

1.5 %

20.6 %

45.1 %

32.1 %

What do you think about the layout imagery and design?

0.7 %

0 %

13.1 %

43.5 %

42.7 %

Considering the magazine as a whole, how would you rate it?

0.7 %

0.7 %

16.9 %

30.6 %

51.1 %

Comments made in answer to questions 4 and 5.

“Very well done, I hope this info makes it to our customers in a similar way. We need to do a better job communicating these messages to end users. I work in the Lawn and Garden group, it would be great to see some similar materials with a golf twist.”

“The articles are well written and come across as though they were written for a lay audience. If that is your intent, then you are meeting your goal. If your intent is to reach other scientists in the company then perhaps the articles could be more in depth.”

“I really enjoy reading Science Matters, as it is an enjoyable but informative break in my normal day-to-day activities.”

“It would be nice to see stories about junior staff and their work.”

“Good that the topics are broad.

I am most likely to read issues that are related to my area of interest, which does not mean that the other areas are not important.”

“Bring out the farmers’ problems around the world, their concerns about everything in farming and socio economic aspects. This may help our scientific community to understand more on their problems and try to give solutions. This would be good platform between farming community and the scientific community.”

“Greater subject matter depth and detail.”

Syngenta Fellows – supporting Syngenta Science Science Matters is a magazine supported by the Syngenta Fellows to recognize and communicate the excellent science throughout Syngenta.

The Syngenta Fellows are a leading community of Syngenta scientists with a role to promote Syngenta’s excellence in science.

The main contact for comment and future content is Stuart J. Dunbar who can be contacted at Syngenta Limited, Jealott’s Hill International Research Centre, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG42 6EY, United Kingdom or by email at stuart.dunbar@syngenta.com.

Editor: Stuart John Dunbar Editorial Team: Isabelle Baumann and Carolyn Riches The Editors would like to acknowledge the valuable contributions of John Emsley and the authors and other persons named in each article. The views expressed in this magazine are the views of the authors and may not necessarily always reflect the views or policies of Syngenta.

Design & Production: Kre8tive Communications Limited.

Print: Geerings Print Limited Unless otherwise indicated, trademarks indicated thus ® or TM are the property of a Syngenta Group Company. The Syngenta wordmark and ‘Bringing plant potential to life’ are trademarks of Syngenta International AG. © Syngenta International AG, 2011. All rights reserved.

Editorial completion April 2011.

Science Matters is printed using water reduction processes, including a completely chemical and water free printing plate making process. In addition, all water used in the actual printing process is re-circulated and new water is only added to replace that lost by evaporation. Science Matters is printed on 9lives80 which is produced with 80% recovered fibre comprising 10% packaging waste, 10% best white waste, 60% de-inked waste fibre and only 20% virgin totally chlorine free fiber sourced from sustainable forests.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements This document contains forward-looking statements, which can be identified by terminology such as “expect”, “would”, “will”, “potential”, “plans”, “prospects”, “estimated”, “aiming”, “on track”, and similar expressions. Such statements may be subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. We refer you to Syngenta’s publicly available filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for information about these and other risks and uncertainties. Syngenta assumes no obligation to update forward looking statements to reflect actual results, changed assumptions or other factors. This document does not constitute, or form part of, any offer or invitation to sell or issue, or any solicitation of any offer, to purchase or subscribe for any ordinary shares in Syngenta AG, or Syngenta ADSs, nor shall it form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract therefore.

Science Matters Keeping abreast of Syngenta R&D Spring 2011