[Pirateninfo] Monsanto: Patent auf Gen aus mexikanischer Bohne
(engl)
Silke Pohl
silke.pohl at jpberlin.de
Don Jul 24 10:46:39 CEST 2003
Biodiversity Mystery Theatre #2: "The Case of the Mexican Bean Gene Claim"
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Prologue: As the world awaits the next ministerial of the World Trade
Organization, (1) intellectual property issues remain center stage.
(2) Still unresolved are problems created years ago by the granting
of patents on living organisms and their pieces and products. Among the
persistent difficulties are questions of access and benefit sharing:
how to avoid biopiracy and to ensure a fair deal for those whose
biological materials and traditional knowledge may be part of other
people's patent applications.
Biodiversity Mystery Theater
. . . featuring an international cast of characters
. . . in real-life tales drawn from the files of the United
States Patent Office
Today, "The Case of the Mexican Bean Gene Claim".
Biotech giant Monsanto has filed for a patent on a gene to be
genetically-engineered into soya (soybean) plants. The gene is a
seed-specific promoter that can be used as a genetic "switch" in
biotech plants to boost, for example, the oil content of seeds or the
production of herbicide resistance proteins.
The source of the promoter gene is a bean variety collected in Mexico.
That variety is held in trust for the world's farmers by the Cali,
Colombia-based International Center for Tropical Agriculture (known by
its Spanish acronym, CIAT) under an agreement with the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO). The agreement prohibits the bean from
being patented.
Observers may find it ironic that Monsanto is patenting promoter genes
from Mexico at a time when the company is embroiled in controversy over
genetic pollution to Mexican maize (corn). That controversy involves
the unexplained presence of Monsanto promoter gene sequences in
farmers' varieties of maize. (3)
Arcelin Genes: Monsanto's patent application (#20030046727) was filed
on March 6th, 2003 and is titled "Arcelin-5 promoter and uses thereof".
The application is currently under review by the US Patent Office.
Arcelin genes initially aroused scientific interest when researchers
theorized that the genes might play a role in the resistance of some P.
vulgaris varieties to the Mexican bean weevil (Zabrotes subfasciatus).
(4) But that interest has expanded because of the special
characteristics of Arcelins. Whereas many seed proteins are produced by
complicated systems involving several genes (systems that remain
difficult to control with biotechnology), Arcelin genes are
comparatively simple and can produce an unusually high proportion (over
35%) of protein in seeds, including genetically-engineered seed. (5)
This seed-specific activity has drawn the attention of biotechnology
firms.
Seven related Arcelin genes have been identified, all in Phaseolus
vulgaris varieties from Mexico.(6) The first, called Arcelin-1, was
found in a farmers' variety of P. vulgaris that was collected in the
1960s near the town of Arcelia (hence the name "Arcelin") in
southeastern Guerrero state. The area is home to Náhuatl and Tlapaneco
indigenous peoples. The Arcelin-5 promoter comes from another Mexican
bean collected in the 1960s near the town of Jomulco, Nayarit. Jomulco
is in a mountainous, volcanic region north of the tourist resort of
Puerto Vallarta. It has a rich indigenous heritage and an archaelogical
site, "Los Toriles", considered among the most important in western
Mexico.
In 1999, a Belgian research team inserted Arcelin-5 into the tepary
bean (P. acutifolius) and Arabidopsis. The transgenic plants produced
high levels of the Arcelin-5 protein, suggesting that the promoter
remains active when moved to a different species. It was this
seed-specific activity of the promoter that interested Monsanto, whose
scientists took the Arcelin-5 promoter, sequenced it, inserted it into
soya, and filed for the patent.
Genebank Details: In scientific publications, the Mexican source
of Arcelin-5 is identified by its accession number in the CIAT genebank
(G2771, G02771, or CIATBEAN-G 2771). The same seed is also held by the
US Department of Agriculture (where it is designated PI 318702). The
two genebanks list different collection dates (1962 and 1966,
respectively) but they agree that the bean was collected by US
researcher Howard Scott Gentry and that the bean is the source of the
Arcelin-5 genes. Gentry was a prolific plant collector who died in
1993.
The Arcelin-5 source is subject to a trust agreement between CIAT and
the UN Food and Agriculture Organization that stipulates that in-trust
materials cannot be subject to intellectual property claims. Under the
recently-completed International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for
Food and Agriculture,(7) P. vulgaris (and CIAT's collections of it)
will become part of a multilateral germplasm exchange system. A link to
CIAT's material transfer agreement is provided below.
Table: The Origin of Arcelin Genes (all from Phaseolus vulgaris)8
Gene Accession Origin (All in Mexico) In
trust? Collection Date
Arcelin-1 G12882 Arcelia, Guerrero Yes
1966
Arcelin-2 G12866 Ciudad Guzman, Jalisco Yes 1966
Arcelin-3 G12891 El Tule,
Jalisco Yes 1968
Arcelin-4 G12949 San Jose del Refugio,
Jalisco Yes 1968
Arcelin-5 G02771 Jomulco, Nayarit Yes 1962
Arcelin-6 G11051 San Isidro, Jalisco Yes
1978
Arcelin-7 G24591 Venustiano Carranza,
Chiapas No 1992
Open Questions: If a variety cannot be patented, can specific genes
copied from that variety be the subject of patents? If the bean that is
at the heart of Monsanto's patent application was held in trust for the
world's farmers, how can the bean's genetic constituents be patented?
Whose job is it to enforce whatever rules apply? Will patent claims
like that on the Mexican Gene Bean chill research on Arcelin genes,
even public sector research? Will those who shared the bean with
genebanks benefit from the inventions of those whose access the
genebank collections? If not, why not?
Only further research . . . hopefully carried out by those whose
biodiversity is the subject of the patent . . . will provide the
necessary answers.
**********************
Footnotes:
(1) To be held in Cancun, Mexico, in September, 2003.
(2) See Is the TRIPS review at a turning point?, a July 2003 paper by
Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN), available at
<http://www.grain.org>, and TRIPS Council debates patents on life,
traditional knowledge, and Article 27.3(b), Third World Network
Information Service on WTO Issues, 11 June 2003, at
<http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/twninfo21.htm>.
(3) Fragments of “35S”, a promoter gene from the cauliflower mosiac
virus used in Monsanto's transgenic maize varieties, have been detected
in Mexican farmers’ varieties of maize. Scientists theorize that the
promoter may have come from Monsanto maize imported into Mexico as food
(Mexico has not approved commercial planting of GMO corn).
(4) Goossens, A. et al. 1999. The arcelin-5 Gene of Phaseolus vulgaris
Directs High Seed-Specific Expression in Transgenic Phaseolus
acutifolius and Arabidopsis Plants. Plant Physiology 120 (4):
1095-1104.
(5) De Jaeger, G. et al. 2002. Boosting heterologous protein production
in transgenic dicotyledonous seeds using Phaseolus vulgaris regulatory
sequences. Nature Biotechnology 20(12):1265-8.
(6) Lioi L. et al. 2003. Lectin-related resistance factors against
bruchids evolved through a number of duplication events. Theoretical
Applied Genetics. 2003 Jun 18 (online first article); URL:
<http:/www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=n1wn84j2p8qjk0q5>.
(7) For more information, see the homepage of the International Treaty
on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture at URL:
<http://www.fao.org/ag/cgrfa/itpgr.htm>.
(8) Source: CGIAR System-wide Information Network for Genetic
Resources (SINGER), URL: <http://www.singer.cgiar.org> and Lioi, L. et
al. Op. cit.
*********************
For more information on today's case:
(1) Examine: "Arcelin-5 promoter and uses thereof", US Patent
application #20030046727, filed on March 6th, 2003. The application can
be accessed at the website of the United States Patent and Trademark
Office: <http://appft1.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html> . Enter
the application number to view the full text.
or
(2) Go to the website of CIAT (Centro Internacional de Agricultura
Tropical) at <http://www.ciat.cgiar.org> and view the CIAT Material
Transfer Agreement at <http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/pgr/mta.htm>.
***************************************************
Biodiversity Mystery Theatre is produced by the Edmonds Institute,
a public interest, non-profit concerned with issues related to
environment
and technology. Known for its work on biodiversity, the Institute was
incorporated in 1995 and is a 501(c)(3) organization under the rules
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