Thursday, November 29, 2012

Genetics opens two new fronts


Genetic researchers have made strides on two fronts this week.

In New York State, researchers have identified about 17 billion base pairs that make up about 90,000 genes in current bread-quality wheats grown around the world.

Wheat is a combination of several ancient grasses and plant breeders have occasionally sought out those grasses for genes that can be incorporated to deliver resistance or tolerance to challenges such as rusts and bugs.

Knowing the genetic code will make plant breeding more precise and hasten improvements.

On the other front, Canadian researchers are confident they will soon develop speedy and accurate genetic tests for pathogenic strains of E. coli and Listeria.

Listeria testing now takes a week in a laboratory. E. coli testing for strains such as 0157:H7 takes about a day.

The aim is to have a test that can produce results in as little as 15 minutes and be conducted on the floor of meat-packing facilities.

E. coli 0157:H7 was the culprit in the record-volume recall of beef from XL Foods Inc. of Brooks, Alta., and Listeria monocytogenes in the Maple Leaf Foods Inc. recall of processed meats responsible for the death of at least 21 Canadians.