NAGC White Paper

The NCGA White Paper includes sections on:

1. Situation at Hand


2. Maintaining Global Leadership


3. Improving the Argicutural Sector


4. Increasing Agricutural Research Infrastructure and New Technology


5. Executing on the Plan


6. Impacting the Industry and the Nation

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Executive Summary

A summary of the White Paper including:

• Maintaing Global Leadership


• Solving Problems for Agriculture


• Improving the Agricultural Sector


• Increasing Agricultural Research Infrastructure and New Technology

 

 

 

 

Marketing Final Report

Analysis of potental markets for genotyping services, focusing on five areas:

• General Food Safety


• Livestock Markets

 

• State Health Labs

 

• Organic/Fruit and Vegetable Markets

 

• Veterinary/Pet

 

 

A rapid multiplex assay for acid-based diagnostics

We have developed a rapid (under 4 hours), multiplex, nucleic acid assay, adapted to a microsphere array detection platform. We call this assay multiplex ligonucleotide ligation-PCR (MOL-PCR). Unlike other ligation-based assays that require multiple steps, our protocol consists of a single tube reaction, followed by hybridization to a Luminex microsphere array for detection. We demonstrate the ability of this assay to simultaneously detect diverse nucleic acid signatures (e.g., unique sequences, single nucleotide polymorphisms) in a single multiplex reaction. Detection probes consist of modular components that enable target detection, probe amplification, and subsequent capture onto microsphere arrays. To demonstrate the utility of our assay, we applied it to the detection of three biothreat agents, B. anthracis, Y. pestis, and F. tularensis. Combined with the ease and robustness of this assay, the results presented here show a strong potential of our essay for use in diagnostics and surveillance. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Simultaneous Pathogen Detection and Antibiotic Resistance Characterization Using SNP-Based Mulitplexed Oligonucleotide Ligation-PCR (MOL-PCR)

Extensive use of antibiotics in both public health and animal husbandry has resulted in rapid emergence of antibiotic resistance in almost all human pathogens, including biothreat pathogens. Antibiotic resistance has thus become a major concern for both public health and national security. We developed multiplexed assays for rapid, simultaneous pathogen detection and characterization of ciprofloxacin and doxycycline resistance in Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, and Francisella tularensis. These assays are SNP-based and use Multiplexed Oligonucleotide Ligation-PCR (MOL-PCR). The MOL-PCR assay chemistry and MOLigo probe design process are presented. A web-based tool – MOLigoDesigner (http://MOLigoDesigner.lanl.gov) was developed to facilitate the probe design. All probes were experimentally validated individually and in multiplexed assays, and minimal sets of multiplexed MOLigo probes were identified for simultaneous pathogen detection and antibiotic resistance characterization.

Foodborne Threats to Health

1. The U.S. Food System


2. Food Safety Oversight


3. Investigating Foodborne Threats


4. Bioterrorism And The Food Supply


5. Surveillance Of The Food Supply


6. Reporting Foodborne Threats: The Case Of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)


7. Research And Policy Opportunities

Power & Promise: Agbioscience in the North Central United States

The North Central Region's Agricultural Extension Services and Experiment Stations are a foundation on which the $125 billion, 2.4 million job agriculture-driven industry in the region is built. This industry is already the most sophisticated and productive agriculture, forestry and value-added products system ever created, and it is poised to expand significantly with new markets such as novel health, specialty crops, biofuels and biobased products. Using just biobased products as an example, it is estimated that there is a potential to replace up to two-thirds of petro-based chemicals with agricultural-based materials, representing 50,000 different products—a $1 trillion global market.1 There are similar opportunities with novel health, food safety, biofuels, and environmental technologies, each of which has potential to create thousands of new jobs and knowledge-based companies across the North Central region and the United States. Sustaining and protecting current agricultural value-chain production, while realizing the potential of exciting new economic opportunities, requires support for the fundamental scientific research and translational support mechanisms contained within land-grant agricultural experiment stations and extension services. The land-grant system has played a central role in the rise of American agriculture to global preeminence, but the scale of opportunities contained in a fast-expanding bio-based 21st century economy warrant considerably more attention be paid to these core institutions.

Sustained or expanded federal, state and local support will help this important land-grant, experiment station and extension service system to continue to perform its multi-faceted functions in cutting edge research for commercialization, education of knowledge workers for industry across the value chain, supply of unbiased information and support for farmers, and pursuit of opportunities for new collaborations and networks to grow the industry.

Evaluations of Strategies for Foot-and-Mouth Disease Surveillances

Early detection and control of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreaks is a major challenge due to the contagious nature of the disease, its high infectivity, and the potential for serious economic consequences. The primary means for initiating the response process by local, state, and federal authorities is through reporting by producers/veterinarians, and awareness of early signs of FMD remains the cornerstone of FMD surveillance. Despite the importance of producer observation of disease signs in FMD surveillance, there has not been a formal evaluation of its utility in early disease detection. To address this issue, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) conducted a study in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the United States Department of Agriculture's National Surveillance Unit (USDA-NSU) to evaluate the utility of producer observation of non-specific signs in the early detection of FMD at various production sites. In addition, the general utility of aerosol sampling in areas of potentially wide disease dissemination was also evaluated.

Plant Disease Surveillance

Requirements of a Plant Disease Surveillance Testing Platform

• Inexpensive, broad spectrum
  tests
• Presymptomatic
  detection where possible
  (testing insect vectors provides early warning)
• Rapid results
• Strain/species/subspecies specificity
• High throughput
• Automatable
• Flexible– add or change markers, as needed
  

Multiplexed nucleic acid-based assays for molecular diagnostics of human disease

In recent years, there has been an explosion of molecular tests developed to diagnose human disease, including tests to detect disease-causing pathogens, human genetic or protein markers indicative of disease (e.g., cancer and autoimmune disease), and genetic markers for predisposition to disease. Significant features of nucleic acid-based tests include high sensitivity and specificity, and the ability to multiplex or interrogate more than one marker simultaneously in each sample. Multiplex assays provide cost and information content advantages, and therefore allow for higher confidence results than singleplex assays. This article reviews the current state of the art in multiplexed nucleic acid-based techniques used for diagnosis of human disease and provides a glimpse of promising techniques for the future.

Patents

US6287766_002.pdf

US7153656_002.pdf