Study On Assessement System Of Agricultural Biotechnology Sustainability

Sustainable agriculture is regarded as the main model for agricultural development in the 21st century, in which biotechnology serves as technological support and guarantee. The very starting points of this dissertation consider the issues of 'which kinds of biotechnology are needed for agricultural sustainable development?', 'how to keep biotechnology development according to the requirements of sustainable development, thereby to reach an effective junction point for biotechnology and sustainable agriculture?'.1. The connotation, effect and development of each type of agricultural biotechnology were systematically elaborated. Modern biotechnology is a complex technology cluster encompassing four areas of engineering techniques, i.e., genetic engineering, cell engineering, microbial engineering, enzyme (protein) engineering. In terms of the types of transgenic crops, this dissertation addressed the advances of the four engineering techniques especially genetic engineering in detail, which provided a basis for establishing assessment for sustainable agricultural biotechnology.2. Index system of assessment for agricultural biotechnology security was established according to the requirements of ecological security of agricultural biotechnology. The main aspects include: (1) Horizontal transfer of transgene DNA. The possible paths and research methods for GMOs in natural environment were investigated and summerizaed. (2) Non-target impacts. Elaborated were the influences of transgenic plants on phytophagous insects, on soil microbial community, on hydrobiology, on birds, biodiversity and indirect influences via food chain. (3) Development of resistance. (4) Capability of transgenic plants to invasiveness. The main paths were self multiplication and diffusion via biological community and diffusion into wild species via genetic transgression. (5) Recombination and stability of transgenes in plants. Influences of viral genes on the genetic translocation, recombination and stability of transgenic plants were focused. (6) Effects of GMOs on mammals. This mainly involved the transgenic plant's toxicity to mammals and the issue of antigens in transgenic plants. Influence on human health entailed general assessment of potential risks and specific assessment of human security, with direct and indirect influences analyzed. All of the above indexes were qualitative indexes which required respective experiments for each of the six aspects. If one of the indexes did not reach the reqirements, it showed that there was environmental security problem, and could not be further assessed and applied. In the mean time, all of the indexes for ecological security of agricultural biotechnology were elaborated in detail with typical cases.3. An assessment system for agricultural biotechnology sustainability was constructed, which aims to scientifically and effectively reflecting the situation of agriculture biotechnology sustainability and to possess the merit of operational simplicity. Oriented to transgenic plants and based on the principles of simplicity and practicality, the system was established by drawing on the experiences and methods of sustainability assessment at home and abroad from ecological, economic and social perspectives. Ecological assessment was based on assessing biotechnology's influences on environment and their application security, to further discuss agricultural biotechnology's influences on environmental pollution...