Farmer

We decided to work on potatoes out of all the crops, because like rice and wheat, it’s planted all over the world. The common diseases found in potatoes are bacterial wilt, bacteria soft rot, ring rot and late blight. Recently Late blight has become the most severe disease out of all. We went to potato farmers in Taiwan to find out what kind of potatoes they’re planting. After interview, we found out there are two main types of potatoes currently used in Taiwan: Kennebec, which is over eighty percent, and Tainung No.1.

Varieties

1. Kennebec

Kennebec is originally bred by the United States Department of Agriculture, and is also the most common processed potatoes in the United States and Canada. Kennebec can be used in making French fries, potato chips, while TainungNO.1 cannot. Kennebec has shallow and evenly distributed tuberogemmas, thin and yellow skin, green sprout, oval-shaped tubers and big and light leave color. Kennebec’s tubers size is big, which meets to the eating habit of Taiwanese.

However, Kennebec can be easily infected by potato late blight. Now, the best method to prevent infection is to only use healthy potato seeds to plant. This action requires renewing the potato seeds every year. It takes 80 to 100 days to harvest, which means that it has a short planting time. It can crop about 25 to 30 tons of potatoes per hectare. Owing to the short cultivation period, it will not affect farmers in Taiwan to plant a period of rice in summer. Besides, the cultivation type of Kennebec is most familiar to the farmers. Due to the reasons above, farmers prefer to plant Kennebec .

2. TainungNO.1

TainungNO.1 is bred by Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute. It has light yellow and oval-shaped tubers, shallow tuberogemmas, smooth skin, purple sprout, dark green and glossy leaves and smaller stem and leaves comparing with Kennebec. It has strong resistance to late blight, but it is susceptible to common scab. It also has very weak thermo tolerance, so it is not available to be early planted. The best sowing time in Taiwan is during the bottom of October to the top of November.

The biggest problem for Tainung No.1 is starch produces a large amount of reducing sugar. Under high temperature, reducing sugar reacts with asparagine and produces acrylamide. Excessive intake of acrylamide may cause cancer or damage nerves. (a)It takes about 120 days to harvest and it can crop about 32 to 39 tons of potatoes per hectare. Because it is not a good source of processed potatoes and the farmers do not adapt to the cultivation mode of TainungNO.1, including irrigation, fertilization, medication and so on, the planting area and the production of TainungNO.1 are still at low percentage.

Growth and harvest of tainungNO.1:

Seed

Potatoes are suitable to grow in wet and cool environment. Big temperature difference between day and night, sufficient sunlight and fertile soil are best for potatoes to grow. Central South in Taiwan is the best match for such conditions. We visited Taizhong, Yunlin and Chiayi, which are the largest planting areas of potatoes in Taiwan.

The majority of potatoes are asexually produced. Therefore, the source of seed potatoes determines potato production. Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) and Taiwan Seed Improvement and Propagation Station (TSS) are the major agencies responsible for breeding new species and examining healthy seed potatoes.

Healthy potato seeds has to be certified (three-staged certification and production system) before going on the market. Taiwan Seed Improvement and Propagation Station is responsible for tissue culture and breed original seed. Farmers associations in different areas will breed the following generations. After four to five generations, they will sell the tubers to the farmers so the farmers have enough cardinal numbers of potatoes to produce potatoes that meets the demand of the consumers. There are about two thousands hectare planting areas in Taiwan, and it can produce about two to three tons per hectare.

Difficulty

The shortage of healthy seed potato supply

Currently only 60% of healthy seed potatoes are produced in Taiwan, and the remaining 40% are mainly from imports. These causes several serious problems. First, since potatoes are mainly produced asexually, it’s easier for virus/disease to influence the next generation, thus decrease thirty to fifty percent of production. Imported potatoes do not go through three-staged certification and production system, so it’s more likely to carry pathogens. This is the reason of the late blight outbreak in 1997, the largest outbreak in Taiwan. Moreover, those uninspected potatoes will also deliver pathogen to healthy seed potatoes by hybridization, and lead to new diseases.

The short planting period

High temperature inhibits potatoes growth, so farmers need to harvest their potatoes before March. Limited by the space of frozen storage device, there is a period of blank supply in August.

The pressure of opening imported potatoes

Because the shortage of potatoes in Taiwan, potato factories often end up importing potatoes. Therefore, agricultural agencies are pressured to allow the import of potatoes. However, to avoid the transfer of diseases, it is better to avoid import potatoes that grew in similar environments like Taiwan. Besides, dueto the low labor pay, once we agree to open the imported potatoes, it may cause some problems on industrial structure. It will affect the contract farming in processed potatoes and also the fresh potato market. To farmers, it may lower their motivation to plant potatoes.

Economic

We need to show that our improved potatoes are beneficial to the farmers. To them, marketing is as important as fighting the late blight disease.

Price

The potatoes produced in Taiwan has over eighty percent of market share, and the output value is about six hundred million NTD, roughly twenty million USD. The average price of potatoes is about one dollar per kilogram. It will increase to its peak in November and then decrease.

Marketing

Potatoes are either sell as fresh or potatoes. The latter one accounts for the majority. The planting period last about 90 to 120 days. After harvest, the farmers can either sell it or store them in the fridge under 4 degrees Celsius up to two years. Since farmers are able to predict the production of potatoes, selling potatoes is a programmed marketing.

Below is how they are processed

Phases

We can generalize the stages of potatoes marketing into three parts: planting phase, harvest phase, and storage phase.

• Planting phase: This is around August to November. Farmers started to prepare for planting potatoes. The potatoes produced previous years are almost sold out, and the fresh aren’t cropped. Therefore, it reaches the highest price in this phase.
  
  
• Harvest period: It is about December to March the year afterwards. In this phase, the potatoes in the first period are successively cropped. Those potatoes will influx in the market, so the price is decreasing.
  
  
• Storage phase: It is about April to August. In this phase, in addition to supply the demand of the market, the most parts of potatoes will be stored to be frozen vegetables in order to balance the price of vegetables responding to the insufficient supply of summer vegetables when we meets some typhoon or other disaster. The price in this phase will slightly increase back to the average.

Education

For education, we make lots of effort on promoting the central idea of iGEM and also how our project are going to affect our society.We go to school from primary to senior high (and of course university) to tell them how we can use the biobricks to construct a new sequence. We even make a picture to let younger kids understand what we have done.Furthurmore We published some article on magazines to educate the public about potatoes issues and iGEM.

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Non government organization/ public

We contacted lots of non government organizations, not only to promulgate our project but also to get support from their resources, in order to get public’s attention. We also attended numerous forums to gather opinions from different perspectives.

"Buy Directly From Farmers"

“Buy Directly From Farmers” is a group dedicated to Taiwanese farmers since 2010 and officially registered as a social enterprise in 2014. Our goal is to connect the potato farmers with this association to provide a solution for a sound environment, creating a harmonious relationship between the city and countryside. We want to bring positive change into the world by letting them understand how their lifestyle and eating habits impact the environment, industry structure and the way that food is grown. We believe only the cooperation between potato farmers and consumers will result in a comprehensive environmental and food evolution. We hope our efforts will jumpstart new jobs for a new generation not only for potato industry but the whole agricultural system, providing youth with viable options in their hometown for a sustainable and promising future in agriculture.

Goal

Our concrete appeal is to

1. Create a new value and enhance the new position of agriculture.
2. Reduce the pollution of the chemical pesticide gradually
3. Solve the problem of imbalance in non programming marketing and over production
4. Increase information of transparency of farmers, empower farmers to have more confidence and hold responsibility in their products
5. Rebuild a better and fair relationship between farmers and consumers
6. Create new jobs for new generation, provide youth with viable job opportunities in their hometowns instead of forcing them into cities
7. Improve the quality of life through Eco-friendly agriculture
8. Create a new generation of consumers who place priority on a healthy and sustainable environment and in turn by themselves

Forums

We participate a lot of forum in order to tell others about reducing pesticide use, potatoes species improvement, how to defend late blight, gene modify technology and so on. We exchange our idea with the participants and also adjust our projects based on their . We tried to exert our influence toward farmers, government, researchers, and the public. We hope that our project can practically carry out and make good use.

Abroad

Our team member Amy went to Germany this summer. Since the main crops grown in Germany are potatoes, she talked to people she met about our project “Fight the Blight”. She introduced our project and iGEM with professors and native instructors, asking some questions about the issues on GMO in Germany. She also asked for some advice on our project design and shared creative ideas with local people. Although Germans mostly are opposed consuming genetically modified food, they still look forward to the progress of our project and gave us warm encouragements.

We genetically modified our potatoes in the prevention stage of the project. So we check the regulation of GMO to make sure that our project is legal. Also, we advocate juristic modification and promotions.

GMO planting regulation

In Taiwan, there are two procedures to test GMO products. One is called “genetic characteristics investigation”, whenever we transplant a part of gene sequence, we need to make sure that this part of gene sequence will constantly express generations. The other one is called “biosafety assessment”. For this we assess the environment to see whether or not our GMO potatoes would cause an effect on their ecology.

Environmental regulation

We checked environmental regulations to see whether or not spraying defensin is plausible. We check whether or not we’ll break the laws, and we can learn how the recent regulations restrict the pesticide and compare with our defensin to show how we will impact on environment on juristic aspect.

GMO food regulation

Our ultimate goal is to supply our potatoes to markets and let people have a different choice to eat healthy, safe and cheaper potatoes. Therefore, we need to learn the regulations of GMO food and how they are inspected. Taiwan’s government is still setting rules for GMO food regulations, so we also voice our opinions to the government.

WTO regulation

• The significance of international trade regulation appropriateness
• To reconcile different system of values and policies
• To construct a reasonable systemic thinking
• Genetic modified food management measures including
• Labeling
• Check and registration
• Tracking system
• The principles of SPS and TBT agreements in WTO

Rule

As a member of WTO, Taiwan is required to comply with the following two rules:

1. What is SPS?

It is short for Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.

• The principles of scientific evidences: Every country can formulate a standard by itself, but related regulations and the methods to quarantine should follow the scientific evidences.
• The principle of necessity: It is a necessary regulation for protecting human and other creatures’ lives or health.
• The allowance of temporary measures: When the scientific evidences are not sufficient, members can adopt some temporary measures to quarantine and check. However, members should try to get more information to carry out objective risk assessment and also should inspect the temporary measures within certain days.
• The principle of non-discrimination: The measures can not inhibit the products from same or similar countries or treat them unfairly.(inclusive of hidden discrimination)
• The principle of international standard: It encourages the members to adopt the international standard and suggestion. However, if members can offer scientific evidences, such as proper risk assessment, they can adopt stricter protecting measures.
  
  
2. What is TBT agreement?

It is short for the Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement.

• The purpose of TBT is different from SPS: One country can adopt necessary measures to ensure the quality of export goods or protect human or other creatures’lives or health and also prevent fraud.
The principle of non discrimination: Under the same circumstances, it is allowed to adopt every proper measure to if it will not cause any inequality or hidden limitation. It is also called Most Favored Nation (MFN).
• The principle of necessity: Ensure the technical regulations and standard including packaging, labeling and contents declaration, and also comply with the procedure of technical regulations and standard to avoid being the obstacle in the international trade.
• The principle of avoiding unnecessary detention: Determine if it complies with the procedure, including sampling, testing and examination. And also making assessment, certification, promise-complaint, registration, approval and legalization should avoid unnecessary detention.

Possible controversies caused by labeling regulations

On industrial aspects

The permissible amount of unintentionally mingled genetic modified ingredients is lowered to three percent (five percent originally). Importers in order to avoid being classified into genetic modified food must purchase some devices and improve the process to reduce the unintentionally mingled genetic modified ingredients. The amount of imported non genetic modified agricultural raw materials is 100-fold less than other Asian countries in our nation. If we lower the permissible amount of genetic modified ingredients, it will also lower the importers’desire to import non genetic modified raw materials. As a result, it will impact the food supply chain. Non genetic modified materials are more expensive than genetic modified materials, so the price may incline due to the regulations.

On legal aspects

The purpose of labeling regulation is not only for food safety but for the consumers’ right to know. According to the Food Sanitation and Safety Regulation, it indicated that authorities should satisfy the human right of pursuing food safety and sanitation and also the right to know. It must comply with EU standards to label the genetic modified food. In terms of the right to know, the labeling problem involves in TBT agreement. Consumers’right is established in Treaties of European Union. Consumers are not the passive beneficiaries of food safety policies but the subjective participants. Consumers’right includes health protection, safety, economic interests, information power, educational right and option agreement. Labeling regulation is a sort of food identity. The purpose is to improve option agreement for consumers.

The disputing point

The discrimination between intentional and unintentional

Everyone who adds genetic modified materials intentionally into the product, no matter how much the amount is (even though it is lower than three percent), one should label the product with “genetic modified” sign. To consumers, it is no difference between intentional and unintentional if the genetic modified materials are under three percent. Therefore, is it really necessary to differentiate intentional and unintentional? Besides, are there sufficient evidences indicating that the lower percentage (three percent) of unintentional genetic modified addition can achieve the effect that the origin regulation can not achieve.

The labeling object changes from the result to the producing procedure.

For high-level processed products, even though they do not include genetic modified sequence, they still need to label “The product is processed by genetic modified materials, yet it do not include genetic modified ingredient.” There is no any inspecting procedure to examine if the sources contain genetic modified materials for high-level processed products. Therefore, it might has the lack of necessity. However, we can examine the sources by strict tracking system.

The legal basis of check, registration and border inspection

According to the Food Sanitation and Safety Regulation, genetic modified food can not be offered as the material before it has passed the risk assessment by the authorities and been given the certification of inspection.

In terms of the registration before the product hit the market, based on the concept of sources management, if the raw material numbered by certain international standards is given the certification in our nation, the raw material can be processed to processed food without another certification.If the raw material is not given the certification, it can not be used to be the material of processed food in our nation.TFDA will do sample survey on commercial available food every year. They will check if those food comply with labeling regulation.

Border inspection

According to the Food Sanitation and Safety Regulation, imported genetic modified products which are given the certification should be classified into Customs Classification of Products Columns. Importer should apply for the inspection to the authorities and also declare the information of the products.

The estimation of border inspection

Both domestic and foreign companies should carry out the inspection, so it complies with the principle of non discrimination. However, there is no genetic modified raw material produced in Taiwan, therefore, the regulation only affect on foreign companies. On avoiding unnecessary detention aspect, it takes about a year to accomplish the risk assessment on average. It is necessary to focus on the number of the cases reviewed and the time that must take for assessing in order to avoid unnecessary detention.

Tracking

The purpose:

• When the food safety problems occur, it can strengthen the possibility to recall the products.
• Enhance monitoring quality
• Strengthen risk assessment under the concept of prevention
• Ensure the correction of labeling in order to ensure that consumers can get correct information to select.
• The information circulation between companies is the basis of tracking.

Conclusion

The genetic modified food regulation in Taiwan does not violate SPS or TBT in general. Some details can make slight adjustment to avoid controversy. The food safety regulation should clarify consumers’ right to know and select. It can not only strengthen the food safety system but ensure the coordination to international trade regulation.

China late blight

Background

Our topic this year is integrated control of potato late blight. The potato late blight which is cause by phytophthora infestans ,is one of the most devastating disease of potato. It cause more than 17 billion USD loss of grain production, the loss of our country is more than a billion USD. We have launched an investigation into potato varieties, breeding, cultivation, prevention of late blight，economic circulation and policy of mainland of china.

Potato is eaten as food for 14000 years. It is discover by original inhabitants of South American, and it is propagated into china from silk way in Ming. Currently per production is 15 thousand KG per hectare in china, but according to the research of expects that expected production is 40-80 thousand KG per hectare. The average consumption of Chinese is about 32.1KG, the first three planting area of china is Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Guiyang. There are ten provinces that the planting area is over 20 thousand hectare, which are Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu, Heilongjiang, Chongqing, Shanxi, Sichuan, Shanxi, Yunnan, Hubei.

From data analysis, we know that the input to the output is 1:4 for potato,1:2.5 for soya, and 1:2 for barley. one hectare of potato can give us two times the production of crop, three times the output value of crop. The water use efficiency is 8 times of wheat and corn. 60% arable land of china is in water shortage, only potato planting can obtain high yield.

Potato

Potato is some kinds of cold-loving heat fear crop. The best temperature for tuber sprouting is 18°C, suitable temperature for stems and leaves is 17-21°C, the lowest bearable temperature is 7°C，the highest bearable temperature is 25-27°C. In germination period supernumerary water supply is not needed. However at the period of blossom requirement of water reached the highest, once the water supplied is not enough, the tuber cannot grow big enough. Excessive rain fall in late Growth will cause high probability of infection.

Variety

Import

• Atlantic: late-maturing variety, anti-PVX and PLRV, high starch content, resistance to storage. Mainly used for frying potato chips.
• Faudio-videoorita: (also known as the Dutch potato): precocious high-yielding varieties, anti-potato virus Y and leaf virus, potato virus A and tumor disease immunity. Resistant to storage, good eating quality.
• Gannongshu One: early-maturing variety, growth period of about 65 days, the varieties resistant leaf virus, have high resistance to early blight and ring rot disease, and can avoid late blight somehow.
• Taiwan Redskins (imported from Holland): late-maturing variety, deep purple stems, the plants moderate infection late blight, tuber resistant late blight, moderate anti-scab, drought resistance, high yield.

Domestic breed late blight resistant

• Zhongshu five (early-maturing variety, poor field resistance.)
• Yue potato one(late-maturing variety, highly anti late blight, anti degradation.)
• Kexin one (late-maturing variety, drought and water logging resistance.)
• Kexin thirteen(late-maturing variety, good eating quality.)

Domestic breed non-late-blight-resistant

• Dongnong 303(particularly early-maturing variety, water logging resistance, but sensitive to late blight.)
• Zhongshu two (particularly early-maturing variety, anti leaf virus.)
• Zhongshu three(early-maturing variety,70 days to heaviest, good eating quality.)
• Kexin four(early-maturing variety,70 days to heaviest, somehow anti disease.)

Currently there are several ways to get new varieties. One, recommend new variety from another country, after Screening and Identification, finding out what can be used, and popularize it directly. Two, Cross breeding, using the method of artificial hybridization to conc-entrate good traits in hybrids. The mainly methods are relatives hybridization, inter specific hybridization, far source hybridization and so on. Three, radiation breeding, it is a method that using physical methods to make genus change. Four, Natural variability selective breeding and natural seeds seedling breeding.

Potato breeding situation

Common breeding methods are pedigree act and backcross methods, these methods have difficulty in break through. Method following are wild species hybridization, this is a method that transferred diploid wild specie into common tetraploid, this method provided many resource materials, express the gene that available, but have the problem of infertility. Somatic cell hybridization is an effective way to solve hybrid incompatibility problem.

Another method that available is biological engineering technology method. Using this technique can transfer some genes that benefit such as resistance genes, into potato varieties we have. And we can use biological engineering technology to identified (such as the use of hybrid varieties isoenzyme identification).

Late Blight

China's loss about $ 1 billion annually. Yunnan, northwest, north and northeast China are main areas epidemic in 2014, the incidence area are over acres 233 hectares. Use of resistant varieties is basic measures to prevent potato from late blight, however the mainly used varieties are always not resistant to late blight, meanwhile late blight have specific high speed of spread on suitable condition. So that the mainly used method is pesticide, but long period use of pesticide can cause many problems such as environmental pollution, pesticide residues, something like resistant strains and cross-resistance and series of problems.

Prevention of late blight

Sowing prevention:

The use of resistance is one of the efficient methods to prevent late blight. Since the seed virus is the only resource of infection, built of land without virus can greatly reduce the infection source, thus effectively preventing the occurrence of late blight. Prevent continuous cropping with Solanaceae, crop rotation with cruciferous plants over three years. Soil preparation, choose high terrain, good drainage planting land, increasing potassium to increase resistance. Every aspect of sowing seed to be featured, eliminate contaminated tubers, recommend small seed sowing.

Growth prevention:

Earth the potato in the late growing period, to avoid spore infect tubers. Once the stem is infected, mow it immediately, harvest after 2-3 days exposure. Rational close planting, to improve ventilation and light conditions, reducing the field humidity。Take protective drug prevention before the onset, taking treatment after the onset by chemical. In early stage of late blight, immediately remove the infected plane, with tuber and root. Spring some pesticide 30-50 m all the way from the infected plane.

Storage prevention:

One week before harvest, potato vine should be killed, clean out the stems and leaves and focus on the outer fields, choose a sunny day for harvest. Enhance ventilation during storage, temperature control between 1-4 ° c, humidity no higher than 75%.

Trading

The cost of planting potato is about 11226 RMB per hectare, the average total earning is about 14344.5 RMB per hectare, average pure earning is about 3118.5 RMB per hectare. It means the peasantry’s pure earning of 1KG potato is 0.15 RMB.

From place of production to market, the money that cost is showing below. One, cost of acquisition, 15-20 RMB per ton. Two, cost of transport, 272.1 RMB per ton. Three, cost of handling, 37.6 RMB per ton. Four, cost of marketing, 25 RMB per ton. Five, interest of broker, 15.9 RMB per ton. Total 368.1 RMB per ton.

National policy and related units

Nowadays one of the main problem is that fund investment of government is in serious shortage. Currently private investment is more than 2 billion RMB(CNY) but the investment of the government is less than 0.2 billion RMB(CNY), especially in scarcity of Science and Technology. It takes about 10 years for breeding potato. This section seems like a nonprofit research. China start a subsidy program in 2009, 500 RMB(CNY) for stock seed per 1/15 hectare, 100 RMB(CNY) for first grade stock seed.

The money subsided is less than 1/3 of the cost. What is more, potato is fast degradation, it should renew opportune. It makes more money for using virus-free seeds, about 150-200 RMB(CNY)per 1/15 hectare. Without the subsidy of government, peasantry would not like to increase their investment for buying virus-free seed.

Newsletter

Newsletter is a publication which is released by Amoy. The contents of newsletter include the introduction of team, the project you are working on, and a question. The question we deal with is the current situation and the future of synthetic biology. We take IGEM as example to know the current situation of synthetic biology. The following is what is written in newsletter.

Distribution of iGEM Teams

The United States, followed by China, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan, respectively, has the greatest scientific output in the field of biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology. With a few exceptions, countries with the most paper published in this field also has the highest number of iGEM teams. However, the country currently with the most iGEM teams is China, not the US. Although the US is the origin of iGEM and has increased steadily in participation, the growth rate of Asia’s participation is substantially faster than US’s.

By comparing the number of iGEM teams in different countries and regions in 2015, we are able to deduce two factors that influence the abundance of iGEM teams: economy and education. The hypothesis of population directly correlating to the number of iGEM teams is incorrect, as demonstrated in the iGEM population in Asia. With a total of 102 teams in Asia, China with 55 teams, Japan with 9, and Taiwan with 9, are the three Asia countries with the most iGEM teams. Although China has one of the largest populations in the world, however, Japan and Taiwan have considerably less. This shows that the number of iGEM teams is not directly correlated to population. On the other hand, economy is strongly correlated to the number of iGEM teams. GDP, or Gross domestic product, is commonly used as an indicator of the economic health of a country. According to trading economics, China had a GDP of 9240.27 (USD billion) in 2014, no doubt the largest GDP value in Asia. Japan in 2014 had a GDP of 4901.00, easily standing as the second strongest economy in Asia. Taiwan, although with GDP of 489.21, however, it is experiencing a steady GDP annual growth rate of 3.47% in 2013, and 3.38% in 2014. Egypt and South Africa both have a significantly larger population than Taiwan and Japan, yet they only have one iGEM team each. Looking into their GDP value, Egypt had a GDP of 271.97, with a decline of GDP annual growth rate. South Africa’s GDP was 350.63, with a low GDP annual growth rate.

Another factor that contributes to the number of iGEM teams is education. This year the United States has a total of 60 iGEM teams. California with nine teams, along with New York and Massachusetts, both with six teams, are the three states with the most iGEM teams in United States. On the contrary, Oregon, Colorado, and Illinois each only has one. By comparing this data to the major universities distribution in United States (see Appendix A), the three states with the most teams – California, New York, and Massachusetts – all have a high distribution of major universities. While Oregon, Colorado, and Illinois with only one team have no major universities. The positive correlation of prestigious universities and the number of teams shows how education is an important factor.

Growth of iGEM Teams

　　Over the past five years, there has been a growth of iGEM teams throughout the world. Two major factors for the growth of iGEM teams are the development of synthetic biology and the quality of education. USA has been the leading position of synthetic biology R&D ever since the early 2000s, meaning it has the most synthetic biology institutes in the world. As a result, USA has the most iGEM team every year. Other countries with advanced synthetic biology research such as Germany, France, Japan, and UK have more iGEM teams than the other countries in their regions. In fact, countries in the top ranking on GERD (gross expenditure on R&D)—US, Japan, Germany, China, and UK respectively—all have more iGEM teams than other countries do: China and Japan have the most teams in Asia; Germany and UK have the most teams in Europe in the past five years. The numbers of iGEM teams in these countries have been growing steadily as their research in synthetic biology developed throughout the years.

　　According to Appendix B, the development and investment in GERD is proportional to the growth of iGEM teams in a country. For example, the number of iGEM teams established in China grew steadily over the past five years from 17 teams in 2010 to 55 teams in 2015. As shown in the graph below, the percent of increase in GERD has been growing rapidly in China ever since 2004, thus providing an explanation for the growth in iGEM teams.

　　Education also serves as a factor of the distribution of iGEM teams. According to QS World University ranking, 47 out of the top 50 university in biological sciences major have participated in iGEM in the past five years. Therefore, we conclude that higher ranking universities in biology related major tend to establish iGEM teams. Schools with better reputation and funding for biological science have more incentive to join the iGEM competition.

　　In conclusion, the two main factors for the growth of iGEM team numbers are the development in synthetic biology and education. Further research and improved education on biological science are incentives for school to join iGEM competition.

Synthetic biology’s future

Synthetic biology is bringing together engineers and biologists to design and build novel bio-molecular components, networks and pathways, and to use these constructs to rewire and reprogram organisms will change our lives over the coming years, revolutionizing our lifestyles. Using stored information and basic materials to grow very complex things, synthetic biology strives to make molecular biology more like engineering, with characterized materials and parts put together in predictable ways. One of the most amazing things about synthetic biology is how advanced the tools and components of its trade have already become. A continuously growing collection of genetic parts that can be mixed and matched to build synthetic biology devices. With demonstrations on synthetic cells, scientists now have a lot of tools to edit an existing genetic sequence on a computer, use DNA synthesizing machines to create it in fragments, and stitch these together in the lab. However, it’s still difficult to predict what cells will do after they’re altered. Researchers are often stymied by cells’ natural drive to grow and live as they please, which in many cases must be overcome to harness them for certain use in an efficient method. One of the biggest hurdles lies in the creation and assembly of starting materials, modular bits of DNA that code for a particular function and are synthesized in the lab. Creating this DNA is time consuming and expensive. Like any commercial product, it must be designed, built, and tested. Even making relatively small changes can take a lot of work, time and money.

DNA synthesis has to be cheap, fast, predictable, accurate, and open to all, including researchers whose labs lack equipment or funding.

The engineering of genetic circuits, biological modules, and synthetic pathways is beginning to address these crucial problems and is being used in related practical application. If human beings could similarly learn to build and control novel living systems, synthetic biology could then trigger a biotech revolution.