TRANSGENIC PLANTS

 

TRANSGENIC PLANTS – Prospectus in Rural India for sustainable Agri organic products. ( Interaction with   Farmer cum  Agri Entrepreneur- Case study )

 

·   An enormous breakthrough in GMO technology came in 1973, when Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen worked together to engineer the first successful genetically engineered (GE) organism [5]. The two scientists developed a method to very specifically cut out a gene from one organism and paste it into another.

·         Paul Berg is known as the "father of genetic engineering".

 

Transgenic plants: Transgenic plants are plants that have been genetically engineered, a breeding approach that uses recombinant DNA techniques to create plants with new characteristics.

Transgenic animal is one that carries a foreign gene that has been inserted into its genome.

Golden rice -is a genetically modified, bio-fortified crop. Bio-fortification increases the nutritional value in crops. Golden rice is genetically modified in order to produce beta carotene, which is not normally produced in rice.

Transgenic plants are used to express proteins, like the cry toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis, herbicide resistant genes and antigens for vaccinations. Cisgenic plants are made up of using genes, found within the same species or a closely related one, where conventional plant breeding can occur. The main advantages of transgenic plants include larger yield, resistance to diseases and pests and capable of growing under stressful conditions, while their main disadvantages include allergic reactions, emergence of super-pests and loss of biodiversity.

Plants can now be immune to insects, pesticides, herbicides, and can produce more. Animals are now produced to make healthier meat and more efficient milk.

Mustard, a crop whose seeds and oil are traditionally used in everyday cooking in India, is coming closer to being the country's first transgenic food crop. India's top biotechnology regulator earlier this month approved the commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) mustard.

The first transgenic cow was developed in 1997, named Rosie. It consists of the human alpha-lactalbumin gene.

·         Corn: Corn is the most commonly grown crop in the United States

·         Soya bean: Most soy grown in the United States is GMO soy. ...

·         Cotton,Potato:,Papaya, Summer, Squash, Canola, Alfalfa:

·         Plants have considerable potential for the production of biopharmaceutical proteins and peptides because they are easily transformed and provide a cheap source of protein. ... One transgenic plant-derived biopharmaceutical, hirudin, is now being commercially produced in Canada for the first time.

·         Triticale  is a hybrid of wheat (Triticum) and rye (Secale) first bred in laboratories during the late 19th century in Scotland and Germany. ... The resulting hybrid is sterile and must be treated with colchicines to induce polyploidy and thus the ability to reproduce itself.

·         Various food and beverage products of triticale have been developed, including bakery products (e.g., bread and cookie), pasta, malt, spirit, yoghurt, and biodegradable and edible films.

The five: genetically modified fruits are as follows:

 

·         i) Bananas. The beloved banana is in peril. Photograph: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters.

·          ii) Strawberries. Soon to be sweeter still? Photograph: Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters.

·         iii) Apples. Browning-resistant Arctic apples. Photograph: Arctic-apples.

·          iv) Papaya. The newly disease-resistant papaya.  

·         There is no evidence that a crop is dangerous to eat just because it is GM. There could be risks associated with the specific new gene introduced, which is why each crop with a new characteristic introduced by GM is subject to close scrutiny.

·         Transgenic animals can be used to model human diseases. So for example, if there was a particular human disease that results from having a mutated protein over expressed, you can make a transgenic animal that also makes that same mutated protein over expressed.