The development of biotechnology and molecular biology make it possible for us to regulate or even control the plant traits, by using DNA sequence information, such as the structure, function and mechanism etc. DNA technologies based on DNA molecular markers, transgenic technology and gene expression have been widely used in agricultural production which have showed great potential in improving agricultural yields and quality, reducing the loss that various biotic and abiotic stress caused, promoting the utilization of germplasm resource, improving breeding efficiency and strengthening the regulation of plant growth [ 2 – 4 ].
What are the different methods of gene transfer for agricultural research?
This review has described major gene transfer methods with immediate potential for agricultural research. Diverse techniques are available: direct uptake of DNA, microinjection of DNA, cell fusion, and gene delivery by an array of vectors. Although details differ among animals, plants, and bacteria, underlying principles do not.
Why do we need gene transfer methods?
In summary, a variety of gene transfer methods is needed to accomplish diverse goals, which include fundamental studies of gene regulation, isolation of genes whose function and location are unknown, production of proteins in large quantities, and introduction of new traits. Abdullah, R., E. C. Cocking, and J. A. Thompson. 1986.
What is the best technique for genetic transformation in plants?
Genetic transformation techniques are now applied routinely to a large number of plant species. The most convenient technique for introduce genes in plants is by Agrobacterium tumefaciens ( Horsch et al., 1985) and biolistic (Sanford, 1998) mediated transformation.
What is the importance of DNA technology in agriculture?
These modern DNA technologies with high feasibility and necessity are important measures to guarantee the sustainable development of agricultural. Despite the agriculture including plant and animal production, DNA technologies in these fields share the same technical purpose and type.
What is genetic and how is it useful in agricultural practices?
Genetic manipulation is a process in which genes of desirable characters are taken from a plant and transferred to another plant by the technique of hybridization. Genetic manipulation helps in obtaining desirable agronomic characters liked Dwarfness in cereals and tallness and profuse branching in fodder crops.
What is genetic transformation used for?
Genetic transformation involves the transfer and incorporation of foreign DNA into a host genome. In order for this transferred DNA to be transmitted to later generations, transformation of germline or other appropriate cells of the recipient species is essential.
How is transformation used in biotechnology?
Transformation is a key step in DNA cloning. It occurs after restriction digest and ligation and transfers newly made plasmids to bacteria. After transformation, bacteria are selected on antibiotic plates. Bacteria with a plasmid are antibiotic-resistant, and each one will form a colony.
What is the most common genetic material used for transformation?
plasmid DNATransformation is the uptake of genetic material from the environment by bacterial cells. In nature, this genetic material often comes from adjacent lysed bacteria and can include plasmid DNA or fragmented DNA released into the environment.
How has genetic transformation been successful?
Genetic transformation technologies have been successfully extended into selected nondrosophilid species using transposable elements. This significant and exciting success has, however, being confined to the laboratory where it has enabled novel genotypes to be constructed and tested. These technologies have yet to be extended to the field, despite many years elapsing since genetic transformation protocols were first established for key pest species such as C. capitata and A. aegypti. If the full potential and benefits of genetic modification of medically and agriculturally significant insect species is to be realized then there must be a stronger linkage between the formulation of ideas and the subsequent timely and safe testing of these in transgenic insect strains in the laboratory, and in the field. Key to this is improving the robustness of transgenic technology in these insect species. Alternatively, the wisdom of establishing a handful of insect transformation centers that would provide this service to the community needs to be explored. This may be particularly attractive for species, such as A. gambiae, that remain difficult to transform. Providing a central transformation center may encourage researchers to develop and test new concepts, confident that at least the transgenic insects containing the desired transgenes will be routinely produced in a timely manner. It is critical to demonstrate in the laboratory and then in field cage experiments clear and concrete examples of how transgenic insect technology is beneficial to the general public so that arguments about the benefits of these new approaches can be clearly made to this interested and undoubtedly concerned audience.
What are the elements that can be used as vectors for insects?
Two of these, P and hobo, appear restricted for use in drosophilids only, while the remaining four, Hermes, mariner (represented by the Mos 1 element), Minos, and piggyBac, have far wider host ranges.
How is coffee genetically modified?
Genetic transformation of coffee using genetic engineering aims to obtain new cultivars with disease and pest resistance, tolerance to drought and frost, enhanced cup quality, and low caffeine content. A lot of methods are used to improve coffee traits, starting with simple selection, through which individuals with superior characteristics are selected and propagated over time. Based on in vitro coffee propagation (which is a useful tool for genetic engineering in coffee), different methods such as electroporation, microprojectile bombardment or Agrobacterium system, and RNAi technology are used to introduce foreign genes into the coffee genome.
What is the most convenient technique for introducing genes in plants?
Genetic transformation techniques are now applied routinely to a large number of plant species. The most convenient technique for introduce genes in plants is by Agrobacterium tumefaciens ( Horsch et al., 1985) and biolistic (Sanford, 1998) mediated transformation.
What are selectable markers?
Selectable markers are required in genetic transformation for the identification of transformed cells harboring gene of interest inside the plant cell (Walden, 1989; Klein et al., 1989 ). Selectable genes comprise selectable markers which are used for genetic transformation, allowing plant cells to grow under conditions that prevent the growth of untransformed tissue. These marker genes often exhibit dominant phenotype, usually of microbial origin, and often placed under the control of promoter elements, originating from plant, bacterial, or viral elements for strong constitutive eukaryotic expression.
What determines the success of genetic transformation?
The regeneration capacity of individual species, which determines the success of genetic transformation, is in turn governed by various factors, most significantly by cultivar or genotype, type of explant, and the degree of determination in tissue ( Litz and Padilla, 2012 ).
How many genes are in D. melanogaster?
With the entire genome of D. melanogaster now sequenced and in excess of 13,000 genes being identified on the basis of gene organization and primary sequence ( Adams et al., 2000 ), genetic transformation will play an important role in assigning function to a large number of these genes.
How has genetic transformation been successful?
Genetic transformation technologies have been successfully extended into selected nondrosophilid species using transposable elements. This significant and exciting success has, however, being confined to the laboratory where it has enabled novel genotypes to be constructed and tested. These technologies have yet to be extended to the field, despite many years elapsing since genetic transformation protocols were first established for key pest species such as C. capitata and A. aegypti. If the full potential and benefits of genetic modification of medically and agriculturally significant insect species is to be realized then there must be a stronger linkage between the formulation of ideas and the subsequent timely and safe testing of these in transgenic insect strains in the laboratory, and in the field. Key to this is improving the robustness of transgenic technology in these insect species. Alternatively, the wisdom of establishing a handful of insect transformation centers that would provide this service to the community needs to be explored. This may be particularly attractive for species, such as A. gambiae, that remain difficult to transform. Providing a central transformation center may encourage researchers to develop and test new concepts, confident that at least the transgenic insects containing the desired transgenes will be routinely produced in a timely manner. It is critical to demonstrate in the laboratory and then in field cage experiments clear and concrete examples of how transgenic insect technology is beneficial to the general public so that arguments about the benefits of these new approaches can be clearly made to this interested and undoubtedly concerned audience.
What are the elements that can be used as vectors for insects?
Two of these, P and hobo, appear restricted for use in drosophilids only, while the remaining four, Hermes, mariner (represented by the Mos 1 element), Minos, and piggyBac, have far wider host ranges.
What is AOB in biology?
AOB are chemolithoautotrophs, a property that precludes the selection of a mutant by its inability to metabolize a substrate (as is often done for the selection of transformed heterotrophic bacteria). The current method to produce and isolate AOB transformants uses selection by acquired resistance to an antibiotic.
What is particle bombardment?
Particle bombardment (other terms used for ‘particle bombardment’ are ‘Biolistics,’ ‘microprojectile bombardment,’ and ‘particle acceleration’) as a purely physical method utilizes high-velocity microscopic heavy metal particles to deliver the DNA into a suitable target tissue.
What is the toxic substance in soil?
The soil bacterium produces a protein that is toxic to various herbivorous insects. The protein, known as Bt toxin, is produced in an inactive, crystalline form. When consumed by insects, the protein is converted to its active, toxic form (delta endotoxin), which in turn destroys the gut of the insect.
What is gene transfer?
Gene transfer technologies are an essential part of modern plant tissue culture science. Uniform transformation of plant cells under in vitro conditions is required for the stable expression of genes. However, plant transformation techniques do not transform all cells.
What family are vinegar flies in?
If this same graph had been compiled by early 1995, the only group that would be represented would be the vinegar flies—the family Drosophilidae. The progress made in the past 5 years has been remarkable, particularly the development of four separate transformation systems for use in mosquitoes.
What is genetic engineering?
Genetic engineering is a method that, among other things, enables scientists to copy a gene with a desired trait in one organism and put it into another. Genetic engineering has been used since the 1970s and builds on the scientific advances we have made in the study of DNA. A gene in a soil bacterium (Bt) …
What is genome editing?
Genome editing is a new method that gives scientists more precise and targeted ways to develop new crop varieties. Genome editing tools can make it easier and quicker to make changes that were previously done through traditional breeding. One example of genome editing is removing an unwanted gene.
The Need for Global Crop Improvement
Why do scientists, agriculturalists and food production specialists practice crop improvement practices? A rapidly changing climate, combined with unpredictable geopolitical landscapes and mass migration, requires that sustainable methods of food production are urgently developed. The field of agricultural genomics has for decades been central to crop development, providing breakthroughs such as reference genome sequencing, genotyping for genome-wide association studies, and genomic prediction technologies essential in crop improvement.
Genetics, Geopolitics & Food Security
Like it or loath it, genomics has a vital role to play in future food security and food sustainability. By 2050, it is estimated that the global population will be between 9 – 10 billion people (UN, 2019 https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2019.html ).
Climate change
As detailed in various prior posts ( https://bit.ly/3zcaGR3 ; https://bit.ly/36JYJpx ; https://bit.ly/2TiqUsA ; https://bit.ly/3ezw7nj ), a change in climate roughly 12,000 years ago precipitated the move to agriculture. However, current climate change is putting agriculture under threat. Increased aridification and reduction of water sources has led to a decrease of available agricultural land. Intensive farming of the remaining land will lead to soil degradation and land exhaustion..
Pathogen resistance
Development of cereal varieties with increased pathogen resistance but that require less inputs such as pesticides (and development of management practices to tackle crop pathogens) is a primary goal of agricultural research, and one in which genomics plays a pivotal role. Crop disease is a major economic and food security issue. A collaboration between The Zoological Society of London, Rothamsted Research and Sheffield University used computer models to predict the economic cost of pesticide-use on UK farms producing winter wheat. The weed ‘Black-grass’ ( Alopecurus myosuroides ) has forced UK farmers to abandon winter wheat crops, costing the UK economy ~£400 million, and 800,000 tonnes of lost wheat yield each year (Varah et al, 2019). The authors predict these costs to significantly rise and impact food production and call for an urgent reduction of pesticide use.
Biodiversity loss
Plant domestication is an evolutionary process. Limited numbers of progenitor species were used by early farmers and they selected for traits related to yield, harvesting ability, and edibility (Hua et al., 2015). This produced genetic bottlenecks that have resulted in a reduction in genetic variation among annual herbaceous crops (Zhang et al., 2016). This lack of genetic diversity in our economic crops is a food security threat, as we depend on only a few dozen species for the bulk of our nutrition and the few species we manipulate have limited ability to cope with environmental instability.
Political pressure
Agricultural production is experiencing increasing pressure from policy makers with regards to methods.
Public perception & GMO controversy
Consumer buying habits ultimately direct how food is produced. Consumers increasingly gravitate towards “organic” and “non-GMO” products on supermarket shelves and are also concerned about the use of antibiotics and the potential role this plays in human antibiotic resistance. Alternative crop development techniques are also required to make farming more environmentally sustainable and environmentally friendly. A major concern of environmental policy, particularly in the EU (EU Nitrates Directive etc.) is chemical run off from the field (pesticides) into water courses, leading to pollution of waterways and biodiversity loss. Development of crop varieties resistant to pathogens and reducing the need for pesticides is hence of central environmental importance..
What is GM technology?
Genetic modification (GM) technology allows the transfer of genes for specific traits between species using laboratory techniques. GM crops were first introduced in the U.S. in the mid-1990s. Most current GM crops grown in the U.S. are engineered for insect resistance or herbicide tolerance. Corn, soybeans, and cotton are …
What is a GM plant?
Other terms used for GM plants or foods derived from them are genetically modified organism ( GMO), genetically engineered (GE), bioengineered, and transgenic. ‘Genetically modified’ is an imprecise term and a potentially confusing one, in that virtually everything we eat has been modified genetically through domestication from wild species …
How do plant breeding programs work?
Most plant breeding programs rely on manual cross-pollination between genetically distinct plants to create new combinations of genes. The progeny plants are intensively evaluated over several generations and the best ones are selected for potential release as new varieties.
Why are GM crops so large?
Because several of them are major crops, the area planted to GM varieties is very large. Most current GM crops have been engineered for resistance to insects, tolerance to herbicides (weed control products) or both. Figure 1. Currently grown GM crops in the U.S., traits for which they are modified, and percent of total acreage …
What is stacked corn?
Some cultivars of corn and cotton are referred to as ‘stacked’, meaning they have transgenes for both insect resistance and HT. According to USDA-ERS (2013), over half of the U.S. corn and cotton acreage was planted to stacked cultivars in 2013.
How do organisms store genetic information?
Most organisms store their genetic information in the form of DNA molecules in chromosomes. The sequence of chemical bases in a DNA strand encodes a specific order of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins . Proteins carry out many functions in cells and tissues, which together are responsible for an organism’s characteristics. Because most life forms share this same language of heredity—and due to scientific advances in molecular biology—it is now possible to transfer a gene from one species to another, for example from a bacterium to a plant, and have it function in its new host.
Is Roundup herbicide toxic to mammals?
The protein produced in the plant by the Bt gene is toxic to a targeted group of insects—for example European corn borer or corn rootworm—but not to mammals. The most common herbicide tolerant (HT) crops are known as Roundup Ready®, meaning they are tolerant to glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup® herbicide).
What is the purpose of genetic transformation?
Transformation of cells is a widely used and versatile tool in genetic engineering and is of critical importance in the development of molecular biology. The purpose of this technique is to introduce a foreign plasmid into bacteria, the bacteria then amplifies the plasmid, making large quantities of it.
What are the 3 types of genetic engineering?
Genetic Engineering
Accessing the Germline of Animals.
Germline refers to the lineage of cells that can be genetically traced from parent to offspring.
What are the dangers of genetic engineering?
The purely social and political dangers of genetic engineering include the possibility of increased economic inequality accompanied by an increase in human suffering, and the possibility of large-scale eugenic programmes and totalitarian control over human lives.
What is meant by genetic transformation?
Genetic transformation: A process by which the genetic material carried by an individual cell is altered by the incorporation of foreign (exogenous) DNA into its genome.
How are the concept of genetics applied in real life?
Genetics affects us all in many ways.
Genetics can help health-care professionals to identify certain conditions in babies before they are born using techniques such as prenatal testing.
Genetic technologies are also being used to help develop targeted medicines for certain diseases.
What is the general transformation procedure?
Bacteria can take up foreign DNA in a process called transformation. Transformation is a key step in DNA cloning. It occurs after restriction digest and ligation and transfers newly made plasmids to bacteria. After transformation, bacteria are selected on antibiotic plates.
What are two methods of transformation?
Transformation can occur in two ways: natural transformation and artificial transformation. Natural transformation describes the uptake and incorporation of naked DNA from the cell’s natural environment. Artificial transformation encompasses a wide array of methods for inducing uptake of exogenous DNA.