OMG! GMOs! What are GMOs and how are they made? http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/fluorescent-felines-meet-pre-plucked-chickens

Engineering E. coli to produce a foreign protein http://radbouddigitalart.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/paint-or-bacteria/

Can bacteria produce human proteins? Human genes may be too big to fit into a plasmid Bacteria cannot splice introns! Therefore, need human genes without introns.

Synthesis of cDNA using reverse transcriptase Complementary DNA (cDNA) has no introns, and can be expressed in bacteria to make eukaryotic proteins.

Genetic engineering of animals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hepoJgGJtNc

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation

Desirable Traits Pest Resistance Herbicide Tolerance Viral Resistance Drought Resistance Increased Nutritional Value Improved Fruit Altered Ripening Kirk’s MONSATO experience Pest resistance = Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), cry delta endotoxin (protein); Herbicide resistance = RoundUp Ready, glyphosate tolerance, 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3- phosphate synthase (EPSPS), from agrobacterium. Drought resistance = C4 plants, stomata that close to minimize water loss. Increased Nutritional Value = Golden Rice, beta carotene. Improved fruit = Flavr Savr tomatoes, delayed softening. Altered Ripening = malin (ethylene precursor; plant hormone). 7

Opponents argue 8 • Creation of super pests • Creation of super weeds Loss of biodiversity Biotechnology companies control agriculture Health concerns 8

Which foods contain GM product? US Approval for GM food crops Corn Soy Papaya Canola Potato Chicory Rice Squash Sugarbeet Tomatoes Approval does not necessarily mean these crops are distributed Database of GM crops: www.agbios.com Which foods contain GM product? Bolded crops are widely grown & sold in US. Go to the agbio.com web site, extensive and will give you a lot of information on the individual plants The intent of the kit is to provide a basis of knowledge so that the students get the information (for debate etc..) 9

Which foods contain GM product? 80% of soy crop in GMO This brings up the question… how much of the of food in your pantry contain GMO 10

Why test for GMO’s? Legislation Export What about unlabeled food? 11 US: food labeled “GM-Free” <5% GM EU: food labeled “GM” if >1% GM Japan: food labeled “GM” if >5% Export What about unlabeled food? The business of Food Import/export 11

Genome editing CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) – Cas9 system: Genome editing with CRISPR-Cas9 (MIT) Genome engineering with CRISPR-Cas9 (J Doudna)