1. Genetically Engineered Plants

3. Conventional Plant Breeding
Conventional breeding involves crossing selected parent plants, chosen because they have desirable characteristics such as high yield or disease resistance. The breeder's skill lies in selecting the best plants from the many and varied offspring. These are grown on and tested in subsequent years. This process is called artificial selection because people (instead of nature) select which organisms get to reproduce.

4. Conventional Plant Breeding
Typically this involves examining thousands of individual plants for different characteristics ranging from agronomic performance to end-use quality. Developing a new variety can take up to 15 years for wheat, 18 years for potatoes, even longer for some crops.

5. Selective Breeding
Farmers and breeders were using the idea of selection to cause major changes in the features of their plants and animals over the course of decades. Farmers and breeders allowed only the plants and animals with desirable characteristics to reproduce, causing the evolution of farm stock.

7. Why are Plants Genetically Engineered?
In most cases the aim is to introduce a new characteristic which the plant does not have naturally.
Examples include resistance to certain pests, diseases or environmental conditions, or the production of a certain nutrient or pharmaceutical agent.

8. Why are Plants Genetically Engineered?
Plant biotechnology offers further benefits in the form of non-food crops. Through genetic modification, it will be possible to develop industrial crops as renewable sources of medicines, industrial chemicals, fuels and even biodegradable plastics.

9. Why are Plants Genetically Engineered?
Genetically engineered plants could also be used in the production of bioenergy and biofuels or for bioremediation of contaminated soils.
Mercury, selenium and organic pollutants have been removed from soils by plants containing genes for bacterial enzymes which break them down.

10. Genetic modification of Plants
Technology available today enables crop improvement to take place at the level of individual genes. Genetic modification allows breeders to identify the single gene responsible for a particular trait, and insert, or delete or modify it in a plant variety. This enhances the precision of conventional breeding, and makes entirely new combinations of genes possible.

11. Benefits
Farmers
Disease and pest resistance, better weed control, drought and frost tolerance, novel crop
Food industry
Better processing quality, longer shelf life, extended growing season, less chemical inputs
Consumers
Higher protein foods, modified fat foods, higher vitamin produce, longer lasting produce
Environment
Reduced agrochemical use, industrial crops, renewable fuel sources, drought resistant crops

12. What are Genetically Engineered Plants?
Genetically engineered plants are created in a laboratory by adding one or more genes to the plant’s DNA.
Most genetically engineered plants are created by
the biolistic method
(gene gun)
Agrobacterium tumefaciens

13. What is Agrobacterium? Agrobacterium tumefaciens
is a natural parasite for over
140 plant species such as
walnuts, grape vines,
stone fruits & nut trees.
To create a suitable living environment for themselves, A. tumefaciens insert their genes into plants, causing the growth of tumours near the soil level.

14. What is Agrobacterium?
They are used in genetic engineering because of their ability to transfer genes to other organisms using DNA plasmids.
The genes required for tumour growth are coded for on a DNA plasmid.
When Agrobacterium
infects a plant, it transfers
this plasmid to a random
site in the plant’s DNA.

15. What is Agrobacterium?
When used in genetic engineering a foreign gene is inserted into the bacterial plasmid before it is transferred into the plant.
This has been performed using firefly luciferase gene to produce glowing plants.

16. What is Agrobacterium?
This method works especially well for plants like potatoes, tomatoes, and tobacco.
Agrobacterium tumefaciens infection is less successful in crops like wheat and maize.

17. How is Agrobacterium used to Genetically Engineer Plants?
Using restriction and ligase enzymes, the gene(s) are spliced into a plasmid and transferred to the Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
Antibiotic resistance genes called marker genes are also inserted into the plasmid to identify the bacteria that accepted the GE plasmid.

18. How is Agrobacterium used to Genetically Engineer Plants?
Small pieces of the plant chosen to be GE are placed in a culture medium and covered with the GE Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

19. How is Agrobacterium used to Genetically Engineer Plants?
The bacteria infect the plant cells with the
GM T-DNA.

21. How is Agrobacterium used to Genetically Engineer Plants?
Further culturing with growth factors causes the plant tissue to begin to grow roots and a stem.
These immature plants are then grown in soil in a glasshouse to test for the characteristic of the gene.

22. Engineer a crop - simulation http://www. pbs

23. How is Agrobacterium used to Genetically Engineer Plants?
The bacteria infect the plant cells with the
GM T-DNA.

25. Worksheet 5
Try question 8

26. The Biolistic Method
In the biolistic method, DNA is attached to tiny particles of gold. These particles are "shot" into plant cells under high pressure.

27. The Biolistic Method
The particles penetrate both the cell wall and membranes. The DNA separates from the metal and is integrated into the DNA of the plant inside the nucleus.

28. The Biolistic Method
The major disadvantage of this procedure is that serious damage can be done to the cellular tissue.

30. Worksheet 5
Try question 9 and 10

31. What are the risks?
Some concern has been raised with using antibiotic genes as markers to determine whether plants have picked up desired traits
Some people believe that these antibiotic resistant genes might end up being passed on to the bacteria in our guts. Then we might have trouble if the wrong bacteria in our gut get hold of these plasmids!
Companies ensure that there is stringent testing of all bacteria and plants used in GMO crops.

32. What are the risks?
Many plants can mate with wild relatives when they are grown nearby.
The genes that the two plants had can then be passed to their hybrid.

33. What are the risks? Genetically engineered plants can also spread
their new genes to
other plants.
The potential impact on nearby ecosystems is one of the greatest concerns associated with genetically engineered plants.

34. What are the risks?
In most countries environmental studies are required before genetically engineered plants are approved for commercial purposes.
In order for the new gene to spread in the wild these hybrids must be viable, fertile and carry the new gene.

35. GM Banana: Edible Vaccine
Around 2 million children die every year worldwide
from preventable diarrhoea
Agrobacterium can be used to make bananas produce edible vaccines to prevent these illnesses
One dried banana chip, costing around 1 cent, contains enough vaccine for one dose
These edible vaccines
don’t need sterile syringes,
costly refrigeration, or
multiple injections
GM Banana: Edible Vaccine

36. GM Golden Rice: More Nutritious
White rice is a major food source in many developing countries, but it lacks vitamin A
Lack of vitamin A causes Beriberi, a serious illness that can cause brain damage if not treated
GM Golden Rice gets
its golden colour from
Beta carotene, which
the body can convert
to vitamin A
Eating Golden Rice can help prevent Beriberi

37. How Does This ACTUALLY happen?
Virtual lab

38. Explain Genetic Engineering
Using half a page explain the process of using plasmids, restriction enzymes and ligase to produce GM bacteria
You may also like to include a diagram to help explain the process
You will need to include the following terms in your explanation:
Restriction enzyme Gene of interest Ligase
Plasmid Bacteria Sticky Ends
Recognition site

39. Recap – recombinant DNA
1- Firstly we use a Restriction Enzymes to cut DNA plasmid at a specific spot, leaving “sticky ends”
2- We isolate our gene of interest using the same restriction enzymes
3- Gene of interest inserted using ligase enzyme. It attaches because of the sticky ends.
4- Plasmid left around a prokaryote bacteria
5- Bacteria will accept plasmid freely, this is a process called transformation… they think they are useful and just suck them in!
6- Start producing proteins of those genes

40. How do we know which bacteria have the genes?
We insert a gene which includes antibiotic resistance (marker gene) as well as the gene of interest.
We apply the antibiotic
The surviving bacteria are those which have picked up the marker (antibiotic resistance) and gene of interest.
The Rest Die