Plant Biotechnology

Plant Tissue Culture
Plant cells differ from animals cells in that they

http://www.webschoolsolutions.com/biotech/transgen.htm

Plant Cloning

http://catf.bcresearch.com/biotechnology/tissueculture_research.htm

Micropropagation

Callus, undifferentiated mass of plant cells

Seedlings, each from an individual cell

How Do They Engineer Plants?

Methods of producing transgenic plants

http://www.colostate.edu/programs/lifesciences/TransgenicCrops/how.html

Plant Genetic Engineering
Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens
A. tumefaciens is a soil

T-DNA portion of the Ti plasmid contains genes responsible for the

http://www.webschoolsolutions.com/biotech/transgen.htm

http://faculty.abe.ufl.edu/~chyn/age2062/lect/lect_09/10_19A.GIF

Biolistics (Biological Ballistics)

Useful for engineering corn, rice, wheat, barley, & other

Helios Gene Gun

http://www.bio-rad.com

Uses an adjustable burst low-pressure helium to sweep DNA-

Genetically Engineered Plants
Herbicide tolerance
Insect resistance
Crop improvements
Functional foods
Plants as bioreactors
Biofuels
Timber improvements
Bioremediation

Currently 215 million acres of GM crops grown worldwide

Genetically Modified (GM)

>60% of the foods we purchase have GM ingredients
95% of

Who Produces GM Food?
BASF Inc.
Aventis Cropscience
Bayer Cropscience
Syngenta Seed Inc.
Pioneer Hi-Breed International

FLAVR SAVR, The First GM Food

http://resources.emb.gov.hk/envir-ed/globalissue/images/ModifiedTomato.jpg

The first GM food was the FLAVR SAVR tomato
Introduced in 1994

Fruit softens because polygalacturonase degrades pectin
Antisense technology was used to turn

PG gene

transcription

mRNA

translation

PG gene

transcription

mRNA

Antisense mRNA

translation

Antisense Technology

Polygalacturonase (PG) is an enzyme that breaks down pectin in

http://www.wachstumshormon.info/kontrovers/gentechnik/flavrsavr.html?gfx=2

Most GM tomatoes were used only in canned puree
By 1997 FlavrSavr

Current technologies aid the farmer not the consumer
Herbicide Resistance
Virus Resistance
Insect Resistance

Herbicide Tolerance
Methods used to promote crop growth also promote weeds
Weeds often

Soybean with no herbicides

Soybean after herbicides

Herbicides are used for weed control

Herbicide

Non-selective herbicides (Roundup Ultra and)

Roundup® (chemical name: glyphosate)

Breaks down

EPSPS Transgene Introduced into Plants

Codon usage modified
for efficient expression
in plants

promoter

Regulatory

Move to greener herbicide

Benefits of Glyphosate Tolerance in Crops

Roundup® Ready Crops
Corn
Alfalfa
Soybeans
Canola
Sorghum
Cotton
Tomato
Potato
Wheat

1996 Roundup® Ready Gene Agreement
Terms:
The farmer must pay a

The farmer must give up his/her right to save and

Concerns of Roundup® Ready Crops
Spread of resistance genes to weeds
Problems with

Benefits of Roundup® Ready Crops
Fields no longer need tilling
Reduction in weed

Roundup® patent recently expired
Researchers have designed new method of resistance
Sorted thru

There are also varieties of various crops resistant to:
Glufosinate
Bromoxyil
Sulfonylurea

Virus Resistance
Yellow Squash resistant to three different viruses were developed by

Transgenic PRV-resistant papaya has been grown commercially in Hawaii since 1996

Increased

promoter

Regulatory sequences recognised by plant
(either from plant gene or plant virus

Various Cry genes (CryIA(b), CryIA(c), & Cry9C) have been inserted crops

What is BT
doplnit z prednasky roslinna biotechnologie

Molecular basis of the Bt action

Bt Corn & Monarch Butterflies
Cry toxin is expressed in all of

Biodiversity / NTO Studies

Monarch Butterfly, symbol of nature and “wildness” in

Bt Corn & Allergies
Bt corn is approved for human consumption
However Starlink®

Benefits of Bt Corn
Crop yield increases by up to 33%
39% less

Concerns associated with GM crops

Possible production of allergenic or toxic proteins

How to prevent development of Bt resistance in insects?

at least

Crop Improvements

Current research into crop improvements include:
Increased growth rate
Increased

Drought / Salinity Resistance
Trehalose is a protectant against many environmental stresses;

Modification of Seed Oil Content

Plant Seed Oils
Oils either for cooking or industrial uses are usually

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio104/lipids.htm

Fatty Acids

Triglyceride

http://food.oregonstate.edu/images/fat/lard1.jpg
http://www.plattsalat.de/Gawang.html
http://www.aces.edu/dept/extcomm/newspaper/feb23b01.html

Canola Oil -10°C Coconut Oil 20-25°C Lard 40.5°C
5% Saturated 85% Saturated 100% Saturated

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio104/lipids.htm

Cis-fatty acids, naturally occuring unsaturated acids
Trans-fatty acids, artifically generated to keep

Soybeans with Modified Oil Content
Soybeans normally have high amounts of the

Over 60 million tons of seed oil are used for edible

Rape field full of brillantly yellow flowers

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0011652.html

The first transgenic crop with modified oil content was a high

Other varieties of GM rapeseed could provide:
Steric acid as a substitute

http://www.teedrogen.info/systematik/7_bilder/ara-th-1.jpg

Arabidopsis thaliana (Cress)

Arabidopsis is a model organism used by scientists to

http://www.thegutsygourmet.net/post-brassica.jpg

Brassica (Mustard) Family

Nutritional Enhancement

Improving Protein Quality

Nutritional value of seed storage proteins

‘Increased nutritive value of transgenic potato by expressing a nonallergenic seed

Changes in protein quality in Amaranthus albumin potatoes

5-8 fold

http://www.princeton.edu/~fecelik/GMFoods/impactshumanconsumptionpros.html

Golden Rice
Inserted genes from other plants & bacteria to produce β–carotene
Vitamin

Vitamin A

Vitamin A (retinol) is essential to human growth

Our bodies

400 million people are at risk of vitamin A deficiency (VAD),

Vaccine Foods
In the early 1990’s tomatoes, bananas, & potatoes were proposed

There are concerns about dosing when these crops are directly consumed.

Plants as Bioreactors
Plants (crops or cell culture) can be used to

Large Scale Biology Corp. (LSBC) uses tobacco plants for drug manufacturing
LSBC

USDA just approved the use of rice to produce lactoferrin and

Plant BioFuels

Cellulosic Ethanol
Has higher yield due to the fermentation of sugar released

BioDiesel
1900 Rudolph Diesel runs his engine on peanut oil
Biodiesel is defined

http://www.biodiesel.org/pdf_files/fuelfactsheets/Production_Graph_Slide.pdf

U.S. consumes 40 billion gallons of diesel/yr

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.04/genetics.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=

Timber Biotechnology

Reduction in generation time
Trees can take years to flower
Those overexpressing the

Alteration in tree size or form
Altered expression of a gene involved

From left to right:
antisense-GA 20-oxidase, wild type, & GA 20-oxidase overexpressing

www.upsc.se/tmoritz.htm

Six

Leaves from GM poplar

http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/947076.asp?0cl=cr&cp1=1

http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/1999/08/080999/trees_4724.asp

Trees engineered to produce lower amounts of lignin
These trees grow faster

Bioremediation

Bioremediation using bacteria has limitations
The engineered or specialized bacteria used are