Cotton is one of the major fibre crops of global significance, it is only cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical regions. [1] However, various types of pests attack cotton and other monoculture crops, such as the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera, native bollworm H. punctigera and occasionally spider mites. These pests cause extensive damage to the crop; therefore, cotton has been genetically modified to produce specific toxins for insect tolerance, this is called BT toxin.
BT cotton is a type of transgenic cotton containing a protein induced from the gene of soil bacterium named as Bacillus thuringiensis (BT). Genes encoded for proteins were incorporated into cotton plants by Monsanto, an American agricultural biotechnology corporation. In 1980, Monsanto identified and extracted BT genes, the gene encoding for BT protein (Cry1Ac) was successfully inserted into cotton. In 1996, the insect resistant GM cotton was grown commercially for the first time after six years of field study. [2]
BT cotton is produced by inserting an artificial gene of the naturally occurring soil bacterium into cotton seeds; the gene contains DNA which carries instructions for producing the internal toxic protein to allow the plant to be effective against bollworms. Below are the photos showing a typical BT cotton plant and its flowers.
BT cotton is different from conventionally bred cotton as it is a genotype developed by techniques of genetic engineering. BT genes must be acquired in a significant amount before it can be transferred into an organism. DNA is extracted from the gene and inserted into bacterial plasmid. “Plasmid is a linear or circular double-stranded DNA that is capable of replicating independently of the chromosomal DNA.” ...
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Jamie Pighin, 20 Aug 2006, How genetics is providing new ways to envision agriculture, accessed 27 Feb 2014 http://www.scq.ubc.ca/transgenic-crops-how-genetics-is-providing-new-ways-to-envision-agriculture/ [6] http://www.cottoncrc.org.au/communities/cotton_info/the_science_behind_transgeniccotton [7]
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Figure 2 shows the results of the electrophoresis. Lanes 5 and 7 indicate the fragments obtained when the plasmids are digested with both restriction enzymes, indicating the approximate fragment size for the hlyA gene, the pK184 plasmid and the pBluescript plasmid. This is useful for identifying the recombinant DNA needed for this experiment
Therefore colonies containing the non-recombinant pUC19 plasmid have a functional lacz’ gene appear blue on the agar and colonies containing recombinant pUC19 would have a non-functional lacz’ gene due to insertional inactivation and appear white on the growing medium.
Modern biotechnology was born at the hands of American scientists Herb Boyer and Stain Cohen, when they developed “recombinant deoxyribonucleotide, (rDNA), [1] for medicinal purposes. Subsequently, biotechnologists started genetically engineering agricultural plants using this technology. A single gene responsible for a certain trait, from one organism (usually a bacterium) is selected altered and then ‘spliced” into the DNA of a plant to create an agricultural crop consisting of that...
Wheat grown by traditional farming methods assuages the fundamental conditions for natural selection and is thus able to withstand environmental shifts in the future. However, wheat that is genetically uniform doesn’t satisfy the required circumstances for natural selection to occur. Therefore, it cannot survive prospective advancements. It is innate that a genetically diverse crop will be better able to subsist than a genetically engineered uniform crop. Kingsolver’s argument influences beyond intuition to exemplify why genetic diversity is preferable when compared to genetic uniformity with recognition to food
The boll weevil’s primary food source are cotton plants, a crop that covered the southern plantations at the time. In the spring, when they emerge from hibernation, they puncture the cotton buds and lay their eggs inside ("What is a Boll Weevil?"). After about four days, the larvae are born. This is where most of the damage occurs. The larvae eat and destroy the cotton fibers("What is a Boll Weevil?"). The plant is plagued by these insects; they eat them until the cotton plant’s eventual death. The boll weevil season allows for man...
Any organism that is genetically modified can be defined as a transgenic organism. The two main benefits of transgenic plants are that they can help increase yields without having to select against bad plants, and they can be resistant to toxins. In order to create a transgenic plant DNA ...
...earch Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology sued Monsanto in the Supreme Court of India and Monsanto could not start the commercial sales of its Bt cotton seeds until 2002. And, after the damning report of India’s parliamentary committee on Bt crops in August 2012, the panel of technical experts appointed by the Supreme Court recommended a 10-year moratorium on field trials of all GM food and termination of all ongoing trials of transgenic crops. But it had changed Indian agriculture already. Monsanto’s seed, the destruction of alternatives, the collection of super profits in the form of royalties, and the increasing vulnerability of cultures has created a context for debt, suicides and distress which is driving the farmers’ suicide epidemic in India. This systemic control has been intensified with Bt cotton. That is why most suicides are in the cotton belt.
One of the most prominent crops in the GMO industry is Bt corn. The Bt pesticide stands for Bacillus Thuringiensis. Scientists transferred the Bt gene into the corn to create a crop that produces its own pesticides. As the corn matures, it grows stronger poi...
The purpose of this experiment is to identify an unknown insert DNA by using plasmid DNA as a vector to duplicate the unknown insert DNA. The bacteria will then be transformed by having it take in the plasmid DNA, which will allow us to identify our unknown insert as either the cat gene or the kan gene.
A GMO is a plant or animal that has been genetically engineered with DNA from bacteria, viruses, or other plants and animals. Most of the combinations which are used could not possibly occur in nature on its own. The intention of the process is to create a new beneficial trait such as creating its own pesticide or make it immune to herbicides. This would allow the crop such as Bt co...
Science and technology are rapidly advancing everyday; in some ways for the better, and in some, for worse. One extremely controversial advance is genetic engineering. As this technology has high potential to do great things, I believe the power genetic engineering is growing out of control. Although society wants to see this concept used to fight disease and illness, enhance people 's lives, and make agriculture more sustainable, there needs to be a point where a line is drawn.
Garments and clothing can be very deceiving. They may look harmless and safe, but behind it all there is more to them than what meets the eye. Cotton consumes eleven percent of the world’s pesticides. Which can be h...
The birth of genetic engineering and recombinant DNA began in Stanford University, in the year 1970 (Hein). Biochemistry and medicine researchers were pursuing separate research pathways, yet these pathways converged to form what is now known as biotechnology (Hein). The biochemistry department was, at the time, focusing on an animal virus, and found a method of slicing DNA so cleanly that it would reform and go on to infect other cells. (Hein) The medical department focused on bacteria and developed a microscopic molecular messenger, that could not only carry a foreign “blueprint”, or message, but could also get the bacteria to read and copy the information. (Hein) One concept is needed to understand what happened at Stanford: how a bacterial “factory” turns “on” or “off”. (Hein) When a cell is dividing or producing a protein, it uses promoters (“on switches”) to start the process and terminators (“off switches”) to stop the process. (Hein) To form proteins, promoters and terminators are used to tell where the protein begins and where it ends. (Hein) In 1972 Herbert Boyer, a biochemist, provided Stanford with a bacterial enzyme called Eco R1. (Hein) This enzyme is used by bacteria to defend themselves against bacteriophages, or bacterial viruses. (Hein) The biochemistry department used this enzyme as a “molecular scalpel”, to cut a monkey virus called SV40. (Hein) What the Stanford researchers observed was that, when they did this, the virus reformed at the cleaved site in a circular manner. It later went on to infect other cells as if nothing had happened. (Hein) This proved that EcoR1 could cut the bonding sites on two different DNA strands, which could be combined using the “sticky ends” at the sites. (Hein). The contribution towards genetic engineering from the biochemistry department was the observations of EcoR1’s cleavage of
Genetic engineering is often been known as a crucial part of the solution to the agricultural challenges of the 21st long long ago. One benefit for this is engineered crops have provided benefits in some areas, though these benefits tend to come with problematic tradeoffs. With different plants being put inside different plant genes allows more new plants or stronger plants.
LEISA Magazine, January 17, 2014. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from http://www.agriculturenetwork.org/. magazines/global/genetic-engineering-not-the-only-option/genetic-engineering-not-the-only-option-editorial. Pelletier, C. (2010). The 'Paleter'. The future evolution of genetic engineering.