Some companies genetically engineer plants
like corn and soy beans to make them better.
Calgene™ produced a tomato called the Flavr
Savr tomato which is engineered to ripen
slower. It's able to ripen longer on the
vine in order to fully develop it's flavour.
There are two things that make the tomato
different is that a particular gene or DNA
sequence has been reversed, that slows it's
ripening process. Second there is a second
added gene that is used as a biological marker,
to distinguish it from other tomato varieties.
Geneticists at the University of California-Davis
have injected a gene into rice that makes it proof
against bacterial leaf-blight. The gene called Xa21
is found in all rice types, but is recessive in
most. Research on disease-resistant rice genes began
about a decade ago as scientists at the International
Rice Research Institute in Manila, Phillippines found
a natural strain of rice with natural immunity against
leaf-blight. Rice has twenty-four chromosomes and
the gene was found in number eleven, geneticists at
UC-Davies pinpointed the location of Xa21. The gene
Xa21 produces a protein that when the bacteria attacks
the cell it "sounds an alarm" that tells the cell to
deploy toxic substances at the surface and destroy
the bacteria. The geneticists plan on fusing the gene
into most of the high-yield rice strains so the rice
production by those strains is vastly improved.
doug_savery@bc.sympatico.ca
5973 Tweedsmuir Cr.
Nanaimo, B.C. V9T 5Y7
Canada