The article “More tomatoes, faster: Accelerating tomato
engineering”, discusses the gene modifying findings of the scientists at the
Boyce Thompson Institute. Not only are tomatoes a common source for plant
research, but now they may be utilized even more because this group of scientists
found a way to speed up the tomato gene modifying process. This group of
scientists found that by inserting DNA into the tomato genome and adding the hormone
auxin into the growth support media, the tomato plant that results has an
accelerated growth rate. The addition of auxin into the regeneration and
rooting media was found to decrease the full growth period by 6 weeks.
These scientists use tomatoes to research the effect of
certain genes on a tomatoes growth and development. One scientist said, “If you can speed up the
plant development, which is what the auxin is doing, you can decrease the time
it takes to get genetically engineered lines”. The current research that is being done with
the tomatoes outside of this experiment includes stem cell proliferation. These scientists are hoping to use the
findings of this research to better understand how to increase the yield of
other crops. Who doesn’t like more food, faster!!
This article initially caught my eye because I believe that
the ability to alter growth rate could potentially open a door to many other
genetic advances. For society as a
whole, plant research may not seem like it would have a large effect on our
daily lives but significant medical advances could come from a discovery such
as this one. For example, most people
think that nervous tissue damage is permanent because nerves don’t regenerate.
However, nervous tissue CAN regenerate, it just takes an extremely long period
of time which results in scar tissue and body movement disrupting the
regeneration process. I believe that the
more discoveries such as this tomato engineering one, the closer we are to
major, life changing discoveries.
Resource
Boyce Thompson Institute. (2016, August 30). More tomatoes, faster: Accelerating tomato
engineering. Biology News Net. Retrieved February 24, 2018, from http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2016/08/30/more_tomatoes_faster_accelerating_tomato_engineering.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+biologynews%2Fheadlines+%28Biology+News+Net%29
It's super cool how the auxin hormone speeds up tomato growth. We live in an age that's very organic and natural though, do you think there'd be any health disadvantages from these modified tomatoes? And do you think there'd be enough public disagreement about the auxin hormone that it wouldn't become a used technique for fear of backlash from the community?
ReplyDeleteCaleb Hunt ^^
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