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BLOG on "More tomatoes, faster: Accelerating tomato engineering" by Kaitlyn Swan

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

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 27, 2018 at 9:46 AM

    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?

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownApril 27, 2018 at 9:48 AM

    Caleb Hunt ^^

    ReplyDelete

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