PLANTS - OUR FUTURE

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PLANTS - OUR FUTURE?
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Plants relate to everything around
Take in CO2, give out O2, transpire water to
clouds and promote rainfall
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(No Transcript)
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• FUTURE PRIORITIES
• Production of safe, high-quality, diverse food
  and feed in sufficient
• quantities
• Sustainable agriculture
• Development of plants for the production of
  renewable resources
• and energy
• Increasing competitiveness while maintaining the
  freedom
• of choice of consumers
• Scientific and technological progress in
  biotechnologies for
• genetically modified (GM) foods is the most
  promising tool for
• addressing these new priorities.

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Scientists are taking genes from one species and
inserting them into entirely different species,
to transplant a desired personality trait
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What foods can you create by genetic
modification?
Potatoes
Bananas An endangered species?
Tomatoes
Golden rice
Soybeans
Wheat
Foods in European supermarkets are not
genetically modified.  GM fruits and vegetables
are still quite a long way from commercial use in
the EU.  
Maize
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The adoption of Transgenics, 1996-2006
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GM food - the big debate

• Advantages
• The agricultural process is kinder to the
  environment, by using less pesticides,
  fertilizers and water.
• Gene technology is one of the best solutions to
  the problem of world hunger. It can increase
  production and lower the cost of food.
• Gene modification can boost immunity and develop
  inbuilt vaccines for livestock and poultry.
• Gene technology can remove lactose, so that
  lactose-intolerant people can eat dairy products.
  
• Crops could be grown in areas suffering from
  drought and salt.
• GM crops are faster and cheaper.
• Many vegetarians may fid they are now able to
  consume products which have synthetic, rather
  than animal-based, origins.
• G M Foods are sometimes thought as being more
  nutritious, tasting better and they keep longer.
• Many people rely on genetically modified foods
  for medicines, for example insulin for diabetics.
  
• Proven by research, GM Foods are safe. .

• Disadvantages
• Most food manafacturers are unable to provide
  information on whether or not their products
  contain GM ingredients. This means you rarely
  know what you are eating.
• GM crops can contaminate other crops simply by
  pollen being blown by wind from one field to
  another.
• Sometimes GM crops have allergenic effects.
• Loss of nutritional value.
• Reduction of the efficiency of antibiotics.
• New viruses could evolve from the mass production
  of GM crops.
• Pests may develop resistance to GM crops that
  have been designed to kill them.
• Humans do not have the right to genetically alter
  nature for their own convienience and profit.
• Vegetarians and Vegans may find it offensive to
  put animal genes into plants.
• Some countries will not be able to afford GM
  foods.
• GM crops may produce ecological side effects
  (Monarch butterfiles).
• Too much money spent on Gene Technology could
  have been spent on other things.

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EUROPEAN de facto MORATATORIUM
In June 2003, the EUROPEAN Parliament ratified a
biosafety protocol regulating international
trade in genetically modified food. It requires
that all food/feed containing or derived from
GMO be labeled and any GM ingredients in food be
traced.

At least 174 regions, over 4500 municipalities
and other local entities and tens of thousands
of farmers and food producers in Europe have
declared themselves "GMO-free" expressing their
commitment not to allow the use of genetically
modified organisms in the agriculture and food
in their territories
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DEVELOP OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED PLANTS FOR TOXIC
CLEAN -UP

• Scientists have to develop fast growing grasses,
  trees
• that control the uptake and binding of toxic
  elements and
• to examine individual genes and mechanisms that
• might drive phytoremediation.
• To following plant characteristics
• have to be used in plant engineering for
• Phytoremediation
• activity in rhizosphere
• element uptake
• transformation to most mobile species
• translocation through vascular system
• transformation to best managed
• element species
• chemical sinks for toxic element
• accumulation
• physical sites for storage
• (cytosol, vacuole).

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Remediation plant. Genetically modified poplar
trees, which can take up chlorinated solvents,
are developed to remediate polluted sites.
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Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)

• The protein is encoded by a single gene and can
  be cloned and incorporated in cells of other
  species.
• It possesses natural fluorescence allowing direct
  visualization of the transformed cells.

Aequorea victoria
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Thank you !