Genetically modified food GM food

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Genetically modified food (GM food)
Lesson 1, 2 Introduction of the GM food
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• Genetically modified food (GM food)
• In several thousands of years ago, people started
  to develop agricultural methods to improve plant
  quality and achieve better crop yield.
• The concept of the GM food is originated from the
  traditional cross-breeding. Both of the methods
  hopefully can improve the characteristic of
  agricultural products.

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Figure of the advancement in methods of
agricultural products improvement
1850s Cross pollination changed the
characteristics of plants 1930s Hybridisation
became popularised 1975 Cell fusion combined
plant cells 1985 DNA techniques drove plant
modification into the gene level
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The major weaknesses of traditional methods

• Traditional breeding usually involves random
  transfer of thousands of genes at one time to
  obtain the desired characteristics
• The process is slow and unpredictable

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GM method and traditional method

• The purposes of the GM method is boosting or
  weakening certain characteristics in a certain
  type of organism
• We can control organisms characteristics through
  genetically modification
• The GM method is more accurate and efficient to
  control the organisms characteristics than
  traditional method

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The development of GM food

• The GM food developed in the 90s
• In 1983, the first transgenic plant of
• the world, a tobacco plant resistant
• to an antibiotic, appeared.
• In 1994, the first series of
• transgenic tomatoes with delayed
• maturation was introduced to the
• US market.

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Common examples of GM food
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Common examples of GM food
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• Some main causes of developing the GM food
• Improve the characteristics of food included
  yields, anti-pest and anti-herbicide species
• Crops with new qualities can be obtained
• e.g. an improved nutritional status, better
  favors, easier to process or use of lesser amount
  of additives.
• Improvement of our environment reduce the use
  of insecticides or herbicides for pest control of
  crops.
• Improving processing characteristics so as to
  reduce wastage and costs.

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Genetically engineered agricultures products
Lesson 3, 4 the production techniques for the GM
food
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Basic concepts

• Genes are hereditary materials.
• Genes are composed of Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid
  (DNA).
• DNA is in every cell of your body. It contains
  the information needed to construct and operate a
  human body.
• The cell of each plant or animal contains more
  than ten millions of genes

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• Genes carry biological information
• necessary to produce a protein(s) that
• determines the characteristics of an
  organism.
• Proteins are major cell structures that
  operate
• most of the functions for human body to
  live.
• Protein is a polymer synthesized from units of
  
• amino acids.

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DNA sequence is the genetic code
Continually lengthening protein chain
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• The purpose of genetically modification is using
  recombinant DNA to enhance or eliminate certain
  characteristics of certain organisms.
• We can control the characteristics of organisms
  through modifying genes.

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Examples of Genetically modification techniques

• Ballistic impregnation
• It involves sticking the genes on gold
  particles and hit on the plant cell. Some plant
  cells would take up the genes from the gold
  particles and then re-grow.

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2) Use of soil bacteria as a go-between The
soil bacteria Agrobacterium can change the
genetic material of plant cells so that
outgrowths are formed on the plant. The
desired genes transferred to this bacteria is
then incorporated into plant cells for producing
the desired genetic characteristics.
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Examples of GM food Tomatoes with delayed
maturation period
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How to produce genetically modified crops?
Genetically modified corns (anti-pest)
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(No Transcript)
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3. The isolated gene is then combined with a
plasmid to form a recombinant DNA by using
recombinant DNA techniques.
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Recombinant DNA

4. The recombinant DNA is put into another
species of bacteria for producing more
recombinant DNA.
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5. Transfer the recombinant DNA in another
bacterial species to produce more recombinant
genes.
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6. The bacteria is incubated with plant cell and
the recombinant DNA will be transferred from
bacteria cells to plant cells.
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7. The plant cell develops to a plantlet.
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8. Finally, The new plant is tested for the
presence of the Bt protein. A genetically
modified plant can be successfully created if the
testing is confirmative
GM crop
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The controversy of the GM food
Supporting!!
Opposing!!
Lesson 5, 6 The contrversy of the GM food
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GM crops can improve the nutritional value, the
taste and the crop yields. The amount of
pesticides used can also be decreased which
prevents environmental pollution to the natural
environment.
Supporters
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GM crops can solve the problem of the Food
Crisis due to the growth in population in the
future.
Supporters
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The developmental history of GM crops is too
short. It has not undergone sufficient tests,
which may be harmful to human health and
ecological environment.
Opponents
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There is no so-called the Food Crisis in the
world. The problem for us to concern is wasting
of food and uneven distribution of food. GM
crops would only be bring profits to
biotechnology companies and agricultural
businesses.
Opponents
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The GM food Issue Case GM (anti-pest) corn
Starlink
Lesson 5,6 The controversy of the GM food
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• In 1997, a company named Plant Genetic Systems
  (now named Aventis) registered a GM anti-pest
  corn (Starlink) at EPA(The Environmental
  Protection Association of the United States).
• EPA in the US only approved the corn for animal
  feeds at that time, as the conclusion on whether
  Starlink would cause human allergy has not been
  confirmed yet.
• EPA in the US has requested Aventis to notify the
  farmers to prevent mixing Starlink with human
  food.

Lesson 5,6 The controversy of the GM food
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• 2 years later, it is revealed that processed food
  of some popular brands contained compositions of
  Starlink and initiate a global retrieving action.
  More than 300 types of products composed of corns
  are involved.
• Meanwhile, some consumers have allergic responses
  after taking food containing Starlink. Some
  peasants also sue the Aventis as Starlink is
  mixed in the composition of their seeds.
• Then the Aventis made compensation settlement
  with 17 states in the US, the amount was between
  100 million to one billion dollars.

Lesson 5,6 The controversy of the GM food
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The GM food Issue
Questions for self-reflection Through
understanding the viewpoints of supporters and
opponents, and studying some cases, what is your
opinion about the issue? What are your
suggestions on establishing safety measures on
the GM food?