The Discovery of Biotech Rice essays

The Discovery of Biotech Rice essays U.S. Researchers said that they have engineered a rice plant that can stand drought, cold and salty water without destroying the plant itself. The experimental rice plant has been re-engineered with a natural sugar to yield a more productive plant. And you can be sure that it is edible. Biologists at Cornell University in New York who invented and examined the re-engineered plant over six years are positive that it could help farmers working in coastlines. The transgenic rice utilizes the advantages of trehalose. Trehalose is a sugar that occurs naturally in bacteria, yeast and fungi. It also helps retain the individual cell structure and function during intense environmental pressure that would destroy plants. The Cornell researchers combined two different trehalose that will create E-coli genes to produce a gene they place in the genome of Indian rice varieties. They capped it off with promoter sequences that prepared the plant to increase trehalose production in unfavorable conditions. For example, if the temperature is below average. The outcome was a plant that could survive temperatures as low as 10 degrees Celsius, endure for up to five days without water and thrive in a very salty water. Even in unstressful conditions, the transgenic plant can be more efficient at photosynthesis. It can even enhance its production or crop. They also said that with this strategy, it can also work on other crops such as corn, millet, wheat, soybeans, and sugarcane. With this invention, I think it would be very helpful to us especially to the farmers. With extreme environmental conditions, it could destroy plants. But with this discovery, it can resist extreme heat and cold. We know that we have shortage on food production but with the help of this, we can actually solve our problem. But we do not know yet if it has side effects once we eat this ...