Agricultural Biotechnology

• Gasser, G. S., and Fraley, R. T. (1992). Transgenic Crops. Scientific American 266, 62-69.
• Snow, A. A., Palma, P. M. (1997). Commercialization of Transgenic Plants: Potential Ecological Risks. BioScience 47, 86-96.
• Watson, J. D., Gilman, M. Z., Witkowski, J., and Zoller, M. (1992). "Genetic Engineering of Plants" in Recombinant DNA (second edition), Scientific American Books, W. H. Freeman, New York, USA, 273-292.

Major Topics

• Genetically Engineered Foods - Flavr Savr Tomato
• Engineering Pest Resistant Crops - Bt Toxin
• Engineering Herbicide Resistant Crops

1) Flavr Savr Tomatoes

• Tomatoes ripening - the role of ethylene
• Tomato industry
• Engineering tomatoes that don't overripen
  • antisense technology
  • selecting for an enzyme that degrades an ethylene precursor
• What are transgenic plants?
  • Making transgenic plants using Agrobacterium tumefaciens
  • Potential Concerns - horizontal transmission, crossing to wild relatives, kanamycin resistance gene, potential allergens

2) Bacillus thuringiesis crystal toxin - pest resistant crops

• History of Bt
• How does Bt kill insects?
• Methods of application
• Transgenic approaches
• Potential concerns - Bt resistant pests?

3) Herbicide resistant crops

• Why do farmers use herbicides?
• How do herbicides work?
• Generating herbicide resistant transgenic crops
• Potential concerns - horizontal transmission

4) Other goodies

• plants that produce plastics, pharmaceutical drugs
• colored cotton
• potatoes with increased starch content
• edible vaccines
• tropical oils in temperate plants