Week 3/4 - Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture

Question 1

What is the difference between Traditional and Modern Biotechnology techniques?

Answer 1

Traditional = Use living organisms to create new ones/modify existing ones
Modern = Use genetic engineering/rDNA to do the same

Question 2

What is selective breeding?

Answer 2

Breeding selected plants/animal together to produce offspring with desired traits

Question 3

How does selective breeding work?

Answer 3

Relies on variations that occur despite identical breeding.

Question 4

What is a mutation?

Answer 4

A permanent change in the DNA sequence of an organism

Question 5

What are the four kinds of mutations and what effects do they have?

Answer 5

1 - Neutral/Silent (Amino acid changed but protein is the same OR AA not affected)
2 - Deleterious (Harmful)
3 - Lethal (Kills the organism)
4 - Beneficial (Helps the organism)

Question 6

Difference between somatic and germ-line mutation

Answer 6

• Somatic cannot be passed down through sexual reproduction

- Germ line = mutation in reproductive cells, and results in mutations being inheritable

Question 7

What is a spontaneous mutation?

Answer 7

Mutation due to error in DNA replication

Question 8

What is an induced mutation?

Answer 8

Mutation due to chemical damage/radiation damage/etc

Question 9

What is mutation breeding?

Answer 9

Selective breeding but using human-induced mutations to speed up the process.

Question 10

what is Hybrid Vigor?

Answer 10

Effect of a hybridized plant being stronger/more vigorous than their parent

Question 11

What is fermentation?

Answer 11

Conversion of carbohydrates to alcohol/carbon dioxide using yeast/bacteria under anaerobic conditions

Question 12

What is totipotency?

Answer 12

Ability of single cell to divide and produce all of the other cells in an organism

Question 13

How does a tissue culture work?

Answer 13

Take small amount of plant tissue, put in controlled environment and wait for it to regenerate itself

Question 14

What is micropropagation?

Answer 14

Using tissue cultures to produce large numbers of identical plants

Question 15

What are bioreactors?

Answer 15

Large scale growth of plant cells in liquid cultures as a source of secondary products

Question 16

What is a plant protoplast?

Answer 16

Plant cell without a cell wall

Question 17

What is the difference in naming between a GM plant and a GM organism?

Answer 17

Transgenic plant vs Genetically engineered organism

Question 18

What were the criticisms for Golden Rice (GR1)?

Answer 18

1 - Amount of provitamin A is insignificant
2 - Antibiotic resistence selection marker gene is not desirable
3 - Rice variety is Japonica (not native)

Question 19

Why is Golden Rice still not available?

Answer 19

• Claims that Golden Rice makers are deeply tied with private sector companies
• Anti-globalization/biodiversity protection
• Fears that GR is like a gateway to more GMO

Question 20

Explain what roundup is and briefly how it works.

Answer 20

Roundup is a herbicide that kills almost all of the worst weeds while being easily degraded in the soil and non-toxic to humans and animals. Designed to be used with roundup resistant crops.

Question 21

Explain the controversies surrounding Monsanto/Roundup

Answer 21

1 - How non-toxic is non-toxic
2 - This leads to an increase use of herbicide
3 - False advertising claims
4 - Scientific fraud claims

Question 22

How does BT corn work?

Answer 22

Take “cry” protein that becomes Bt Toxin when consumed, and create plants that produce their own cry protein