Essay On Pan-Genomes

Modifying plants is not a new concept. "For centuries, gardeners and farmers have been crossbreeding different species of

One of the most influential of agriculturists, Norman Borlaug has impacted millions of lives. Bringing new techniques to modern day farming and experimenting with the production of crops in third world countries, he created a disease-resistant, high-yielding wheat variety that he could breed with wheat from all over the world. Borlaug’s research and observations helped feed the world while influencing agriculture in a way no one had seen before.

The phenotypes for the ear of corn observed, consisted of 192 purple kernels and 66 yellow kernels. When reduced, the actual phenotypic ratio for this monohybrid cross was 32:11 (32 purple and 11 yellow). It matches the predicted phenotypic ratio of 3:1 (3 purple versus 1 yellow). If 3 and 1 were multiplied by three, the predicted phenotypic ratio would be 33:11, resulting in our ear of corn, being off by only 1 purple kernel.

Genetically altering genes has been around for ages by cross breeding plants. Genetic alteration has been practice to help plants grow healthier and stronger helping Indians to become nomadic. “Gatherers

Darwin states that he believes “that all species come to be well-defined, and to never present an inextricable chaos of varying and intermediate links…” meaning that all various organisms can be defined into the concept of a “species,” because species cannot be so closely linked that it is impossible to distinguish species. The concept of a “species” can be defined as a distinct population of organisms that differ from other organisms to a degree that the population can only reproduce within itself. I disagree with Darwin, because of the surmounting research done in polyploid

In this article David Hopkins reviews the consequences of genetically modified trees in terms of the effects on the environment and the biodiversity. The author use data gained through scientologists in China and Populus Nigra to identify the main causes of the effects that GMO trees cause. Their research focuses on assessing the short term effects that the GMO trees have on the environment and how it affects the biodiversity. This website is very useful to my research topic, as David Hopkins offers many reasons as to why GMO trees

The world of genomes is more similar to the art of coding, than many may believe. For starters, they both share the ability of creating information that does an overwhelmingly important role in fabricating and supporting the final project - which in a genetical case is all living organisms. The complex code of genetics has been a pivoting factor in countless research done by scientists, as it is the literal makeup of each and every living organism, each unique in their own way. Research in genetics has been around for more than 150 years, and although the study is something relatively old and a seemingly immaculate process, there are cases where the result is not always as one would hope. Unfortunately, if a mutation occurs in the

While it may be regarded as a common language shared between nearly all organisms, the genetic code is imperative for the interpretation of genes and the production of proteins. In addition to this, it precisely guides how the genome is put together via a series of fundamental and biochemical constraints. This has allowed the code to be fairly refractory to change and enables it to shape how mutations that arise affect the evolution of the genome.

“The history of GMOs started in the 1840s in Czechoslovakia with the study of pea plants once it was discovered that plants could be altered to take on the characteristics of one another experiments were performed to see if a better pea plant could be produced with the dominant characteristics of other pea plants and this gave way to the idea of heredity” (Pitman 2002). Working from these first discovery molecular biologists has produced GMOs that have proven to be both useful and dangerous.

Cultivation of wheat started around 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent during the Neolithic Revolution when hunter-gatherer lifestyle transitioned into agriculture-based society. The first cultivated wheats were einkorn (Triticum urartu), with diploid AA genome, and emmer wheat (T. turgidum L. subspecies dicoccum, traditionally known as T. dicoccum), with tetraploid AABB genome (Dvorak et al. 1998; Dvořák et al. 1993; Gopher 2002; Harlan and Zohary 1966). Hexaploid wheat appeared around 9000 years ago when tetraploid wheat underwent crosses with Aegilops tauschii, with diploid DD genome, to give hexaploid wheat (Salamini et al. 2002; Feldman 2001).

When scientists want to esBy this logic, the planet is a sort of supercomputer in which total DNA represents the system’s storage capacity, and the rate of genetic transcription its computing power. But the first step in applying this approach to the study of biodiversity is to determine a composite figure for DNA.

In addition, biodiversity will be crucial for humanities continued survival in the case of climate change or widespread crop failures. The majority of people on earth are reliant on four crops for subsistence; wheat, rice, corn, and millet. (11) These crops are threatened by climate change and the spread of disease facilitated by modern transportation. If humanity is to survive such an eventuality it must be ready to draw upon the earth’s biodiversity for replacements. And while there are approximately 50 thousand plant species that could offer alternatives, this bank of resources is quickly thinning as various ecosystems are being destroyed. (11)

Instead of transferring large blocks of genes from donor plant to recipient, small isolated blocks of genes are put into the plant chromosome through biolistics, vectors, or protoplast transformation (Horsch 1993). Biolistics is a technique that shoots the gene block into the potential host cell. In order for the process to succeed, the microscopic particles and DNA must enter the cell nuclei and combine with the plant chromosome. Biolistics is commonly used but has a slight failure risk since the breeder has little control over the destination of the gene block (Mooney & Bernardi 1990). Bacteria or viruses can also carry the gene blocks into a new cell. Common vectors in gene transfer between plants are Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Agrobacterium rhizogenes. In the soil, the bacteria will infect the plants with their own plasmid, transferring the desired gene that was placed in the bacteria's DNA. Vector gene transfer is a preferred method of transformation since this modification already occurs naturally in the environment (Rudolph & McIntire 1996). Last is protoplast transformation, which uses enzymes to dissolve the cellulose in the plant wall that leaves a protoplast. Once a specific gene block is added to the protoplast, the cell wall will re-grow into a transgenic plant.

Resequencing of elite cultivars, landraces, and wild genotypes based on the Williams 82 reference genome sequence (Schmutz et al. 2010) has become an important tool to study allelic variation, domestication events, allele diversification at candidate gene loci (Chung et al. 2014; Kim et al. 2010; Lam et al. 2011). As a good example of WGR approach for nematode resistance in soybean, Xu et al. (2013) identified two RKN candidate genes in 29.7 kb interval through the resequencing of 246

Every state within the United States runs its own newborn screening program which test for at least 30 serious conditions which are treatable if caught early. The program is designed to save lives and uses the dried blood sample collected during the first week after birth. The blood sample is used to measure the presence of disease markers. The current newborn screening programs are fast, cost effective, and accurate in identifying disease before symptoms appear. Genome sequencing cost have now decrease to a price range like other complex medical test to be readily available for clinical application. It is possible for genome sequencing to replace or supplement the existing traditional panels for newborn screening tests. The