Genetic Analysis : Bt Cotton Essay

Can harm agriculture because bt plants get their name they incorporate a transgene that makes a protein based toxin alled the cry toxin from the bacterium bacillus thuringiensis.can harm birds, insects, amphibians, marine ecosystems, and soil organisms. They reduce bio-diversity, pollute water resources, and are unsustainable.A lack of biological diversity not only reduces natural habitats, but may lead to higher risks of crop failure this was a major factor to the.

They did so by adding a strand of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis into the cotton’s deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)(Genetically Engineered). Monsanto’s most valuable consumer of Bt cotton is China. Even though Bt cotton is expensive, it still has lowered China’s cotton production fees by 14%. Before Bt cotton, Bollworms were capable of eating entire cotton crops, which also affected China’s textile industry. (“Genetically Engineered”). This is only one example of how GMOs can reduce pesticide use, and make crops available to countries who struggle with pests and do not have the monetary capability to purchase pesticide and herbicide.

When the United States regulators approved Monsanto’s Bt’s corn, which is genetically modified, they were aware that it would add deadly poisons to our food supply according to Jeffrey Smith. He claims that was what it was designed to do. The DNA of this corn was rigged with a gene derived from a soil bacteria called Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) which creates the Bt-toxin which is hazardous to humans and animals alike. This Bt is a pesticide, which literally makes the bugs stomachs bust open which kills them. Monsanto and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ensured its consumers that only insects would be hurt. The Bt-toxin would be entirely destroyed in human’s digestive systems and have completely no impact whatsoever on anyone who consumes it, but later studies show this information was false (Smith, 1). In fact the toxin appeared in a majority of the blood tests.

Forgiveness is a voluntary process and only time can heal all wounds. Scratch that- time won’t heal all wounds and forgiving someone is totally and completely up to you. When stating that forgiveness is “voluntary,” it simply means that one is forgiving someone at their own free will. The question is “why? why must we forgive someone after doing something so awful?” The answer might be complex. In the book “Picking Cotton” by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, Ronald Cotton and Erin Torneo, and in the book “Beauty for Ashes” written by Joyce Meyer, forgiveness is portrayed as a big role. Each person goes through their own struggles and eventually has to forgive someone or be forgiven by someone.

The idea of changing natural processes to produce an “ideal” crop raises concern amongst environmentalists. Extracting bacteria from soil and inserting it into an entirely different species may appear unethical because of the changing of natural processes. Genetic engineering promotes producing a type of crop that is not susceptible to pests, but carries the risk of decreasing genetic variation (Green Peace). Once a crop is perfected, farmers then mass produce that specific crop, and the different variations of the crop are lost (Green Peace). Another concern regarding the use of the Bt protein is the increased risk of allergies (Smith). The transgenic protein comes from bacteria in the soil, and thus raises the concern of allergic reactions to the corn. Consumers are worried that the cry protein injected into Bt corn could have allergies unknown to them because of the cry protein’s characteristic of an extended digestion time. Consumers are also skeptical that genes of this antibiotic resistance could somehow be introduced to other bacteria in the soil, and possibly infect consumers with this bacteria. A major ethical concern of genetically modified crops, specifically Bt corn, is the lack of knowledge of the long term effects these crops have on humans and other organisms. Consumers are uninformed about the

There are two types of GMO; herbicide tolerant and self-generating insecticide. “The herbicide tolerant variety are designed to survive high doses of toxic weed killers” (Must-Avoid Foods: Linking GMO to Toxicity and Disease, 2012). When the toxic weed killers get used on these crops, some of the toxins end up in the weed in the food. What is alarming is that the toxic weed killers are actually linked to birth defects, cancer, and hormone disruption (Must-Avoid Foods: Linking GMO to Toxicity and Disease, 2012). The self-generating insecticide such as corn, produces their own insecticide in each and every cell (Swanson, Genetically Modified Organisms and the deterioration of health in the United States, 2013). When insects eats the corn or any other food with the insecticide, Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) toxin, the insecticide breaks open the stomach of insects in order to kill them. Although this supposedly applies only to insects, studies have shown that the BT-toxin can also break the wall of

This finding became the foundation of the genetic modification process. In 1983, the first transgenic plant was created. Scientists were able to create a tobacco plant that could resist anti-biotic. Shortly after this creation, genetically engineered cotton was effectively field tested in 1990. Five years later, Monsanto the leading biotech company, released herbicide-immune soybeans. Finally, the promising science of genetic modifications was improved even further in 2000 with the discovery that the modification process could be used to bring vitamins and nutrients to enhance foods.

(Micahael Wald “GMO-genetically modified organisms dangerous or necessary?" Health reference center academic) There are many steps involved in the development of genetically modified organisms crops; the gene first needs to be isolated then inserted into a transder vector. A plasmid or circular model of DNA is used to transfer the isolated gene from the naturally occurring soil bacterium, then the gene of rDNA of interest is used to be inserted into the plasmid, the cell that’s now containing the plasmid and the new gene is then combined with the original cells from the plant, then the cells take up the plasmid containing the transfer DNA and changes gene that are responsible for the resistance are inserted into the plasmid and transferred with the genes that contain the desired traits. The cells that are exposed to antibiotic, and herbicide only the cells that were transformed survive. Cells that are transformed can be regenerated to form plants by culturing tissue. Once genetically modified plants are grown, certain tests are used to determine the number of copies the gene inserted, and if the copies are intact and the gene function. The

These chemical signals set off a cascade of gene activity in the A. tumefaciens which direct a series of events required for the transfer of tDNA from the plasmid into the plant’s cells through the wounds of the plant. The tDNA then moves into the nucleus of the plant cell and becomes integrated into the plant chromosome (Understanding GMOs).

While it has been shown that GM crops have a few direct benefits, they may also indirectly cause great ecological harm. Some scientists fear that plants enhanced with Bt (a bacterial species commonly used as pesticide) may accelerate the evolution of Bt-resistant insects, which will cause farmers to lose their crops to the bugs (which defeats the purpose of injecting them with Bt in the first place). Farmers are trying to prevent this catastrophe by using non-resistant bugs from conventional crops to mate with resistant bugs, but this will only delay the inevitable (“Altered Food”). Another issue caused by GMOs is ‘gene flow’. Gene flow is when genes from GM plants spread to non-targeted organic plants from pollen through wind or pollination. The pest- and disease-resistant genes from GM crops can flow onto weeds, giving them the same immunities the crops have. Neither of these two scenarios have many real occurrences presently, but experts believe it is only a matter of time before modification creates the issues it was intended to prevent (“Altered

Modern technology is already being used in agriculture. The best example is the use of gene technology or what’s popularly known as agricultural biotechnology in developing drought and herbicide resistant crops. Through genetic engineering, scientists have been able to introduce traits into existing genes to make crops resistant to drought and herbicides. One good example is the use of Bacillus Thuringiensis, commonly known as Bt. Bacillus Thuringiensis, is a bacterium that dwells in soil. It acts as a reservoir “of cry toxins and cry genes for production of biological insecticides and insect-resistant genetically modified crops.”

Many Americans consume thousands of pounds of genetically modified foods every day. Throughout the 21st century, genetic engineering tremendously impacted new research in pharmaceutical and forensic science. During that time, it also revolutionized the food in America and many other countries around the world. Using Recombinant DNA biotechnology on crops and farm animals helps improve nutrition and quantity of foods. However, crops that are altered with hybrid genes can also contain chemicals harmful to humans. By using developed biotechnology, scientists are able to inject viruses and bacteria into the embryos of plants to produce genetically modified crops (). The same is applied for transgenic farm animals to increase the size of the

      In the past three decades, scientists have learned how to mix and match characteristics among unrelated creatures by moving genes from one creature to another. This is called “genetic engineering.” Genetic Engineering is prematurely applied to food production. There are estimates that food output must increase by 60 percent over the next 25 years to keep up with demand. Thus, the result of scientist genetically altering plants for more consumption. The two most common methods for gene transfer are biological and electromechanical. “Early experiments all involved changing DNA using bacterial vectors”(Randerson, 2001). Through other advances scientists proclaim how they can improve the human gene pool. All humans have

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.

The coding region of the gene is usually fused to a promoter, most commonly used is the 35S promoter from cauliflower mosaic virus (CMV), in order to promote higher expression levels. (Snow et. al, 1997) The popular method for genetic engineering of crop plants is natural gene transfer via an Agrobacterium tumefaciens vector, a bacterium normally found in soils. The transfer-DNA (T-DNA) vector is made by inserting the desired gene fragment in between specific 25bp repeat domains in the bacterium. The vector is then inserted into the Agrobacterium and "the virulence gene products of Agrobacterium actively recognize, excise, transport, and integrate the T-DNA region into the host plant genomes." (Conner et. al, 1999) The amount of DNA transferred is only about 10kb and the nature of the gene is usually well understood. The expression of the gene introduced can also be controlled by adding additional sequences that might allow the gene to be constitutively expressed, expressed only in certain cell types, or expressed as a result of different environmental changes. This method of gene transfer, however, will only work for the natural host range of the bacterium and therefore other methods are used for additional crop plants. Such methods are uptake of naked DNA by electroporation or particle gun bombardment. The use of genetic markers, as mentioned previously, allows for the preferential growth of cultures that contain the new genetic