The Importance Of Genetic Diversity

Forty percent of the earth’s land cover is classified as either arid or semi-arid environment (Clark Davis & Kay 1983), in which, billions of people mainly from developing countries, live and work. Many of the arid zone environment is classified as to dry to grow crops (Creswell & Martin 1998). Still, crops like sorghum, millets (CONSORTIUM 2011) and cashes (Creswell & Martin 1998) are grown with reasonable success, as the plants or farmers have been able to adapt to the dry environment (Creswell & Martin 1998).

One advantage of sexual reproduction is that these organisms generally have greater genetic diversity. Organisms who reproduce asexually, on the other hand, are essentially clones of each other. This means that their predators can adapt to hunt them easily. The diversity of sexually reproducing organisms allows them to stay a step ahead of their predators because of their genetic variations and their ability to adapt via natural selection (Brockmyre 2015).

Valladares, F., E. Gianoli, and J.M. Gomez. 2007. Ecological limits to plant phenotypic plasticity. New Phytologist 174:749-763.

No one particular organism is an exact replica of another. Diversity in the world is key for future generations to adapt to the fast changing world. This lab observed the corn plant of the Zea mays species to determine the genotype for the gene of tall versus dwarf in unknown parent corn plants by observing the seedlings produced. It was hypothesized that one parent is heterozygous while the other is homozygous recessive. The predicted results were that half of the seedlings would contain the tall gene and the other half would have the dwarf gene. Plants were grown for two weeks under

The glume is a lid-shaped leaf that grows up from the stem and covers the cupule. In maize, the cupule and the glume are greatly reduced resulting in the fruit that is easy to grind and eat. Teosinte and maize do not only differ from one another by physical comparison but also by how each reproduces. It is important to know that a kernel is a dry fruit that contains a single seed inside. In teosinte, the kernels can be easily separated from the plant by means of wind or other forms of weather and this can cause the seeds to scatter and therefore result in the development of new teosinte plants. Whereas, with maize, the seeds are incased in the fruit just like teosinte, however the seeds cannot easily separate from the cob (the stem on which the fruits are produced). In addition, each ear of corn in enclosed in husks which are more modified leaves, trapping the kernels inside. Therefore the reproduction of modern corn is completely dependent on people.

The concern that instances like these will come about if genetic enhancements are allowed in daily practice is not something to take lightly. If certain traits can be decided on beforehand, what is stopping us from trying to get rid of traits the one may consider undesirable, or even less preferable, and completely wiping out a certain trait of human diversity? Even in 2002 there was concern that even the smallest genetic improvement would put us on the slope to eugenics. These are legitimate concerns, but I believe that unless a large and powerful group of people force this elimination, there will not be instances of complete eradication of traits. Humans are fickle creatures who are unable to have one consistent opinion upon across the

Genetic diversity can help a species survive. The greater the number of different alleles that all members of a species possess, the greater the genetic diversity of that species.

In the face of climate change Sub-Saharan Africa is confronted by two main challenges of food security and water availability for human and agricultural use. These challenges are projected to increase in the coming years compounded by extreme droughts and extreme flooding in some areas. Rain-fed agriculture is the main livelihood for a majority of small scale farmers in SSA. Their main farming systems focus on the “ major crops”(maize, wheat, rice and beans) However, strategies to cultivate these crops in the region are no longer sustainable due to reliability on finite resources, high input load and vulnerability to climate change. A key alternative strategy to adapt to a changing climate is the development and promotion of Orphan crop species

This investigation is an exploration into the Kotch and Chernofsky family history. In which the cultural and historical background of each ancestry will be examined. Additionally, this investigation will also examine the paternal genetic lineage of the Kotch Family. In which the genomic haplogroup will be expressed through ancestral analysis and migration patterns.

A unique trait about the Arabidopsis thaliana is that they are closely related cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussel sprouts. In terms of the bigger picture, farmers should be aware of how this species reacts to higher temperatures because the results can be correlated to how certain vegetables respond to higher temperatures. In regards to climate change, The 24°C treatment reflects what the average spring temperatures might look like in the year 2100, according to the predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Rutter et al., 2016). A reason this can pertain to an average citizen is because following climate extremes, rapid food and cereal prices increase as well (IPCC).

5. We observed that corn plants and pea plants (Pisum sativum) grown under the same conditions grew differently: under conditions that were often dry, the corn managed to maintain a larger percentage of green leaf area relative to brown/dry leaf area. Investigate the photosynthetic systems used by corn vs. that used by peas. Compare and contrast these two photosynthetic systems, especially with respect to water availability and usage.

With drought resistant corn farmers selected for the plants that grew the best in conditions with limited water supply, this usually consisted of features such as reduced stomata size in the plant to prevent water loss. Scientists have predicted that global warming will be the cause of a massive drought over the next 100 years. Extreme drought will mean that agriculture will be near impossible and millions will die due to limited food source. Drought resistant crops will be important in the future in order for sufficient food source. There is currently about 97,000 tonnes of sweet-corn grown in New Zealand annually from an area of 6,400 hectares. If New Zealand growers began selecting for traits such as smaller stomata size and removed plants that don’t grow with limited water supply we could be prepared for a future drought.

Land plants can be divided into three different groups. One of these groups are nonvascular plants which include liverworts, hornworts, and mosses. The other two which are the focus of this paper are vascular seedless plants and vascular seed plants. The difference between vascular and nonvascular plants is that vascular plants have vascular tissue which enables them to grow up and be bigger than nonvascular plants. The difference between seed and seedless vascular plants is the presence of a seed. A seed is defined by the 10th Edition of Campbell Biology as “an adaption of some terrestrial plants consisting of an embryo packaged along with a store of food within a protective coat.” This includes anything from apple seeds to dandelion seeds. The absence or presence of a seed changes how a plant reproduces and also leads to different advantages and disadvantages to the plant.

Generally speaking, there are numerous issues related to genetic diversity which include mutations, sexual reproduction, migration, and population size.

Agriculture is one of the major sector becoming vulnerable to climate-change. Increased incidences of abiotic and biotic stresses are likely to cause serious negative impact on crop production. Abiotic stress is defined as the negative impact of non-living factors on the living organisms in a specific environment. The non-living variable must influence the environment beyond its normal range of variation to adversely affect the performance or individual organism in a significant way. This leads to decrease in the productivity by more than 50% in major crop plants which are growing word wide (Bray et al., 2000). Increased water stress, reduction in rainfall and increased air temperature are the major reasons for yield decline in wheat and paddy crops in many parts of South Asia. The average increase in temperature per decade is measured to be 0.28 ºC over land and 0.12 ºC over ocean and predicted that it is likely to rise further to a maximum of 2.5 ºC by 2050 and 5.8 ºC by 2100 (Jones et al., 1999; Grover et al., 2011). The principal abiotic stresses in India are drought or soil moisture stress, high temperatures, soil salinity/alkalinity, low pH and metal toxicity stresses that affect nearly two-thirds area forming parts of the arid and semi arid eco systems (Grover et al., 2011).