Plant Biotechnology
The Magic of Making GM Plants
Transgenic plant technology is possible because of the conservation of gene expression mechanisms among diverse organisms, in which the flow of information goes from DNA to RNA to protein. The genetic code in DNA is recognized and processed similarly in bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals, thus enabling the transfer of genes from any organism to plants. Plants are transformed with new genes, called transgenes, in the genetically engineered plant by two general methods. The first method uses a natural plant genetic engineer, a bacterium named Agrobacterium tumefaciens, to transfer DNA. This bacterium naturally causes crown gall disease in plants, but researchers have rendered it non-pathogenic so that it merely transfers the DNA of interest into the plant genome. The second method uses a “gene gun” to blast gold particles coated with DNA into plant cells, where the DNA comes off and gets integrated into the plant genome. Both these technologies were developed in the 1980s and has since improved.
Keywords: Agrobacterium tumefaciens, DNA, gene gun, genetic code, transgenic
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .