Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
32,850
result(s) for
"Transgenic plants."
Sort by:
Legitimation in a world at risk : the case of genetically modified crops in India
This book provides a sociological analysis of the controversy surrounding GM crops in Telangana, India. There is much debate as to whether GM technology holds the key to improving the welfare of poor farmers globally or serves primarily to increase the profits of multinational corporations while enhancing cultivator risk. Desmond's study is located in the economically vulnerable and politically volatile district of Warangal in Telangana, a context associated with high numbers of farmer suicides. Uniquely foregrounding the perspectives of cultivators and the landless, Desmond explores how GM crops are variously legitimated and delegitimated in three Warangal villages by those whose livelihoods are at stake in the debate, but whose voices are rarely heard within it. This book will be significant for those with an interest in GM crops, power and knowledge and their relation to understandings of development, democracy and risk management worldwide.
Book
Corporate crops : biotechnology, agriculture, and the struggle for control
Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Acronyms -- Introduction -- 1 Agricultural Biotechnologies on the Farm and around the World -- 2 The Coming of the Third Regime? Agricultural Biotechnology Regulation in Canada and the United States -- 3 Biotechnology on the Prairies: The Rise of Canola . . . -- 4 . . . And the Fall of Wheat -- 5 Legal Offense and Defense on the Canadian Prairies -- 6 From When Cotton Was King to King Monsanto -- 7 Starting a New Regime: Training the Locals -- 8 Conclusion -- Appendix: Log of Interviews -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
eBook
Next-Generation Insect-Resistant Plants: RNAi-Mediated Crop Protection
Plant-mediated RNA interference (RNAi) shows great potential in crop protection. It relies on plants stably expressing double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) that target essential genes in pest insects. Practical application of this strategy is challenging because producing sufficient amounts of stable dsRNA in plants has proven to be difficult to achieve with conventional transgenesis. In addition, many insects do not respond to exogenously applied dsRNAs, either degrading them or failing to import them into the cytoplasm. We summarize recent progress in RNAi-mediated insect pest control and discuss factors determining its efficacy. Expressing dsRNA in chloroplasts overcomes many of the difficulties previously encountered. We also highlight remaining challenges and discuss the environmental and biosafety issues involved in the use of this technology in agriculture.
Plant-mediated RNAi that targets essential genes in insects and other pests is becoming a promising approach in crop protection.
Expression of dsRNA targeting insect genes can potentially provide crop protection without chemical pesticides and offers the additional advantages that no foreign protein is made and the number of target genes is nearly unlimited.
The length and amount of the dsRNA as well as its stability in planta and in the gut of the target insect are crucial factors determining the success of plant-mediated RNAi strategies.
High-level expression of long dsRNAs from the genome of the chloroplast represents a particularly promising strategy for efficient RNAi-mediated crop protection.
Journal Article
We are not starving : the struggle for food sovereignty in Ghana
\"We Are Not Starving is an ethnography of how global powers, local resistance, and capital flows are shaping contemporary African foodways\"--Provided by publisher.
BOOK
Generation of marker‐free transgenic hexaploid wheat via an Agrobacterium‐mediated co‐transformation strategy in commercial Chinese wheat varieties
Summary Genotype specificity is a big problem lagging the development of efficient hexaploid wheat transformation system. Increasingly, the biosecurity of genetically modified organisms is garnering public attention, so the generation of marker‐free transgenic plants is very important to the eventual potential commercial release of transgenic wheat. In this study, 15 commercial Chinese hexaploid wheat varieties were successfully transformed via an Agrobacterium‐mediated method, with efficiency of up to 37.7%, as confirmed by the use of Quickstix strips, histochemical staining, PCR analysis and Southern blotting. Of particular interest, marker‐free transgenic wheat plants from various commercial Chinese varieties and their F1 hybrids were successfully obtained for the first time, with a frequency of 4.3%, using a plasmid harbouring two independent T‐DNA regions. The average co‐integration frequency of the gus and the bar genes located on the two independent T‐DNA regions was 49.0% in T0 plants. We further found that the efficiency of generating marker‐free plants was related to the number of bar gene copies integrated in the genome. Marker‐free transgenic wheat plants were identified in the progeny of three transgenic lines that had only one or two bar gene copies. Moreover, silencing of the bar gene was detected in 30.7% of T1 positive plants, but the gus gene was never found to be silenced in T1 plants. Bisulphite genomic sequencing suggested that DNA methylation in the 35S promoter of the bar gene regulatory region might be the main reason for bar gene silencing in the transgenic plants.
Journal Article
NAC transcription factors in plant multiple abiotic stress responses: progress and prospects
Abiotic stresses adversely affect plant growth and agricultural productivity. According to the current climate prediction models, crop plants will face a greater number of environmental stresses, which are likely to occur simultaneously in the future. So it is very urgent to breed broad-spectrum tolerant crops in order to meet an increasing demand for food productivity due to global population increase. As one of the largest families of transcription factors (TFs) in plants, NAC TFs play vital roles in regulating plant growth and development processes including abiotic stress responses. Lots of studies indicated that many stress-responsive NAC TFs had been used to improve stress tolerance in crop plants by genetic engineering. In this review, the recent progress in NAC TFs was summarized, and the potential utilization of NAC TFs in breeding abiotic stress tolerant transgenic crops was also be discussed. In view of the complexity of field conditions and the specificity in multiple stress responses, we suggest that the NAC TFs commonly induced by multiple stresses should be promising candidates to produce plants with enhanced multiple stress tolerance. Furthermore, the field evaluation of transgenic crops harboring NAC genes, as well as the suitable promoters for minimizing the negative effects caused by over-expressing some NAC genes, should be considered.
Journal Article
Africa's gene revolution : genetically modified crops and the future of African agriculture
\"As development donors invest hundreds of millions of dollars into improved crops designed to alleviate poverty and hunger, Africa has emerged as the final frontier in the global debate over agricultural biotechnology. The first data-driven assessment of the ecological, social, and political factors that shape our understanding of genetic modification, Africa's Gene Revolution surveys twenty years of efforts to use genomics-based breeding to enhance yields and livelihoods for African farmers. Matthew Schnurr considers the full range of biotechnologies currently in commercial use and those in development - including hybrids, marker-assisted breeding, tissue culture, and genetic engineering.. Drawing on interviews with biotechnology experts alongside research conducted with more than two hundred farmers across eastern, western, and southern Africa, Schnurr reveals a profound incongruity between the optimistic rhetoric that accompanies genetic modified technology and the realities of the smallholder farmers who are its intended beneficiaries. Through the lens of political ecology, this book demonstrates that the current emphasis on improved seeds discounts the geographic, social, ecological, and economic contexts in which the producers of these crops operate. Bringing the voices of farmers to the foreground of this polarizing debate, Africa's Gene Revolution contends that meaningful change will come from a reconfiguration not only of the plant's genome, but of the entire agricultural system.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Spatiotemporal manipulation of auxin biosynthesis in cotton ovule epidermal cells enhances fiber yield and quality
It has been extremely challenging to simultaneously improve both the yield and quality of cotton by conventional breeding. Extensive field trials indicate that regulated expression of an auxin biosynthesis gene in the epidermis of cotton ovules improves both the number and fineness of cotton fibers.
The capacity of conventional breeding to simultaneously improve the yield and quality of cotton fiber is limited
1
. The accumulation of the plant hormone indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) in cotton fiber initials prompted us to investigate the effects of genetically engineering increased IAA levels in the ovule epidermis. Targeted expression of the IAA biosynthetic gene
iaaM
, driven by the promoter of the petunia MADS box gene Floral Binding protein 7 (
FBP7
)
2
, increased IAA levels in the epidermis of cotton ovules at the fiber initiation stage. This substantially increased the number of lint fibers, an effect that was confirmed in a 4-year field trial. The lint percentage of the transgenic cotton, an important component of fiber yield, was consistently higher in our transgenic plants than in nontransgenic controls, resulting in a >15% increase in lint yield. Fiber fineness was also notably improved.
Journal Article