Genetic Engineering In Fruits For Sustained Productivity - 2 views
started by anonymous on 07 Jan 15
started by anonymous on 07 Jan 15
started by anonymous on 07 Jan 15
started by anonymous on 07 Jan 15
There are a number of countries in the world that are considered as major players in horticulture. A number of important fruits and vegetable such as - mango, papaya, apple, tomato, carrot, etc. are being grown in subtropical regions. However, the production of these fruits and vegetables is not up to the mark due to lack of quality planting material. There is a great need of suitable methods that control pests, post harvest loss of fruits, lack of characterization, etc. India is amongst the top 10 countries of the world that has started working on transgenic crops. It is noticed that the genetic base on which conventional farming is dependent is either shrinking or not available. Hence, the search for alternate strategies has become mandatory, which gave rise to genetic engineering in fruits and vegetables.
The fruits and vegetable are grown by using modifying strategies for high yields. This resulted in sufficient food crops, fruits and vegetables. The advancement made in recent years of DNA technology has provided a new way to horticulture research. Though there is no need of using DNA technology in a few crops, fruits and vegetables, it is assumed that the day will soon come where all food items are grown through genetically modified strategies. One of the notable successes in India context is growing tomatoes. There are a number of fruits that are produced with delayed ripening to save the harvest loss. This technology can be incorporated even in mango plant to avoid post harvest loss.
Plant genetic engineering basically deals with the transfer of desired genes from any source of plant. The term transgenic is used to represent the transferred gene. The ultimate goal of genetically modified plants is to improve the crops with desired traits such as - resistance to biotic stress, plants with improved quality and nutrition, resistance to abiotic stress, plants with desired architecture etc. Genetic transformation has opened new ways to combat different stress related issues and also to improve the crop produced. It has given hopes to edible vaccines in a variety of fruits and vegetables. It offers a fast approach towards hybrid development rather than traditional fruit breeding.
Role of molecular biologists
Molecular biologists have introduced a new way that changes the structure of DNA in living organisms. Some of these enzymes join strands of DNA and build customized DNA using these genes. Genetic engineers believe that the quality of food can also be improved the same way by doing this. For instance, tomatoes are sensitive to cold and shorten their growing season. Scientists identified a particular gene that enables a flounder to resist cold by using the genetic engineering technology, where anti-freeze gene is inserted into a tomato to extend its growing season. Scientists noticed that a great taste and aroma can also be introduced into these tomatoes by genetically modifying them. You can grow more and more tomatoes by using these crossbreeding and modifying methods. If you are worried about growing tomatoes in a large number, then it is better to go with genetically modified farming methods.
About Author:-
The author is associated with Trivedi Science and has written many contents on genetics research, poultry research, science experiments etc.