2006-07-20 23:10:27 · 3 answers · asked by Con 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Botany
My two favorites are "Roundup Ready" soybeans and "Antifreeze tomatoes". In the case of the soybeans, the powerful herbicide Roundup kills all green plants by inhibiting an enzyme called aromatase that is required for synthesizing the three aromatic amino acids. This shuts down protein synthesis, causing the plant to die. In "Roundup Ready" soybeans, the aromatase gene has been snipped away, and a bacterial form of the enzyme has been inserted in its place that is immune to Roundup. This allows farmers to plant this soybean in a field of weeds without plowing or cultivating first, and then simply spray the field with Roundup, which kills everything except the genetically modified soybeans!! A brilliant trick in my book!!
The other example is antifreeze tomatoes. If you have ever grown tomatoes, you know that they are EXTREMELY frost sensitive. But some smart person has figured a way to insert a gene from a kind of Antarctic fish that produces a protein that acts as antifreeze, making these tomatoes able to stand temperatures well below freezing!!! What a breakthrough!
2006-07-21 14:54:53 · answer #1 · answered by Sciencenut 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Most of the food crops: Maize (corn), rice, potatoes, tomatoes, soybeans, peas etc.
Coffee
Cotton
Roses and carnations
2006-07-20 23:29:57 · answer #2 · answered by df382 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Oil palm I think
2006-07-20 23:14:36 · answer #3 · answered by pixellizedness 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋