About the Book
Genetically Modified Crops provides groundbreaking information on the integration of foreign DNA into the nucleus of a plant cell to produce a positive transformation. This volume details methods of gene delivery, laboratory tools and techniques to increase success rates, and the benefits, risks, and limitations of these methods. Authors at the forefront of this developing technology provide a comprehensive overview of transgenic crops and vital research on specific plant genera that have undergone transgenic transformation. Agricultural biotechnology has become an international debate concerning the future of farming and food production, and this book is an important scientific reference providing information on the latest protocols of genetic transformation. This book also outlines the goals that scientists are striving to reach, such as targeted gene expression where the gene only expresses itself at a certain time in the plant's life cycle, but disappear before human consumption. One of the greatest concerns is maintaining the welfare of the consumer, and in this volume the authors repeatedly discuss their findings in terms of safety for human consumption.
This book also contains several chapters about current methods of transformation involving specific crops such as wheat, alfalfa, sorghum, barley and more. This volume is an indispensable guidebook for agronomists, plant and molecular geneticists, and students in agronomy, genetics, entomology, horticulture, and plant pathology. This manual is also useful to concerned consumers who wish to know the latest scientific findings on genetically modified crops. Complete with references, figures, and photographs, this book is an essential manual for all those who have an interest in this controversial topic.
Table of Contents:
About the Editors,, Contributors,, Preface,, Chapter 1. Transformation: A Powerful Tool for Crop Improvement (D. Z. Skinner, S. Muthukrishnan, and G. H. Liang),, Introduction,, Incorporation of Transgenes into Crops,, Methodology of Producing Transgenic Plants,, Confirmation of Putative Transgenic Plants and Transformation Efficiency,, Crop Species Amenable to Transformation,, Current and Future Transgenic Crops,, Food Safety and Risk Analysis,, Chapter 2. Mechanism(s) of Transgene Locus Formation (David A. Somers, Paula M. Olhoft, Irina F. Makarevitch, and Sergei K. Svitashev),, Introduction,, Plant Genetic Engineering Systems,, Transgene Loci,, Mechanisms for Transgene Locus Formation,,Chapter 3. Gene Stacking Through Site-Specific Integration (David W. Ow),, Introduction,, Heterologous Site-Specific Recombination Systems,, Targeting via Cre- lox ,, Targeting via FLP- FRT ,, Expression of Targeted Transgenes,, Prospects for Gene Stacking ,, C31 Site-Specific Recombination System,, Concluding Remarks,, Chapter 4. Transgenics of Plant Hormones and Their Potential Application in Horticultural Crops (Yi Li, Hui Duan, Yan H. Wu, Richard J. McAvoy, Yan Pei, Degang Zhao, John Wurst, Qi Li, and Keming Luo),, Introduction,, Auxins,, Cytokinins,, Gibberellins,, Ethylene,, Abscisic Acid,, Concluding Remarks,, Chapter 5. Avidin: An Egg-Citing Insecticidal Protein in Transgenic Corn (Karl J. Kramer),, Introduction,, Mechanism of Action,, History of Commercialization,, Demonstration of H
