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PLANT AN D AG RI CULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PLANTS AND

CROPS: DEFINITIONS
Genetic modification
All organisms used in agriculture and animal husbandry nowadays are the products of genetic
modification for over 10,000 years. Initially, suitable varieties or breeds were selected for the
desirable trait from domesticated wild plants and animals. Some of these traits have appeared
in the genetic diversity of the concerned species through natural hybridization and natural
mutation, and were subjected to selection. Subsequently, artificial hybridization has resulted in
several crop plant varieties and animal breeds. Natural or artificial, hybridization is possible only
between organisms that are biologically closely related. Varieties of maize, wheat, sugar-cane,
cotton and several others involved hybridization, while some, like rice varieties, were based only
on selection. This conventional means of producing genetically modified organisms involves
sexual reproduction; it involves the vertical transfer of genes and the genes concerned express
only in the generation.
Mutations induced by anyone of several physical or chemical means generated genetic
diversity. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, Vienna), over 2,000 types
of crop varieties or lines have been bombarded with gamma rays to produce mutants, many of
which are grown by organic farmers (The Economist, 2004a) .

Genetic engineering and transgenic plants

Under conventional plant breeding procedures, genes from an organism can be introduced only
into another biologically closely-related organism, such as two varieties of the same crop and
possibly, in exceptional circumstances, between two species of the same genus (wide crosses) . In
nature, such events do occur but are rare.
Exchange of genes between biologically totally-unrelated organisms does not occur in nature.
Using techniques of genetic engineering, genes selected from a bacterium are inserted into the
genome of a crop plant or human genes into bacteria and yeast to produce biopharmaceuticals
and vaccines . These are genetically engineered organisms, also called transgenic organisms.
Genetic engineering is more powerful than conventional plant breeding since it can utilize
genes from other sources to provide the intended effect. Rather than ask whether a DNA sequence
is a "plant gene" or a "bacterial gene", perhaps we should simply ask what function it has in the
organism.
Genetic engineering represents lateral (or horizontal) transfer of genes and the genes can
express in the same generation. During biological evolution, there has been over millions of
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GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PLANTS AND CROPS: DEFIN ITIONS

years a lateral transfer of genes among more or less related species, which has ended up in the
present high proportion of Similarity among the genomes of plants and of animals belonging to
the same families or rather distant groups (e.g. the genomes of humans and apes, but also mouse
and even yeast).
Some examples of genetic engineering are the incorporation of genes for insecticidal
proteins of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) into the genomes of several crop species such as
tobacco, maize, potato, rice, cotton, etc.; genes for the synthesis of beta-carotene from daffodil
and a bacterium into rice ("golden rice"; Ye et aI., 2000); genes for human haemoglobin into
tobacco plants; genes for human milk proteins into rice; genes for the hepatitis B surface
antigen (HbsAg) into a yeast (Pichia), etc.
Genetic engineering does not necessarily consist of transferring one or more genes to a
crop species or variety. It can aim at inhibiting the expression of a gene through producing
an anti-sense messenger RNA of this gene . In fact, the first transgenic plant product to
reach the market in 1996 was a tomato produced by the US company Calgene, Inc., whose
polygalacturonase (an enzyme that softens the fruit during ripening) gene has been repressed
by an anti-sense RNA. Labelled tomato paste made from genetically engineered tomato by
Zeneca pIc had captured 60 per cent of market share, i.e . consumers liked it. But in 1999,
the British supermarkets withdrew it from their shelves, because they feared a boycott of
their conventional products by the consumers' associations which denounced foodstuffs
derived from transgenic crops as "Frankenstein" food.

living modified organisms

The fact that crop varieties and animal breeds produced through conventional means also
involve genetic modification has not been correctly appreciated, the phrase "Living Modified
Organisms (LMOs)" should be applied to both conventionally-induced genetic modification
(GMO) and the transgenics induced through genetic engineering (GEO).

Role of RNA in plant genetics

RNA interference
Over the past thirty years, scientists have identified various proteins that activate or silence
genes . However, those proteins are large and complex molecules that are difficult to harness
in order to control disease . The surprise breakthrough came in 1990. A team of plant
scientists at the University of California, Davis, and the company DNA Plant Technology were
trying to make a purple petunia even more purple by inserting into it an additional gene
for purple pigment. Instead of turning a deeper purple, however, some of the flowers were
pale white and others were mottled. The researchers discovered that the inserted gene had
stimulated the production of very small RNAs, and these microRNAs shut down the gene
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PLANT AND AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

activity that led to the production of purple pigment. Other scientists then found microRNAs
in primitive animals and in humans. The micro RNA attaches to the messenger RNA and
destroys it before it can produce its designated protein, thus interfering with or "silencing"
the instructions of the gene (Komaroff and Lieberman, 2005).
Considered just a curiosity at first, RNA interference has since revolutionized biological
research. It allows scientists to silence specific genes very precisely in cell cultures and even
in organisms. It is easy enough to produce microRNAs that silence a particular gene. Such
synthetically made RNAs are called small interfering RNAs, or siRNAs. Progress is being made
on the best ways to deliver siRNA into the organism. While the value of RNA interference
in new breeding processes of crops remains to be proved, the story of its discovery is the
latest example of how an investment in basic research can lead to completely unexpected,
and enormously beneficial, results (Komaroff and Lieberman, 2005).
In 1995, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) of
Australia first demonstrated gene silencing in an organism by intentionally using double-
stranded RNA. The CSIRO has filed a number of patent applications relating to the gene-
silencing area and holds a United States-granted patent (US 6,423,885 "Methods for obtaining
modified phenotypes in plant cells")' an accepted patent application in Australia and other
international applications. The United States and United Kingdom patent offices announced a
grant of patent on applications filed by Benitec Australia Ltd and the Queensland Department
of Primary Industries in relation to certain gene silencing applications in animals, as well as
by Syngenta (the agrochemical giant corporation created by the merger of the agrochemical
divisions of Novartis and AstraZeneca) and the Carnegie Institute. The CSIRO opposed the
Australian patent applications on the grounds that it was the rightful owner of this technology
and has submitted extensive documentary evidence to the Australian Patent Office asserting
that the technology had already been invented and refined by CSIRO scientists prior to mid-
1996.