Chapter 20, Problem 16PIAT

Summary Introduction

To review:

The concerns related to GM (genetically modified) crops that contain foreign (non-crop plant) genes.

Introduction:

The GM crops are the plants whose DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) has been altered using biotechnological techniques. The aim of producing the GM crops is to introduce new traits in the plant that are naturally absent in them to produce specific biological product and increase crop productivity.

Transgenic plants usually contain genes of bacterial plasmid origin. In a study, researchers transformed cells from a susceptible potato variety with a potato blight resistance gene cloned from a resistant variety. They performed PCR using primers specific for the plasmid to determine which plants from this group were also free of plasmid DNA (cloning vector) sequences. The positive control lane showed PCR amplification of plasmid DNA only, and the negative control lane showed an attempted PCR amplification of no added DNA. Use this study to address concerns related to GM crops.