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How reliable/discrete is this process? Can I select particular nutrients and decide I want a plant to have them? Can you tell us more/provide some interesting r
by gburt 11y ago
How reliable/discrete is this process? Can I select particular nutrients and decide I want a plant to have them? Can you tell us more/provide some interesting references?
- technotony 11y agoWe can put new pathways into plants. Currently our tech allows up to ten genes. Most nutrients could be boosted with 1-2 additional genes (typically over expressing genes the plant already has or adding similar genes from other plants, eg Golden Rice add's beta carotene genes from daffodil), so today we could boost 4-6 nutrients. Over time we'll be able to add more and it will get easier (Eg through synthetic chromosomes). This explanation of how they made golden rice is probably helpful: http://www.goldenrice.org/Content2-How/how1_sci.php http://www.goldenrice.org/Content2-How/how1_sci.php It's not as simple as just putting the first genes into the plant, there is an optimization process needed. The regulatory costs however are at least 10-20 times greater than the development costs.