4 ms·
How do you know when the attack has begun? If < 1% of a field carries the gene, you won't know it's infected. You re-use the seeds, and the wind blows the polle
by deogeo 8y ago
How do you know when the attack has begun? If < 1% of a field carries the gene, you won't know it's infected. You re-use the seeds, and the wind blows the pollen, into multiple fields, so now you have many fields, each with a tiny proportion of infected. What do you do when 10% of the fields has 1% infected plants, and the remaining 90% has an unknown, but smaller % of infected?
- whatshisface 8y agoIn order for that to work, the gene would have to be designed so that it spread across the nation before it became significant in any one cornfield. Pollen gets spread inside of a single field a lot more than it gets spread from field to field, so that would be difficult. It's similar to how an extremely deadly virus won't spread as far as a strain of the common cold.