3 ms·
Would improved photosynthesis be liable to find its way into nearby weeds via horizontal gene transfer? It sounds like a really advantageous modification, and s
by david-given 11y ago
Would improved photosynthesis be liable to find its way into nearby weeds via horizontal gene transfer? It sounds like a really advantageous modification, and so something that's likely to be picked up on. (Whereas, say, a modification for higher yields wouldn't be, because it wouldn't be advantageous for a weed.)
- Blahah 11y agoI think this is extremely unlikely. This is because the engineering projects we are talking about involve co-ordinating the regulation of dozens of genes (at least 40 in my project). To build the system we have to transfer in the components separately in many different plants and then carefully stack the changes using breeding techniques. The probability of this happening in nature would be infinitessimally small, especially because we have found that by taking only some of the changes you actually get a decrease in photosynthesis.