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Creation of new plants without DNA insertion

29.12.2015

The brilliant idea of gene transplantation has run into so much resistance from society that breeders are forced to look for workarounds to quickly create plants with improved properties. One of them is genome editing without the use of foreign DNA. Researchers from the South Korean Institute of Basic Science, led by Jin-Soo Kim, tested this method on lettuce, tobacco, and rice cells.

Edited with CRISPR/Cas9 molecular scissors. Such a design cuts the plant's DNA in a precisely chosen place, and then the cell closes the damage on its own, thus withdrawing the marked gene from circulation. That is, nothing is inserted into the genome - they only turn off the plant's own gene.

According to the authors of the work, the procedure practically does not differ from the usual mutagenesis that occurs in nature, except that it is not a random gene that is damaged, but a pre-selected one. Experiments with edited cells showed that the operation was successful: there was no mosaic of genes in the samples of proliferating cells.

From the seeds obtained, it was possible to grow edited plants in almost half of the cases and in the second generation. Since they do not contain foreign DNA, they are not subject to EU restrictions. Moreover, the technique is relatively simple, and it can be used in small seed farms, which removes a serious problem - dependence on a monopoly producer of transgenic seeds.

True, genome editing may not be so harmless and without any foreign DNA. For example, in potatoes, poisonous berries accompany completely edible tubers. They have one genome, it's all about the regulation of gene activity. And if you inaccurately edit this very regulator, then ...

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Fed up with just one scent 07.10.2007

As you know, the greedy baker tried to charge Khoja Nasreddin for using the aroma of barbecue, and then Khoja paid off with the sound of coins. It turns out that the claims of the steward were not so groundless.

The smell of food has almost the same effect on fruit flies as the food itself. It has been known since the thirties of the last century that the reduction of calorie intake and starvation prolong the life of many animals. This effect is also known in Drosophila.

However, as experiments recently carried out in the USA have shown, flies kept from hand to mouth, but with a constant smell of food (yeast), live no longer than those fed to the dump. When geneticists bred a line of flies devoid of smell, it turned out that the smell of food does not affect their lifespan and poor nutrition prolongs their lifespan even with the constant smell of food.

Scientists suggest that the smell, which promises abundant food, disables the energy-saving program that operates in a starving body, and this reduces life expectancy.

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