Download Plant Breeding is the actual application of the genetics research

▪ Plant Breeding is the actual application of the
genetics research when it comes to agriculture. Human
selection for features such as faster growth, larger seeds or
sweeter fruits has dramatically changed domesticated plant
species compared to their wild relatives.
▪ The corn we eat today is the result of decades of using the
strategy of self-pollination followed by cross-pollination to
produce vigorous hybrid plants.
▪ The art of recognizing valuable traits and incorporating them
into future generations is very important in plant breeding.
Breeders have traditionally scrutinized their fields and traveled
to foreign countries searching for individual plants that exhibit
desirable traits. Such traits occasionally arise spontaneously
through a process called mutation, but the natural rate of
mutation is too slow and unreliable to produce all the plants that
breeders would like to see.
▪ In the late 1920s, researchers discovered that they could
greatly increase the number of these variations or mutations
by exposing plants to X-rays. "Mutation breeding"
accelerated after World War II, when the techniques of the
nuclear age became widely available. Plants were exposed to
gamma rays, protons, neutrons, alpha particles, and beta particles
to see if these would induce useful mutations. Chemicals, too,
such as sodium azide and ethyl methanesulphonate, were used to
cause mutations.
WHAT IS GENETIC ENGINEERING?
The process of genetic engineering is known by many different
names such as gene, or DNA manipulation, gene splicing,
transgenics and many others. However the underlying processes all
have the same aim and that is:
"To isolate single genes of a known function from one organism and
transfer a copy of that gene to a new host to introduce a desirable
characteristic"
Effects in Agriculture
Use of herbicides and pesticide resistant genes
1. Pests and diseases can develop tolerance to the genetically
conferred pest and disease resistance. This may mean that
resistance quickly becomes obsolete and other methods may be
required to control the pest or disease.
2. The genetically modified crop may interbreed with closely
related weed type species, thus making these weeds difficult to
control with some specific herbicides.
3. It is also thought that the genetically modified crop itself may
become a weed in its own right due to its resistance to chemicals
and potentially wide range of climate tolerance if it was allowed
to escape the confines of the paddock.
Displacement of indigenous flora and fauna competitive than
native flora and fauna in the native species own ecological niche.
Examples of potential devastation can be seen in the introduction
of gorse, rabbits, stoats, possums and even domestic cats which
were introduced without full understanding of the impact their
release would have on native ecosystems. It is everybody’s
responsibility to ensure native flora and fauna are sustained for
future generations.