Gene Flow in Plants
Scientists first discovered that DNA naturally transfers between organisms in 1946. It is now known that there are several natural mechanisms for flow of genes, or (horizontal gene transfer), and that these occur in nature on a large scale – for example, it is a major mechanism for antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria, and it occurs between plant species. This is facilitated by transposons, retrotransposons, proviruses and other mobile genetic elements that naturally translocate to new sites in a genome. They often move to new species over an evolutionary time scale and play a major role in dynamic changes to chromosomes during evolution.
The introduction of foreign germplasm into crops has been achieved by traditional crop breeders by artificially overcoming fertility barriers. A hybrid cereal was created in 1875, by crossing wheat and rye. Since then important traits have been introduced into wheat, including dwarfing genes and rust resistance. Plant tissue culture and the induction of mutations have also enabled humans to artificially alter the makeup of plant genomes.
Read more about this topic: Genetically Modified Plant
Famous quotes containing the words flow and/or plants:
“Our sense of these things changes and they change,
Not as in metaphor, but in our sense
Of them. So sense exceeds all metaphor.
It exceeds the heavy changes of the light.
It is like a flow of meanings with no speech
And of as many meanings as of men.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“When the
Marne flowed by the plants nodded
And above the glistering Gila
A sunset as beautiful as the Athabasca
Stammered. The Zambezi chimed. The Oxus
Flowed somewhere.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)