Engineer a Crop
To create a transgenic plant, one or more genes are artificially inserted into the DNA of the plant's chromosomes. The gene can come from the same type of plant, but sometimes it comes from another type of organism.
Step 1: Take the toxic gene from a stretch of Bt DNA and combine it with a vector
Step 2: Add the vector to the bacterium
Step 3: Move the bacteria to the growth medium
Step 4: Add pieces of the tomato plants leaf to the bacteria
Step 5: Move the plant cells to the growth medium for plants
Step 6: Spray herbicide on the plant cuttings
Step 7: Transfer the plant to the growth chamber
Step 8: Examine the plant to determine if it has the desired trait
Step 1: Take the toxic gene from a stretch of Bt DNA and combine it with a vector
Step 2: Add the vector to the bacterium
Step 3: Move the bacteria to the growth medium
Step 4: Add pieces of the tomato plants leaf to the bacteria
Step 5: Move the plant cells to the growth medium for plants
Step 6: Spray herbicide on the plant cuttings
Step 7: Transfer the plant to the growth chamber
Step 8: Examine the plant to determine if it has the desired trait
- A vector is a short piece of DNA capable of replicating on its own when inside a bacteria cell.
- Agrobacterium is a bacterium that causes disease in plants, has the ability to transfer a portion of its DNA into plant cells.
- The Agrobacterium cell grows in number by dividing. Each time one of its cells divides, so do the vectors within it.
- Growth medium promotes the regeneration of plants.
- Only cells with the herbicide-resistant gene survive.
- The regenerating cutting is planted in soil and allowed to mature.
- To test if this tomato plant is resistant to a targeted pest, the pest was allowed to eat the plant's leaves. Since only plants that have successfully incorporated the Bt gene will kill this pest, the death of this indicates that you were successful.