Science Folio

Name Class Topic

: Cromwell A. Jubili : 3 Amanah : Genetically Engineered Soya Bean Plants

Science Teacher: Jennifer Asing

CONTENTS Contents
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How genetically engineered soya bean plants better than natural soya bean plants? What will happen to natural soya bean plants which are grown in field close to where the genetically modified are growing? What are the effects of cross pollination between natural soya bean plants and the genetically modified plants What other plants are also genetically modified? Is genetically modified food safe to be consumed? Why? Referens

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How genetically engineered soya bean plants better than natural soya bean plants
Advantages of engineered soya bean plants:

The world population has topped 6 billion people and is predicted to double in the next 50 years. Ensuring an adequate food supply for this booming population is going to be a major challenge in the years to come. GM foods promise to meet this need in a number of ways: - GM soybeans are being used in an increasing number of products - Herbicide tolerance For some crops, it is not cost-effective to remove weeds by physical means such as tilling, so farmers will often spray large quantities of different herbicides (weed-killer) to destroy weeds, a time-consuming and expensive process, that requires care so that the herbicide doesn't harm the crop plant or the environment. Crop plants genetically-engineered to be resistant to one very powerful herbicide could help prevent environmental damage by reducing the amount of herbicides needed. For example, Monsanto has created a strain of soybeans genetically modified to be not affected by their herbicide product Roundup . A farmer grows these soybeans which then only require one application of weed-killer instead of multiple applications, reducing production cost and limiting the dangers of agricultural waste run-off7.

What will happen to natural soya bean plants which are grown in field close to where the genetically modified plants are growing?
The natural soya bean plants will be cross pollinated to the other plants which are genetically modified plants are growing.

What are the effects of cross pollination between natural soya bean plants and the Genetically Modified Plants?

The plants will have a gene transfer to non-target species another concern is that crop plants engineered for herbicide tolerance and weeds will cross-breed, resulting in the transfer of the herbicide resistance genes from the crops into the weeds. These "superweeds" would then be herbicide tolerant as well. Other introduced genes may cross over into non-modified crops planted next to GM crops.

What other plants are also genetically modified?

The most common modified foods are derived from plants is :

Soybean : The soybean (U.S.) or soya bean (UK) (Glycine max) is a species of legume native to East Asia. It is an annual plant that has been used in China for 5,000 years as a food and a component of drugs. Soy contains significant amounts of all the essential amino acids for humans, and so is a good source of protein. Soybeans are the primary ingredient in many processed foods, including dairy product substitutes.

Corn : Maize known as corn in some countries, is a cereal grain domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents. After European contact with the Americas in the late 15th and early 16th century, maize spread to the rest of the world. Maize is the most widely grown crop in the Americas (332 million tonnes annually in the United States alone). Hybrid maize, due to its high grain yield as a result of heterosis ("hybrid vigor"), is preferred by farmers over conventional varieties. While some maize varieties grow up to 7 metres (23 ft) tall, most commercially grown maize has been bred for a standardized height of 2.5 metres (8 ft). Sweet corn is usually shorter than field-corn varieties.

Canola : Canola is one of two cultivars of rapeseed or Brassica napus L. and B. campestris L. Their seeds are used to produce edible oil that is fit for human consumption because it has lower levels of erucic acid than traditional rapeseed oils and to produce livestock feed because it has reduced levels of the toxin glucosin. Canola was originally naturally bred from rapeseed in Canada by Keith Downey and Baldur R. Stefansson in the early 1970s, but it has a very different nutritional profile in addition to much less erucic acid. The name "canola" was derived from "Canadian oil, low acid" in 1978. A product known as LEAR (for low erucic acid rapeseed) derived from cross-breeding of multiple lines of Brassica juncea is also referred to as canola oil and is considered safe for consumption.

Cottonseed oil : Cottonseed oil is a vegetable oil extracted from the seeds of the cotton plant after the cotton has been removed. It must be refined to remove gossypol, a naturally occurring toxin that protects the cotton plant from insect damage

Is genetically modified food safe to be consumed?why?

Genetically modified food is good to have in our in our society because it has the potential to solve many of the world's hunger and malnutrition problems, and to help protect and preserve the environment by increasing yield and reducing reliance upon chemical pesticides and herbicides. But this is the disadvantage of it :
CORN - Two research studies have independently shown evidence of allergenic reactions to genetically-modified Bt corn, - Farm workers exposed to genetically-modified Bt sprays exhibited extensive allergic reactions. POTATOES - A study showed genetically-modified potatoes expressing cod genes were allergenic. PEAS - A decade-long study of GM peas was abandoned when it was discovered that they caused allergic lung damage in mice. SOY - In March 1999, researchers at the York Laboratory discovered that reactions to soy had skyrocketed by 50% over the year before, which corresponded with the introduction of genetically-modified soy from the US. It was the first time in 17 years that soy was tested in the lab among the top ten allergenic foods.

So, for this time genetically modified food is still not safe to be consumed until the the time when technology create a perfect genetically modified food that is free from negative effect to human, animal and nature.

Referens

1. http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean