Plant cell systems

Sebastian Alvarado

Why plants?

VERY SUCCESSFUL

BANANA CRISIS

Prices increasing…..

Why?

Do you like to eat eat eat apples and bananas?

Cavendish

The banana is optimized for a consumer market

8 BILLION dollars a year…. How do you like them bananas?

How do we make bananas?

• Musa acuminata /balbisiana hybrid• The Cavendish is the most commonly bought

sold and eaten variety of banana…• Their very production is bottlenecks their

genetics….• Gros Michelle 1950s– Resistant to fungicide– Banana roots– All plantations destroyed

Banana Genetics

• Sterility is caused by triploidy

• No ability to undergo meiosis

• No sex for bananas

Transgenic future for the banana?

What types of traits do we try to confer to plants?

• Pest Resistance• Disease resistance• Drought resistance• Nutrient/Pharmaceuticals

Good ol’ days of genetic manipulations

• Mutation breeding….• Exposing plants to mutagens and handpicking

those that could be bred to a useful crop.

Reverse Genetics

Resistance to disease/pests

What was the first GM plant?

• Tobacco (1986)• Resistant to herbicides• Streamline Tobacco production pipelines

Sidenote…. Do all small molecules target perfectly?

Roundup ready…

VS

Pest resistance

Bt

Drought resistance

• Adaptations to stomata• Water storage• Root systems• Trichomes (absorption)• Waxy Cuticle

Sidenote: Insectivorous plants

Pests?

LOL

Any other traits worth checking out?

Discuss

Transfection

• Agrobacterium• Gold gun• Viruses

How would you identify your transformants?

Golden Gun

And viruses

• Tobacco mosaic virus• Cauliflower mosaic virus• CaMV 35S….. STRONG PROMOTER

Terminator seed technologies

$$$