Why Rice?• Areas where rice is a daily food
source• Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal,
South Africa, The Philippines, and Vietnam
• Humanitarian project• Deliver a traditional crop with an added
trait or traits• Increased income to areas of poverty
• Sustainable Crop• Familiar to farmers• Familiar to population
http://www.terradaily.com/images/bowl-white-rice-bg.jpg
What Genetic Modifications?
• Less enviromental harm– Increased absorption of CO2 for use
in photosynthesis
• Increased yeilds– Use of up to 35% less agricultural
land
• Increased nutritional value– Golden rice (beta carotine)– Iron and Zinc
Can you see the difference?Vitamin A deficiency (VAD)
• Impaired vision
• Irreversible blindness
• Exposure to infection
• Reduced Immune response
• Malaria
• Impaired hematopoiesis
• Skeletal growth
How it’s made!• Biochemical pathway for β-
carotene production in the grain• Two genes used
– Daffodils (2005 replaced by Maize)– Erwinia uredovora, a soil bacterium
• Expression in the Rice Endosperm
•Concentration of β-carotene golden color
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pakora/436917081/
http://www.sxc.hu/pic/m/b/be/belriose/325894_maize.jpg
Potential of ONE seed
• Potential for 20,000 tons of rice in 2 years– Feeds 100,000 for an
entire year– Reducing Vitamin A
malnutrition
One Seed
One Plant
1000 Seeds
Social Controversy“If some people decide that they want blind
children and white rice, it’s their decision. I’m offering the possibility of yellow rice and no blind children. But the decision what people want to eat is theirs." Dr. Potrykus
“Malnutrition is not merely a nutrition problem, it is also a social problem.” Dr. Samson Tsou
Greenpeace claimed Golden Rice is “not effective” and “superfluous”
Political Controversy
• Delayed processes• Permits• Lack of support
• Regulatory requirements• Large corporations• Public sector
– Loss of investments and opportunities– Increase cost
References• Text
– http://www.goldenrice.org/PDFs/The_Golden_Rice_Project_Mayer_et_al_2006.pdf
– http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/articles/biotech-art/potrykus.html– http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/articles/biotech-art/potrykus.html– http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,98034,00.html– http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/pdf/10.1641/0006-
3568(2005)055%5B0726%3ATGRCUS%5D2.0.CO%3B2?cookieSet=1– http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=18– http://www.pr-inside.com/golden-rice-on-sale-by-r1059490.htm
• Photo– http://search.msn.com/images/results.aspx?
q=golden+rice&FORM=MSNH11#focal=ea94962576061e4814f7e8686263fec7&furl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.macalester.edu%2Fenvironmentalstudies%2Fstudents%2Fprojects%2Fcitizenscience2007%2Fgeneticallymodifiedcrops%2Fimages%2Fgoldenrice.jpg
– http://www.goldenrice.org/image/silver+gold.jpg– http://www.chefnoah.com/images/White%20Rice.jpg– http://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/2371078982/– http://img.alibaba.com/photo/101434868/White_Rice_100_Grade_B.jpg– http://www.atdforum.org/IMG/jpg/Golden_Rice.jpg
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