FCGMOs Visualize Molecular Level
Robert Vavala
Author
03/27/2018
Added
244
Plays
Description
Ideas to help people visualize molecular-level portions of the GE process
Searchable Transcript
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- [00:00:04.600]We want you to know the difference
- [00:00:06.340]between using the terms GMO and Non-GMO
- [00:00:09.960]to describe living things.
- [00:00:12.570]So we have the goals in this presentation
- [00:00:16.980]to help you visualize traits not at the organism level,
- [00:00:22.060]but at the cell and molecular level,
- [00:00:24.120]and then compare genetic modifications.
- [00:00:27.400]We'll focus on mutation and transgenes
- [00:00:30.030]as two kinds of genetic modifications
- [00:00:32.150]that are really important in biology.
- [00:00:34.220]And that will allow you to contrast the difference
- [00:00:37.290]between the terms Non-GMO and GMO,
- [00:00:40.850]when we apply them to describe living things
- [00:00:44.320]and then finally you should be able to recognize
- [00:00:46.700]when GMOs are needed
- [00:00:48.460]or at least have advantages for scientists
- [00:00:52.720]when they use the technology to improve an organism.
- [00:00:57.120]So let's start with thinking
- [00:01:00.030]about a couple of different organisms
- [00:01:01.730]that are really important in our food system.
- [00:01:04.610]This is soybean and soybean is a very productive crop,
- [00:01:08.760]producing seeds that can be good sources
- [00:01:11.970]of both oil and protein.
- [00:01:15.030]But sometimes farmers encounter problems
- [00:01:17.250]like the disease called Sudden Death Syndrome or SDS.
- [00:01:20.910]So here we can see a leaf from a plant
- [00:01:23.810]that's been infected by this disease
- [00:01:27.860]and it might be that farmers have in the same field,
- [00:01:31.630]or on their same farm,
- [00:01:34.160]a different genetic type, a different variety, of soybean
- [00:01:37.490]that can somehow resist the disease.
- [00:01:39.950]They want to be able to understand that genetic differences
- [00:01:44.900]can make a difference between a very productive soybeans
- [00:01:48.420]in a challenging environment,
- [00:01:49.830]and those that are suffering from the disease.
- [00:01:52.270]The same kind of thinking could be applied to animals
- [00:01:55.920]that a farmer would be producing.
- [00:01:58.530]They may have breeds of pigs that grow at a faster rate,
- [00:02:02.460]or a slower rate,
- [00:02:03.440]again because of genetic differences.
- [00:02:05.370]So these will be a couple of examples that we'll use
- [00:02:08.510]as we think about the biology
- [00:02:11.000]that helps us understand GMO versus Non-GMO.
- [00:02:14.260]So let's start here.
- [00:02:15.340]Let's visualize traits at the cell and molecular level.
- [00:02:20.860]Most of the time we gather information on living things
- [00:02:24.700]with our eyes.
- [00:02:25.533]So that means we're looking at the organisms
- [00:02:28.710]either from a distance at the field level
- [00:02:30.970]or at the individual organism level.
- [00:02:33.595]And sometimes we can focus
- [00:02:36.520]on specific parts of the organism.
- [00:02:38.930]We can focus on the organ and the tissue level.
- [00:02:41.740]That would be especially true
- [00:02:43.160]when understanding the magnitude of disease pressure
- [00:02:46.670]that we see in the leaves.
- [00:02:48.160]Might be true as we look
- [00:02:49.590]at the characteristics of the seeds.
- [00:02:51.320]Many of those traits can be distinguishable
- [00:02:53.940]by looking at the organism organ or tissue
- [00:02:58.970]with our naked eyes.
- [00:03:00.690]But in biology it's also important to look at a closer level
- [00:03:06.340]beyond what our eyes can help us visualize.
- [00:03:08.920]And so with microscopes we can see cells,
- [00:03:11.420]the individual compartments
- [00:03:12.760]that make up complex living things
- [00:03:15.360]such as plants and animals.
- [00:03:16.960]But we want you to be able to visualize
- [00:03:19.570]even closer than the cell to the sub-cellular level
- [00:03:24.030]where we can see the compartments of the cell,
- [00:03:26.130]such as the nucleus where the genetic information
- [00:03:30.380]is stored in these structures called chromosomes.
- [00:03:33.230]And then chromosomes really are long molecules of DNA.
- [00:03:39.860]One long continuous DNA molecule
- [00:03:42.220]that could have dozens, hundreds,
- [00:03:43.810]or even thousands of genes.
- [00:03:45.540]And a gene is just a stretch of DNA
- [00:03:48.800]and that sequence of information
- [00:03:52.280]ordered in that DNA molecule
- [00:03:55.610]provides the information that we call a gene.
- [00:03:58.950]So being able to visualize that differences
- [00:04:01.550]in this DNA sequence level are happening
- [00:04:06.780]which control what happens at the cell level,
- [00:04:09.750]and then at the tissue and organ level,
- [00:04:12.660]and finally at the organism level.
- [00:04:14.710]So we want your thinking to be focused
- [00:04:18.870]at the biology at this molecular level
- [00:04:22.580]and think about this molecule called DNA.
- [00:04:25.810]Once you can understand or visualize biology
- [00:04:29.370]at this DNA level,
- [00:04:30.720]then you can compare genetic modifications
- [00:04:34.610]and that's what we'll do next.
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