FCGMOs Visualize Molecular Level
Robert Vavala
Author
03/27/2018
Added
243
Plays
Description
Ideas to help people visualize molecular-level portions of the GE process
Searchable Transcript
Toggle between list and paragraph view.
- [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.
The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!
You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.
Log in to post comments
Embed
Copy the following code into your page
HTML
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%; overflow: hidden; position:relative; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1;">
<iframe
style="bottom: 0; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; border: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%;"
src="https://mediahub.unl.edu/media/9238?format=iframe&autoplay=0"
title="Video Player: FCGMOs Visualize Molecular Level"
allowfullscreen
></iframe>
</div>
Comments
0 Comments