21.5

Question 1

what are some characteristics that are desired in GM crops. what are some pros/cons of these?

Answer 1

1. pest resistance: incr yeild, though may lead to resistant pests.
2. disease resistance: incr yeild, though may spread forming ‘superweeds’
3. herbicide resistance: reduce competeing weeds for yeild, though may reduce biodiversity
4. extended shelflife: reduces waste, though reduces the commercial demand, bad for economy.
5. growing conditions: e.g. flood resitant to better survive.
6. incr nutritional value: better health, though may cause people to become allergic to the GM plants when they werent before.
7. using plants to produce medicine.

Question 2

How is insect resistance in soya beans achieved?

Answer 2

scientists inserted a gene into the soya bean, produces Bt protein, toxic to many pests

Question 3

what is patenting of the plants and how does it impact people negatively?

Answer 3

removing the fertility from the seeds, makes them not able to be regrown. is bad for people in less developed countries, they often reply on being able to regrow crops the next year.

Question 4

name 2 examples of GM animals

Answer 4

swine fever resistant pigs and faster growing salmon- faster to become a food source.

Question 5

what is ‘pharming’? and the 2 main aspects of it?

Answer 5

producing human medicines using animals.
1. creating animal models: causing animals to develop a disease to develop treatments
2. creating human proteins: animals used because bacteria cant produce all proetins needed, too complex. e.g. using goats to harvest human milk.

Question 6

what are some ethical issues?

Answer 6

1. should animals be engineered to act as models?
2. is it right to put human genes into animals?
3. does GM reduce animals to commodities?
4. is welfare compromised?

Question 7

what is somatic gene therapy?

Answer 7

replacing mutant alleles with healthy alleles in the affected somatic (body) cells. a vector is needed to carry the normal alleles.

Question 8

what is germ line gene therapy?

Answer 8

inserting functional alleles into gametes or zygotes. altering the sperm or egg before fertilization. controversy and not done on humans.

Question 9

what are some issues and pros with somatic gene therapy?

Answer 9

there has been some good results with some diseases. however it can still be passed to offspring and somatic cells are replaced by stem cells with the faulty alleles.

Question 10

issues with germ line cell gene therapy?

Answer 10

illegal in many countries due to medical and ethical concerns. done without consent of the unborn child.