Lectures 1 - 15 Flashcards
(89 cards)
1
Q
What are the four crops that produce 51% of the worlds calories?
A
- Wheat
- Rice
- Maize/corn
- Soy or cassava
2
Q
What food groups/products produce the most green house gas emissions?
A
In 2019 the most greenhouse gases were produced led by dairy and beef consumption.
3
Q
How much of our total water is used for irrigation?
A
About 2/3 of water is used for irrigation, making water scarcity a big issue.
4
Q
What did the green revolution do in the 1940s-60s? What helped to create it?
A
it helped the worlds keep track with population growth,
1. High yield varieties (HYVs) - primarily dwarfism
2. Synthetic fertilizers and pesticides
3. irrigation at large scale
4. Modernization of agriculture through rollout of farming machinery
5. Education and supportive government policies
5
Q
What is the Mediterranean diet?
A
It is a concept from American scientists Ancel and Margaret Keys in the 1970s - inspired by traditional food of southern spain, Italy, Greek islands
- The general principles are: lots of fruits and vegetables, limited red meat, processed grains, saturated fats. (also found in other places)
6
Q
What is a Life Cycle assessment?
A
A standardized methodology that allows for the quantitative assessment of the global extent of inputs, outputs, and potential environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of a product system.
7
Q
What is product-based LCA?
A
This is what is the impact of producing this product? (attributional LCA)
8
Q
What is scenario-based LCA?
A
What is the impact of doing this thing? (consequential LCA)
9
Q
What are the different applications LCAs can be used for?
A
- Product development
-Product improvement - Strategic planning
- Public policy making
- Marketing and communication
10
Q
Why are LCAs useful to the food system? (life cycle assessment)
A
- they can be used to improve the sustainability of the production system
- Use as a bench mark, impact of one food against another
- food labelling systems
- development of national strategies
11
Q
What are the 4 steps to LCAs?
A
- the goal and scope definition: makes sure LCAs are performed consistently, it is a model, and must be simple
- Inventory analysis if extractions and emissions: looking at the inputs and outputs w/ a product or a service
- Impact assessment (LCIA): the interpretation phase, that let us know what the themes are that you have to focus on like global warming or human health.
- Concluding and figuring out what the next step is once you have your target
12
Q
What is the biggest part of the LCAs in the drink industry?
A
It is the packaging that they are using, that determines there LCA
13
Q
What the different impact categories for the drink packaging industry to decide their LCA?
A
GWP- global warming potential
PED - primary energy demand
ADP - abiotic depletion potential
AP - acidification potential
EP - eutrophication potential
HTP - human toxicity potential
MAETP - marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential
FAETP - fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity potential
TETP - terrestrial ecotoxicity potential
ODP - ozone depletion potential
POCP - Photochemical oxidants creation potential
14
Q
What are the hotspots for beer production (in LCAs)?
A
the main hotspots are ingredients and packaging, beer in steel cans were the lowest impact: with 5 out of 12 impact categories
15
Q
What are the stages of LCA in wine production?
A
- Viticulture - (planting, production and harvesting)
- Vinification - (fermentation)
- Bottling and packaging
- Distribution
- Waste disposal
16
Q
What is the Nutrient Rich food index?
A
Nutrient-rich food index scores are dietary quality indices based on nutrient density
- they consist of the sum of BENEFICIAL NUTRIENTS to Non beneficial food nutrients (related to the maximum recommended intake values
- Widely used is the 9:3 index
- They can be related to individual food items, cost of food item and diet
- vary according to the number of beneficial nutrients considered
17
Q
What is the Kyoto protocol?
A
it sets targets for developed countries to reduce GHG emissions by 5.2% by 2008-2012 compared with 1990.
- Europe as a whole 8%
- Ireland was allowed to increase emissions
18
Q
What is the Paris Agreement?
A
- Superseded Kyoto protocol, and a separate agreement
-Non-binding emission targets, ‘universal participation’ - long-term goal, limit CO2 to less than 2C rise, aiming for 1.5C
19
Q
What can Irish farmers do to improve sustainability? (because they didn’t meet their 2020 goals)
A
- Improving genetics through increase EBI: improves fertility and survival, allowing earlier caving, delivering higher milk solids yield, improved health
- Extending the grazing season
- Incorporating white clover into perennial ryegrass pastures
20
Q
What is Reactive Nitrogen?
A
Gaseous di-nitrogen (N2) constitutes for 78% of the earths atmosphere. Other forms are Nitrate (NO-3), Ammonium (NH4+) and Ammonia (NH3) gaseous nitrogen and many other organic and inorganic forms.
Collectively termed REACTIVE NITROGEN
21
Q
What is the Nitrogen cascade?
A
the cascade of Nr from one system to another is enhanced if there is a limited potential for Nr accumulation or loss of Nr through denaturation
22
Q
What are the effects of excess Nitrogen pollution?
A
- Contributor to climate change
- Disrupting natural ecosystems
- Direct threat to human health
- Economic cost
23
Q
What is the highest driver of the European Nitrogen cycle?
A
The highest driver is intensive livestock farming, this contributes to air pollution, fuels climate change, and estimated to shorten the life of the average resident by 6 months.
24
Q
What is most biomass used for?
A
Most is used for food and animal feed. The rest is used for energy, and materials with wood as the main raw material
25
What are different types of Non-food crops?
Fiber Crops: crops that are grown specifically for non-food and non-energy purposes. Include: cotton, hemp, jute and flax
Carbohydrate crops: bio-ethanol markets and industrial applications (paper, board, organic materials)
26
What amount of all chemicals are bio-based in the chemical industry?
Only 5% are bio-based, there are many developments towards more renewable materials
27
Why are bioplastics better?
They are derived from photosynthesis so they do not cause a net increase of GHGs. They are therefore carbon neutral
28
What are second generation biofuels?
They are biofuels that are produced from sustainable feedstock
29
What are third generation biofuels?
- Do not require agricultural land
- Maximum 6% light use efficiency
- productivity of 25 t/ha/yr
- 25% useful lipids and not just seeds
butttt... requires a lot of energy and fertilizer, harvesting is complicated
30
What are 4th generation biofuels?
- Genetically modified plants and algae for desired traits
- Higher yields/increased efficiency
- Can involve direct use of waste CO2 and syngas
31
What is the ideal Biomass Crop?
High Outputs (yield)
- early canopy closure
- long growing season
- high rates of photosynthesis
- high rates of harvest index
Low inputs
- fertilizer -high nutrient use efficiency
- Water - high water use efficiency
- Management - perennial crop, few pests and diseases
32
What are the four revolutions of plant breeding?
1. Selective breeding
2. Mutation breeding
3. Transgenic breeding
4. Genome editing
33
What is Selective breeding?
selective breeding has been going on for thousands of years and it is when the desired gene is incorporated along with many other genes, which then have to be bred out.
- it is random, slow and crossing only works within species
34
What is mutation breeding?
Since the 1920s:
- desired mutation is incorporated, along with many other random mutations which have to be bred out.
- random, unpredictable, but relatively fast
35
What is transgenic breeding?
Since the 1980s:
- only desired gene is incorporated but randomly inserted
- random insertion, inserts foreign genes
36
What is genome editing?
Since 2000s:
- wider range of genetic changes achievable, potentially in all crop species
-precise, fast, leaves no trace
37
How did people begin to cultivate plants?
Has been thought that there is a gradual want for change, and genetic modification arose as a consequence of cultivation
38
What are natural sources of genetic breeding?
- Reproduction
- Environmental: UV, Carcinogens
- Outbreeding
- Natural selection
- Artificial selection
39
What is plant domestication?
the process by which wild plants evolve adaptations that increase their usefulness for humans. may decrease fitness for the wild
40
When did plant domestication start?
It started 10,000 years ago, since 4,000 years the domestication of all major crop species
41
What are the stages to plant domestication?
stage 1. wild populations, phenotypically distinct, after extended cultivation, selection occurs on a new crop in an agricultural ecosystem
stage 2. amplification of populations w desirable alleles (leads to increase in yields, selection of favorable crop phenotypes, increase in trait variation
stage 3. domesticated crops evolve and spread from initial geographical range
stage 4. deliberate breeding of crop varieties
42
What happens in domestication syndrome?
- food crops have larger fruits or grains, more robust plants overall
- more determinate growth
- loss of natural seed dispersal so seeds remain attached for easy harvest
- fewer though larger fruits or grains per plant
- decrease in bitter structure (sweeter)
- changes in photoperiod sensitivity
43
What are the genes that control domestication traits?
- teosinte branched (tb1): apical dominance in maize
- Fruitweight2.2 (fw2.2): controlling 30% of the difference in fruit mas between wild and cultivated tomatoes
- Teosinte glume architecture1 (tga1) was identified as a major
variant controlling the formation of the casing that surrounds the
kernels of the maize ancestor, teosinte
- shattering4 (sh4) is a major variant controlling whether the seed fall off the plant (shatter) as in wild rice or adhere to the plant as in cultivated rice
44
What are the four bases for plant DNA?
- Adenine
- Guanine
- Cytosine
- Thymine
45
How big is a tomato genome?
tomatoes have 12 chromosomes that are composed of 800 million base pairs (smaller than a lot of other genomes)
46
What is a phenotype?
The characteristics of an organism that present outwardly/ they are observable
47
What is a Genotype?
The genetic composition of an individual
48
What is conventional/selective breeding?
the process of introducing a desired trait into a plant by cross-fertilization, then selection, then a process called back-crossing to yield a genetically stable cultivar
49
What is marker assisted selection? (MAS)
It is a technique that can be used in plants and animals to select qualities that are desirable for farmers and consumers (faster than selecting for phenotype)
50
Tomato plant: introgression of a disease resistant gene - how does this work?
You take a poor tomato that is disease resistant and then crossbreed it with an elite tomato, then we can use DNA markers to see if there is the gene for the disease resistance. Then continue to breed the tomatoes using the elite gene and after several generations there will be an elite, disease resistant tomato
51
What is the rice breed that is high yielding and flood resistant?
after crossing the Swarna and Sb1 you get the Swarna-sub1. Which is both high yielding and flood resistant
52
How does breeding through chemicals and radiation work?
The plant with the desired trait is selected from crop lines, produced by chemical radiation
- This is a highly successful technique with over 3280 mutant crop varieties worldwide
53
What is induced mutagenesis of plants?
- Ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS)
is something that seeds can be exposed to this indirectly cause double-strand breaks
- Mainly induce GC to AT or TA to CG
- Can also use x-rays and gamma rays
-Or chemical or physical mutagens
54
How does genetic modification breeding work?
Genetic modification breeding (GM) is a molecular technology where you insert DNA, responsible for the desirable trait, directly into the plants genome
- Selection and screening is rigorous (makes sure that gene isn't affecting other genes already in the genome)
- Also trialed excessively
55
What is Crown Gall disease (in plants)?
- it is a bacterial infection in dicots , that infect the plant through site of injury and transfer a tumor inducing plasmid.
- This can be genetically engineered away, you insert the DNA you wish to transfer into the plasmid T-DNA and it will be transferred, removing the disease causing genes
56
What is the Agrobacterium method?
1. cultivation of agrobacterium with plant tissues
2. metal particles coated with DNA shot at plant tissue
3. transformed plant cell
4. proliferation of transformed cells
5. shoot regeneration
6. regenerated plant with new trait
57
What is genome breed editing? or genetic editing? (GE)
It is new biological technology that allows precise modification of the genome, CRISPR-cas9 is the most common tool in genome editing - molecular scissors cut a location in the genome with precision
- This can cause mutation but other applications include: inserting new genes or removing specific ones
58
What are the advantageous of genetic editing vs. genetic modification?
Editing: allows precise insertion of the desired gene
- There is no foreign DNA in the GE plant's genome which means that plants that have been edited are indistinguishable from the plant before and some argue that they aren't even GMOs
59
What is plant tissue culture?
it is when cells or small pieces of living tissues (ex-plants) are isolated from a plant and grown aseptically on a suitable nutrient medium.
- makes genetic engineering possible
- allows material to be bulked for plant breeding
- allows genotypes to be cloned for sale
- for invitro conservation
60
What does CRISPR-cas9 do in biotechnology?
The CRIPSR RNA and transactivating RNA are fussed together on a single DNA and then RNA molecule now called the single guide, this can then be programmed to match any 20 nucleotide sequence in the genome
61
What are the CRISPR-cas9 benefits compared to other breeding technologies?
- It has dramatically reduced the number of unnecessary "off-target" changes compared to mutagenesis breeding
- Site-specific cleavage to facilitate homologous recombination
- It is also: more seamless, low cost, easily tailored, and comparatively fast
62
What different gene editing can be used with CRISPR? like what would you want to do with it?
- Disease resistance
- Food safety
- Quality
- Weed resistance
- Nitrogen remobilization
- Insect resistance
63
What are the possible risks of genome edited crops?
- off-target edits by NGT
- frequency of spontaneous or natural mutagenesis
- Inadequate public sector - institutional infrastructure to support the use of genome editing technologies
- technical risks
- enhanced inequity between rich and poor
- Lack of transparency
- Unclear intellectual property
64
What are Secondary metabolites and its industry?
Plants produce a large array of organic compounds that appear to have no direct function in growth and development. No role in photosynthesis, respiration, solute transport etc. (these are known as secondary metabolites)
65
What are the three major ecological functions of secondary metabolites?
1. protect plant from herbivory and being infected by microbial pathogens
2. Serve as attractants for pollinators and seed-dispersing animals
3. function as agents of plant-to-plant competition
66
What are the THREE chemically distinct groups of secondary metabolites?
1. Terpenes
2. Phenolics
3. Nitrogen-containing compounds
67
What are Terpenes (secondary metabolites)?
- Oily substances composed of ISOPRENE units
- largest group of secondary metabolites 25,000 different forms
- not unique to higher plants, synthesized in animals, bacteria, fungi and algae
- industrial uses: essential oils, antioxidants, anticancer drugs, contraceptives
68
What are essential oils?
- they are mixtures of volatile terpenes that lend characteristics to smell and foliage
- insect repellant properties
- extracted by steam distillation and are more commercially in food flavoring and perfume
69
What is Taxol? (terpene; secondary metabolites)
- it is a terpene widely used for treatment of cancer
- it was first isolated from the bark of the pacific yew
- 1988 found to be effective against ovarian cancer
- There is an extremely limited supply
- Solution a related chemical that could be used to synthesize Taxol and could be extracted in large quantities
70
What are Anthocyanins (secondary metabolites)?
They are colored pigments of plants that provide visual clues to attract pollinators and seed dispersers
two types:
1. Carotenoids (yellow, orange and red terpenoids)
2. Flavonoids (red, pink and purple and blue colors)
71
What are flavonoids (secondary metabolites)?
- Flavones and Flavanols absorb light at shorter wavelengths than anthocyanins, so they are not visible to the human eye
- Visible to bees and other insects
- Thought to indicate location of pollen and nectar
- Not restricted to plants but are present in the leaves of all green plants
72
What are Tannins?
They are general toxins that can reduce growth and survival of many herbivores when added to their diet, act as feeding repellants.
73
What are bioresources?
Any resources of biological origin (from biodiversity)
- usually refers to products from living organisms (excluding fossil fuels, rocks of biological origin)
74
What is bioprospecting?
The search for new products
75
What is ethnobiology?
The search for new products with aid of indigenous people, relationships between biological organisms and people - communication w/ different cultures
76
How has ethnobiology helped us with cassava?
- Cassava has origin in south America, but was introduced to Africa.
- Using ethnobiology we can learn about farming practices, breeding knowledge, and genetic resources to improve cultivation
77
What is the methodology of ethnobiology (what do we do?)
- Interview/talk/conduct survey with local people
- Identify plant/animal/insect of interest
-extract and assay chemical
78
What are the different approaches of bioprospecting?
1. random screening
2. taxonomic screening
3. ethnobiology
79
What is a drug?
- Chemical substance, when administered exerts a biological effect
- Active pharmaceutical ingredient
80
What is the process of creating a drug?
1. Discovery
2. Non-clinical testing (two phases)
3. Phase 3 (marketing authorization regulator
4. phase 4
81
What is criteria for green solvents?
- Sourced from renewable feedstock
- low energy demand production
- Biodegradable
- Not too water soluble
- No volatile organic compounds
- easy to recycle
82
What is the criteria for safe green solvents?
1. High stability (thermal/chemical)
2. Low flammability (high flash point)
3. Low to moderate toxicity
83
What is a Social-Ecological system?
It is a cohesive system comprising of ecosystems and human societies that interact with each other, they are interdependent
84
What are the key concepts of Social-ecological systems?
1. Interconnectedness
2. Feedback loops - positive and negative feedback loops
3. Resilience
4. Adaptive capacity
5. Thresholds and regime shifts
85
What is the DPSIR framework?
1. Drivers: broad factors that create pressure (economic growth, population increase)
2. Pressures: Direct actions impacting the environment
3. State: Current conditions of the environment and social systems
4. Impact: Effects on ecosystem and human well-being
5. Response: measures taken by society to address issue
86
What are the challenges of Social-ecological systems?
- Complexity and uncertainty
- Diverse stakeholders and conflicting interests
- Lack of data monitoring
- Cross-scale interactions
87
What is environmental policy?
it refers to the commitments, regulations and laws that governments and organizations implement to address environmental issues.
- aim to protect natural resources, biodiversity, sustainable ecosystems for future generations
88
What are the aims of environmental policy?
1. protecting ecosystems and biodiversity
2. Ensuring sustainable resource management
3. Mitigating and adapting to climate change
4. protecting human health and well-being
5. Promoting environmental justice
89
