This article was co-authored with B M Subbalakshmi.
Blue bananas, golden rice, software programs for drug design... the
world of biology has expanded way beyond the cell and its functions.
With technology aiding the exploration of the miniscular world, the
potentials thrown up are mind boggling as a recent workshop revealed.
The next time you want to immunize yourself against Hepatitis, you
may not need to take a shot. Instead all you would have to do is eat
a blue banana. Similarly, for protecting yourself from Tuberculosis
all you have to do is eat a tomato. If you want that extra dose of
Vitamin A in your diet, try eating the Golden Rice. Welcome to the
world of biotechnology, a most happening research in science on which
most of us including students of biology know little.
Researchers all over the world are now focusing on to insert other
genes into plants to produce vaccines, which can be taken orally.
Those plants are selected which can be eaten uncooked and can easily
be eaten by children such as muskmelon, tomatoes, bananas. The
vaccine is expressed in the fruit that can be eaten to get the
desired effect. Researchers in a research institute in New Delhi are
trying to produce transgenic tomato plants, which can produce
vaccines against Tuberculosis. Similarly, researchers at the
University of Agricultural Sciences have produced a transgenic
muskmelon plant that produces vaccine against rabies. But permission
is awaited for its trial on dogs, says Dr P H Ramanjini Gowda of UAS,
Bangalore who delivered a lecture on 'Novel compounds from plants'.
Apart from the Bt cotton, another controversial transgenic has been
the Golden Rice, which has been claimed to provide sufficient Vitamin
A and so can be used to elimiinnate night blindness among people. The
Rice developed by scientists Inges and Potrykus has genes for
Beta-carotene taken from daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus). The
genome of a japonica variety of rice has been injected with the
daffodil gene using Agrobacterium tumefaciens as a vector to effect
the transfer. The rice is called as Golden Rice because these rice
grains appear pale yellow due to Beta-carotene, which is a precursor
to Vitamin A. Dr C Kameshwar Rao of FBAE gave a lecture on the Golden
Rice, comparative levels of carotenoids in vegetables and oils, and
the relevance of Golden Rice.
This article appeared in Deccan Herald on 18th December, 2001
Blue bananas, golden rice, software programs for drug design... the
world of biology has expanded way beyond the cell and its functions.
With technology aiding the exploration of the miniscular world, the
potentials thrown up are mind boggling as a recent workshop revealed.
The next time you want to immunize yourself against Hepatitis, you
may not need to take a shot. Instead all you would have to do is eat
a blue banana. Similarly, for protecting yourself from Tuberculosis
all you have to do is eat a tomato. If you want that extra dose of
Vitamin A in your diet, try eating the Golden Rice. Welcome to the
world of biotechnology, a most happening research in science on which
most of us including students of biology know little.
Researchers all over the world are now focusing on to insert other
genes into plants to produce vaccines, which can be taken orally.
Those plants are selected which can be eaten uncooked and can easily
be eaten by children such as muskmelon, tomatoes, bananas. The
vaccine is expressed in the fruit that can be eaten to get the
desired effect. Researchers in a research institute in New Delhi are
trying to produce transgenic tomato plants, which can produce
vaccines against Tuberculosis. Similarly, researchers at the
University of Agricultural Sciences have produced a transgenic
muskmelon plant that produces vaccine against rabies. But permission
is awaited for its trial on dogs, says Dr P H Ramanjini Gowda of UAS,
Bangalore who delivered a lecture on 'Novel compounds from plants'.
Apart from the Bt cotton, another controversial transgenic has been
the Golden Rice, which has been claimed to provide sufficient Vitamin
A and so can be used to elimiinnate night blindness among people. The
Rice developed by scientists Inges and Potrykus has genes for
Beta-carotene taken from daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus). The
genome of a japonica variety of rice has been injected with the
daffodil gene using Agrobacterium tumefaciens as a vector to effect
the transfer. The rice is called as Golden Rice because these rice
grains appear pale yellow due to Beta-carotene, which is a precursor
to Vitamin A. Dr C Kameshwar Rao of FBAE gave a lecture on the Golden
Rice, comparative levels of carotenoids in vegetables and oils, and
the relevance of Golden Rice.
This article appeared in Deccan Herald on 18th December, 2001
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