Transgenic Plants
Transgenic plants are modified plants where genes are transferred from one donor plant to other
recipient plant through genetic engineering technique. The first transgenic plant is tobacco which
was created in 1982.
The word “Transgenic” stands for any external genetic feature artificially introduced into the
genome of another organism to get desired features. Various Recombinant DNA technologies are
used to teach and screen the recombinants from the non- recombinants, ultimately giving us the
plant the desired benefits. The “Flavr Savr” tomato was the first transgenic plant that made its
appearance in the market, developed by Celgene. Even though this crop was unsuccessful
commercially, it cleared the way for developing other transgenic plants such as Bt cotton, Bt
brinjal, and Golden rice. With the advent of new molecular biology techniques such as Crispr-Cas
9, the future of transgenic plants has unlimited potential.
Advantages and Importance of Transgenic Plants:
Any genetic recombination experiment is undertaken with a clear objective and needs in mind to
be addressed. Thus the advent of transgenic plants has been essential in rejuvenating an already
stretched agricultural sector. The advantages can be listed as follows:
Resistance to biotic stress: Biotic stress is imposed on plants as a result of the action of living
beings such as viruses, bacteria, pests and pathogens. To relieve the plants from such stress
they are incorporated with disease-resistant genes, which gives a better yield and quality to the
crops.
Resistance to Abiotic stress: as a result of changes in the environment, causes great damage
to the plants. Soil composition, humidity, water level, and temperature are important factors
for plant growth. Due to changes in the climate, all the factors seem to be altered. Thus, plants
are incorporated with stress-tolerant genes for better production.
Increased nutritional value: Biofortification is the process of increasing the nutritional value
of a crop. Malnutrition is a common problem in developing countries. As a solution, plants are
engineered to produce crops of better nutritional value.
Factories for production of recombinant proteins: Vaccines and antibiotics have been
obtained from transgenic plants. However, this application is still in the development stage and
has not been commercialised yet.
The development of such transgenic plants will help reduce the environmental burden by
reducing the use of weedicides, fungicides, and insecticides. It will be a massive benefit to the
environment besides keeping up with the demand and a win-win situation for everyone.
Examples of Transgenic Plants:
A Few prominent examples of transgenic plants are as follows:
Flavr Savr Tomato: It was the first transgenic plant grown commercially and made available
to the market. This crop aimed to make tomatoes more resistant to rotting by introducing an
antisense gene to regulate ethylene production for tomato ripening.
Bacillus thuringiensis crops (Bt crops): A few examples of transgenic plants are Bt cotton, Bt
corn, Bt potato, Bt Brinjal and Bt tobacco. These plants are genetically engineered to possess
endotoxin, which prevents the action of various chewing pests. This endotoxin is derived from the
cry gene in the bacterium. This endotoxin develops pores in the insect’s digestive system and kills
it.
Golden Rice: It is a form of rice developed through genetic engineering that aims at solving the
problem of Vitamin A deficiency. It is a second-generation transgenic crop, and it focuses on
improving the crop’s nutritional content. The golden rice was created by transforming rice with
two beta-carotene synthesis genes.
o Psy gene from daffodil
o Ctrl gene from a soil bacterium Erwinia uredovora
