Manipulation of reproduction in agriculture

• CLONING AS TECHNOLOGY THAT MANIPULATES REPRODUCTION IN AG

  1. Researchers remove a mature somatic cell, such as a skin cell, from an animal that they wish to copy
  2. They then transfer the DNA of the donor animal's somatic cell into an egg cell that has had its own DNA-containing nucleus removed.
• EXAMPLE OF CLONING - DOLLY THE SHEEP

  • Dolly was born on July 5, 1996
  • her DNA came from one sheep's mammary cell
  • it was implanted into an egg from another sheep
  • the resulting tiny biological entity was implanted into the uterus of yet a third sheep, where it grew until birth
  • Dolly lived for 6 years until she was euthanised due to a progressive lung disease. The normal lifespan for a sheep is 10-12 years.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided in January 2008 that meat and milk from cloned animals, such as cattle, pigs and goats, are as safe as those from non-cloned animals.

  • The FDA action means that researchers are now free to using cloning methods to make copies of animals with desirable agricultural traits, such as high milk production or lean meat.
• GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS (GMOs) : contains DNA that has been altered using genetic engineering. These organisms are altered in favor of a specific trait.The altered genes are passed onto the GMO’s offspring.
• EXAMPLE OF GMO - Wheat (GM HB4) 

  GMHB4 is a drought and herbicide tolerant, genetically modified wheat variety that is already grown by farmers in Argentina.

  • drought tolerance comes from a sunflower gene (HaHB4)
  • modified for herbicide resistance, which FSANZ has assessed for other GM crops.