plant biotechnology

• Plant Biotechnology


  A multitude of scientific tools and techniques for screening and genetic manipulation to develop beneficial or useful plant/plant products
• Plant biotechnology is internationally acknowledged as one of the significant tools for direct application in the field of agricultural
• Biotechnology


  Explores the metabolic properties of living organisms for the production of valuable products of a different structural and organization level
• Plants serve as an important source of primary and secondary metabolites used in pharmacy, biotechnology and food technology
• Biotechnology applications


  • Environmental biotechnology
  • Medical biotechnology
  • Agricultural biotechnology
  • Evolutionary and ecological genomics
• Environmental biotechnology applications


  • Environmental monitoring
  • Waste management
  • Pollution prevention
• Medical biotechnology applications


  • Diagnostics
  • Therapeutics
  • Vaccines
  • Medical research tools
  • Human Genome Research
• Agricultural biotechnology applications


  • Animal biotechnology
  • Crop biotechnology
  • Horticultural biotechnology
  • Tree biotechnology
  • Food processing
• Evolutionary and ecological genomics aims to find genes associated with ecological traits and evolutionary diversification
• Technologies in plant biotechnology

  • Genetic Engineering (Recombinant DNA) Technology
  • Protein Engineering Technology
  • Antisense or RNAi Technology
  • Cell and Tissues Culture Technology
  • Bioinformatics Technology
  • Functional Genomics
  • High-throughput technologies (the –omics)
• Proteomics


  The study of protein structure and how the structure and function of proteins allow them to do what they do, what they interact with and how they contribute to life processes
• Metabolomics


  The study of the complete set of low molecular weight compounds in a sample, which are the substrates and by products of enzymatic reactions and have direct effect on the phenotype of the cell
• Transgenomics


  Techniques like knock-out, knock-in, gene tagging, mutagenesis
• Translational genomics


  A broad field of study that combines genome and transcriptome-wide studies in humans and model systems to understand human biology and identify new ways to treat and prevent disease
• The 'omics' technologies are DNA (genomics), RNA (transcriptomics), protein (proteomics), and metabolites (metabolomics)
• Palm oil is the dominant export and the leading export markets include India, the European Union, China, Pakistan, and the United States
• Indonesia, China, and Thailand are the top suppliers of agricultural products to Malaysia, with the United States ranked seventh in 2022
• Transgenic plants


  Genetically modified organisms that yield plants with greater quality and higher resistance
• Plant transgenesis


  • Allows innovations that are impossible to achieve with conventional hybridization methods
  • The long history of plant breeding provides plant geneticists with a wealth of strains that can be exploited at the molecular level
  • Plants produce large numbers of progeny; so rare mutations and recombinations can be found more easily
  • Plants have been regenerative capabilities, even from one cell
  • Species boundaries and sexual compatibility are no longer an issue
• Protoplast Fusion


  1. Degrade cell wall with cellulase

  2. Fuse protoplasts from different species of plants to create a hybrid

  3. Grow fused protoplasts in nutrient agar for a few weeks

  4. Transfer colonies to media to induce root and shoot growth
• Ti plasmid


  1. Found in Agrobacter, a type of soil bacteria that infects plants

  2. Integrates into the DNA of the host cell, making it an ideal vehicle for transferring recombinant DNA to plant cells

  
• Leaf fragment Technique


  1. Incubate small discs of leaf with genetically modified Agrobacter Ti plasmid

  2. Treat with hormones to stimulate shoot and root development

  3. Limitation: cannot infect monocotyledonous plants only dicotyledonous such as tomatoes, potatoes, apples and soybeans

  
• Gene Guns


  1. Use on Agrobacter-resistant crops

  2. Blast tiny metal beads coated with DNA into an embryonic plant cell

  3. Aim at the nucleus or a chloroplast

  4. Shoot in gene of interest and a gene marker (reporter)

  
• Chloroplast Engineering


  1. More genes can be inserted at one time

  2. Genes are more likely to be expressed

  3. DNA is separate from the nucleus
• Antisense Technology


  1. Flavr SavrTM tomato introduced in 1994

  2. Isolated the PG gene, produced a complementary gene which produces a complementary mRNA that binds to the normal mRNA inactivating the normal mRNA for this enzyme

  
• RNA Interference (RNAi)


  Inhibits gene expression by interfering with transcription or translation of RNA molecules
• Biotechnology Application in the Field

  • The use of vaccine in plant health
  • Genetic Pesticides
  • Herbicide Resistance
• Herbicide resistance


  The acquired ability of a weed population to survive a herbicide application that previously known to control the weed
• Herbicide tolerance


  The inherent ability of a species to survive and reproduce after herbicide treatment
• Strategy for engineering herbicide resistance

  1. Overexpression of EPSPS gene

  2. Use of mutant EPSPS gene

  3. Detoxification of herbicide by a foreign gene
• Plant


  • Multicellular
  • Non-mobile
  • Has eukaryotic cells
  • Has cell walls comprised of cellulose
  • Is autotropic
  • Exhibit alternation of generation- has a distintive diploid (sporophyte) and haploid (gametophyte) phase

  
• The Plant Kingdom


  • Angiosperms (flowering plants)
  • Gymnosperms (cone-bearing plants)
  • Ferns
  • Bryophytes (mosses & liverworts)
• Recent classification system suggest that these organisms, in addition to the red algae and green algae, should be classified in the Plant Kingdom (Plantae)
• Plant physiology


  • The study of the functions and process occurring in plants
  • The vital process occurring in plants
  • How plant works
  • Has cell walls comprised of cellulose

  
• Aspects of plant lifestyle and survival studied in plant physiology

  • Metabolism
  • Water relations
  • Mineral nutrition
  • Development
  • Movement
  • Irritability (response to the environment)
  • Organization
  • Growth
  • Transport process
• Cell wall


  • Relatively rigid
  • Non-living and highly structured
  • Functions to support and protect the cell
  • Produced by protoplast
  • Plant cells glued together by pectic polysaccharides
  • Pores or airspaces (intercellular spaces) for gas exchange and water transport, some movement, and freezing protection
  • Specialized pores called plasmodesmata provide cytoplasmic connection between adjacent cells

  
• Plasmodesmata


  • 40-50 nm in diameter
  • Maximum sized object that can pass through has a molecular weight of 700-1000 daltons (1.6-2.0 nm)
  • Plasma membranes from adjacent cells are continuous through the pore
  • ER is also continuous between adjacent cells (desmotubule)
  • Cytoplasmic chammel between desmotubule and membrane is called the "cytoplasmic sleeve"
• Protoplast


  • Everything inside the cell wall
  • The 'living' part of the cell
  • Includes cytosol, nucleus, vacuole, assorted organelles, and ergastic (non-living) substances

  
• Plant nutrition is the study of the chemical elements that are necessary for plant growth
• Metabolism is the life sustaining chemical activity, i.e. The series of processes by which food is converted into the energy and products needed to sustain life