Transgenic Rice Plants

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Term Paper Title	Transgenic Rice Plants
# of Words	2384
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	9.54

Transgenic Rice Plants

     For centuries, rice has been
one of the most important staple crops for the world and it now currently feeds
more than two billion people, mostly living in developing countries.  Rice
is the major food source of Japan and China and it enjoys a long history of
use in both cultures.  In 1994, worldwide rice production peaked at 530 million
metric tons.  Yet, more than 200 million tons of rice are lost each year to
biotic stresses such as disease and insect infestation.  This extreme loss
of crop is estimated to cost at least several billion dollars per year and
heavy losses often leave third world countries desperate for their staple food.
Therefore, measures must be taken to decrease the amount of crop loss and
increase yields that could be used to feed the populations of the world.  One
method to increase rice crop yields is the institution of transgenic rice plants
that express insect resistance genes.  The two major ways to accomplish insect
resistance in rice are the introduction of the potato proteinas
e inhibitor
II gene or the introduction of the Bacillus thuringiensis toxin gene into the
plant's genome.  Other experimental methods of instituting insect resistance
include the use of the arcelin gene, the snowdrop
lectin/GNA (galanthus nivallis
agglutinin) protein, and phloem specific promoters and finally the SBTI gene.

     The introduction of the potato proteinase inhibitor II gene, or PINII,
marks the first time that useful genes were successfully transferred from a
dicotyledonus plant to a monocotyledonous plant.  Whenever the plant is wounded
by insects, the PINII gene produces a protein that interferes with the insect's
digestive processes.  These protein inhibitors can be detrimental to the growth
and development of a wide range of insects that attack rice plants and result
in insects eating less of the plant material.  Proteinase inhibitors are of
particular interest because they are part of the rice plant's natural defense
system against insects.  They are also beneficial because they are inactivated
by cooking and therefore pose no environmental or health hazards to the human
consumption of PINII treated rice.
     In order to produce fertile transgenic
rice plants, plasmid pTW was used, coupled with the pin 2 promoter and the
inserted rice actin intron, act 1.  The combination of the pin 2 promoter and
act 1 intron has been shown to produce a high level, wound inducible expression
of foreign genes in transgenic plant...

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