Green Biotechnology

• Introduction
  • Undernourished = overnourished in 2004
  • Prokaryotes
    • Cyanobacteria - Spirulina (Figure 7.4)
      • 10 times biomass/acre than wheat
      • Protein cost is $10/kilogram versus $0.20 for soy
      • Double weight in 20 minutes to 2 hours
      • Yeasts can form protein 100,000 times faster than cows
        • Cows produce 1 kg of protein per 11 kg of plant material
  • Photosynthesis (Box 7.1)
  • Eukaryotic (Figure 7.9)
    • Algae
      • Brown - Alginate, agar, carrageenan, glutamate
      • Red -
      • Green - sold as diet food (Figure 7.5)
      • Algae double weight in 6 hours
  • Yeasts
    • Single cell protein (Box 7.2)
  • Fungi - mycoproteins
    • Fusarium
      • Low nucleic acid content
    • 50% protein, 13% fat, 25% fiber
    • Readily imitates other foods (Figure 7.11)
    • Fungus protein = Quorn (Figure 7.13)
• Plant technologies
• In vitro plant propagation
• Microropagation - important for hybrids (Figure 7.14)
  • Growth hormones
    • Auxins - regulate root growth
    • Cytokines - growth of shoots
• Meristem Culture (Figure 7.21)
  • Using actively dividing meristems - shoots, roots, axillary buds
• Haploid Cultures - tobacco, rape seed, potatoes, barley medicinal plants
• Callus and suspension culture (Figure 7.27)
  • Useful in bioreactors
  • Biolipstick
• Plant based medicines
  • Willow bark
  • Steroids - form yams
  • Digoxin and dititoxin - foxglove
• Genetic Engineering
  • Agrobacterium tumefasciens -for dicots (Figure 7.24)
    • Ti plasmid
      • T DNA
  • Shotgun approach - monocots
  • Biological insecticides
    • Bt toxin (Figure 7.41)
    • Bt transformed corn
  • Monitoring technologies
    • Luciferase
  • Examples (Box 7.10)
    • Golden Rice (Box 7.5)
    • Herbicide resistance
      • Roundup Ready plants
        • Transfer to weeds?
    • Blue carnations
    • Tomatoes
      • Flavr Savr (first approved genetically modified food) (Figure 7.48)
    • Fructane potatoes (Figure 7.50)
    • High lysine rapeseed and soya
    • Virus resistant sugar beets
    • Potato blight resistance
    • Virus resistant grapes (Figure 7.51)
    • Bt Cotton
    • Heavy-metal collecting poplars
  • Concerns
    • Dangers? (Figure 7.49)
    • Labeling?
  • Gene Pharming (producing pharmaceuticals in transgenic plants)
    • 10-50 times cheaper than E. coli and 100 times cheaper than mammalian cells
    • Plantibodies (antibodies produced in plants)
    • Vaccines (plants as antigen producers)
  • Anti-frost bacteria
  • Snow-max