Transformation of Corn Plants with Bacillus thuringiensis Gene

This document discusses the process of transforming corn plants with the Bacillus thuringiensis gene, the impacts of Bt corn on agricultural ecosystems and the global system.

Running head: MAIZE
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Part A
Question 1
Teosinte refers to a wild crop which is a bit similar with the corn. However, in terms of structure
teosinte possess a branched structure while the corn is has one straight stem. There two rows of
seeds in teosinte but corn possess eight to ten rows of seeds in a single cob in reference to Zhang,
Khan, Heckel, & Bock, (2017). The segments of teosinte fruits has one seed while the seeds of
corns are fertile. The corn has corn cob while teosinte has a fruit surrounded by hard fruit case.
The reason why people believe teosinte cannot be the ancestor corn is because seeds and fruits
from teosinte is a bit different from corn.
Question 2
The corn was mainly applied in ethanol biofuels that is why its movement was very slow
throughout the USA. Besides that corn also required special cultivation techniques according to
Bett, Gollasch, Moore, James, Armstrong, Walsh, & Higgins, (2017).
Question 3
There are several data that accompanied the domestication of corn. The first one is the 6000 year
old cob fragments that lacks kernel in place. Secondly there are different cob fossils that was
found in Mexico. The above data represent eighty percent of the plantation of maize. There also
exist various models of maize.
Question 4

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The plantation of corn involve the use of various spikelet in teosinte. The main difference in this
situation rest with the fact that corn plantation involved use of many rows while the plantation of
wheat apply increase in the size of the grain. The wheat had small grain.
Question 5
The main reason behind the purchase of corn each year and not used from previous year is
because the corn seeds mainly have short life span. It requires specific conditions to ensure that
the corn reaches the following year. These condition are very challenging to meet.
Question 6
The first difference that exist between teosinte theories and tripartite is that the initial theory
explains that the genesis of maize is hybridization that occurred between the species of Tascam
and the wild maize. The teosinte theory explains that a wild lady and intellectual genius took part
in various agricultural tests which came up with the maize seed. The message that rings
controversy is the number of chromosomes.
Part B
Bacillus thuringienis refers to a group of crops that are genetically modified to contain crystal
from the bacterium. The purpose of the modification is ensure that the seeds are resistant to
insects and diseases. The USA Environmental Protection Agency approved the production and
supply of the of Bt crops in 1995. The crops include potato, cotton, tobacco and corn. The
purpose of this assignment is to elaborate on the process of transforming corn plants with the

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Bacillus thuringienisis gene. Apart from that, it will explain the impacts of Bt corn on individual
agricultural ecosystem and general global system.
Bt corn falls under the category of the transgenic plants since they contain artificial seeds that do
not generate from pollination. The seed itself is referred to as transgene. The process of coming
up with these seeds follows five stages. The process include extraction of desired gene, cloning
of the interested genes, designing the gene, the process of transformation and plant breeding as
the last stage.
Extraction of the interested gene from different organisms
The process involve identification of the best gene to use isolation of the weak genes. It involves
restricting of the DNA and the enzymes to be used. There are various nucleotide bases that one
need to observe. The nucleotide bases apply in attaching various parts of the DNA fragments
together. However, there is a specific amount of DNA that one should apply depending on the
priority of the genes according to Abad, Dong, Lo, Shi & Wolfe, (2018).
Cloning of the interested genes.
In this stage, the gene that was extracted in the first stage undergoes the process of polymerase
chain reaction. The PCR process is applied to improve the amount of the DNA to the desired
count. The DNA is replicated to come up with more DNA. In this stage, one must add the
antibiotic resistant gene to make the seed strong. The antibiotic also assist in amplifying the
carrier cells. However, the cells in this stage is applied into two different platforms. The first
medium has specific antibiotics while the second platform lacks antibiotics.
Designation of the gene

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This process involves modification of the genes which ensures that the plant is effective. There
are various promoter sequence that must be added to the gene to achieve the correct DNA. The
purpose of the promoter is to control where the gene will grow. The cloned genes can be
modified to produce specific traits. For instance the A-T nucleotide can be replaced by G-C
nucleotide from the Bacillus thuringiensis.
The process of transformation
Transformation refers to the various modification and changes that can be applied to the seed
through the addition of a new DNA. There exist two ways of introducing this DNA. The first
way is using the gun to insert the DNA according to Caprio, Kurtz, Catchot, Kerns, Reisig, Gore
& Reay-Jones, (2019). It is referred to as the micro-projectile bombardment way. The second
approach is the agrobacterium method. The plant breeding involves carrying out various tests
that ensures that the desired to grow and inheritance is also easy.

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References
Abad, A. R., Dong, H., Lo, S. B., Shi, X., & Wolfe, T. C. (2018). U.S. Patent Application No.
10/000,769.
Bett, B., Gollasch, S., Moore, A., James, W., Armstrong, J., Walsh, T., ... & Higgins, T. J.
(2017). Transgenic cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) expressing Bacillus
thuringiensis Vip3Ba protein are protected against the Maruca pod borer (Maruca
vitrata). Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC), 131(2), 335-345.
Caprio, M. A., Kurtz, R., Catchot, A., Kerns, D., Reisig, D., Gore, J., & Reay-Jones, F. P.
(2019). The Corn–Cotton Agroecosystem in the Mid-Southern United States: What
Insecticidal Event Pyramids Should be Used in Each Crop to Extend Vip3A
Durability. Journal of economic entomology.
Zhang, J., Khan, S. A., Heckel, D. G., & Bock, R. (2017). Next-generation insect-resistant
plants: RNAi-mediated crop protection. Trends in biotechnology, 35(9), 871-882.