|
|
|
 |
 |
Introduction |
For millennia, farmers have battled insects, microorganisms, and weeds that destroy or compete with their crops--threatening their families with starvation. Indeed, many major events in history have resulted from devastating plant disease epidemics or insect infestations. The Irish potato famine of the mid-1800s, which was caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans, killed more than a million people and prompted a massive Irish emigration to the United States.
In hopes of preventing crop-plant destruction by pests, ancient Romans made sacrifices to their various gods. Modern farmers use other techniques in their attempts to kill pests, including spraying pesticide and herbicides, and plowing under weeds. They also make use of improved management practices and benefit from traditional breeding techniques to strengthen their crops. Some of the newer methods, however, have substantial costs and disadvantages. Excessive plowing can cause soil erosion, for instance. And pesticides and herbicides can pollute both soil and water as well as contribute to species extinction.
Thanks to recent advances in the genetic engineering, or bioengineering, of plants, farmers are now beginning to have at their disposal crop seeds that are genetically endowed not only to resist damage from insects but also to be resistant to herbicides. These bioengineered seeds have the potential to revolutionize agriculture and improve environmental quality by making it possible to reduce the use of pesticides and keep plowing to a minimum.
Like most scientific innovations that have had significant effects on society, bioengineered seeds did not emerge solely from the efforts of researchers to improve pest or weed control. Rather they were the by-product of earlier researchers' curiosity about such basic science questions as: How do bacteria cause plant tumors? How do some viruses protect plants from other viruses? What enables some bacteria to kill insects? The following article explores the trail of research that ultimately led scientists to bioengineer the plants that are beginning to transform agriculture. This story provides a dramatic example of how science works and how basic research can lead to practical results that were unimaginable when the research began. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
