Biotechnology and Agriculture in Today's World

Abstract

The application of biotechnology, in terms of using the full range of scientific biological information available, is in its infancy. Although there are concerns being raised by the public that need to be carefully addressed, farmers are adopting the new technologies at an unprecedented rate, and the pipeline is full of new products of more obvious benefit to the consumer. Biotechnology will unlock some of the genetic variation available in the extensive genetic resource collections. Conventional breeding technologies require the crossing of these exotic collections, thus introducing many unwanted genetic traits. Biotechnology will allow the transfer of less than the whole genome, thus allowing easier utilization of these rich genetic resources. The application of molecular genetic markers is efficient for the backcrossing of single-gene traits and will become increasingly important for more complex traits such as those of quality protein maize, where modifier genes play a prominent role. Genomics—the study of the whole genome—is providing unprecedented information useful for the genetic manipulation of crop species. Understanding the structure and function of every gene in a plant will lead to many innovative applications. DNA chip or microarray technologies will allow every gene to be monitored. Comparative mapping indicates great similarity among broadly related species and indicates that genomics knowledge for rice and other model species will be quite informative. With respect to the improvement of human nutrition, a database on nutritional genomics related to crop plants would allow even greater progress than can be made with conventional techniques.