Leafy greens are generally quite nutritious. What do leaves do for plants that would require them to be full of biochemicals?
Leaves are where photosynthesis mostly occurs, so the building blocks for energy (and therefore, food) must be there.
Why is it helpful for humans that plants make their own food?
All of the above
The United States, so far, does not produce many genetically modified crops. True or False?
False. Well over half our corn, cotton, soybeans, and alfalfa are genetically engineered.
Which of the following is the correct equation for photosynthesis?
6CO2 + 6H2O -sun? C6H12O6 + 6O2
The Food and Drug Administration says a genetically engineered product is safe as long as it is substantially equivalent to the non-engineered product. What does that mean?
Regardless of the actual genes, the engineered product appears, works, or tastes like the natural product, and there are no worse side effects or toxins.
How has genetic engineering helped in the treatment of diabetes in humans?
Bacteria have been engineered to produce large quantities of human insulin, necessary for the treatment of diabetes.
Plants and animals both need energy to live, but what's different about that energy?
Plants can capture energy from the sun and use it to make their own food.
Plant cells have organelles where photosynthesis occurs. These are called:
Chloroplasts
Is it possible that the earliest farmers in human history engaged in genetic engineering?
Yes. By selecting organisms with the most useful traits, those traits, and the genes that created them, would increase in the population.
In genetic engineering, why is it necessary to clone the genes you want to transfer?
So there are enough copies to work with, as genes are not simply insertable one at a time.
What is the purpose of a flower for a plant?
To attract pollinators and allow sexual reproduction.
Why would a farmer want to plant a crop genetically engineered to produce the toxin Bt?
The toxin acts as a pesticide so insects don't eat the crops.
What was the goal behind the creation of golden rice?
To develop rice that contained vitamin A to help prevent malnourishment of people whose diet is mostly rice
Why is PCR or polymerase chain reaction such a big deal that Dr. Mullis shared a Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing it?
It made it possible to quickly and easily make enough copies of a desired gene to work with for genetic engineering or DNA analysis.
Which is the best description of the Light Reaction of photosynthesis?
Chlorophyll absorbs solar energy and shoots off an electron, which is transferred through a series of compounds, releasing a little energy (ATP) each time, and ending up in NADPH. Energy stored in ATP and NADPH provides fuel for the Calvin cycle.
What are xylem and phloem?
The vessels of the circulatory system of a plant, one carrying water and one carrying food throughout the plant.
One concern about genetically engineered foods is that they could cause allergic reactions. How could this happen?
If a genetically engineered food contains genes from a food that a person was allergic to, those proteins causing the reaction may be present in the engineered food.
How can genetic engineering be used in cleaning up industrial pollutants?
Bacteria can be engineered to break down pollutants in the environment.
Why, in genetic engineering, are plant hybridization and horizontal gene transfer in bacteria a potential problem?
Plant hybridization and gene transfer between natural and genetically engineered organisms can release the engineered genes into the environment with potentially risky consequences.
Why are scientists interested in genetically engineering crops?
Sometimes to enhance nutritional value, and sometimes to make the crops easier to manage and grow.
The herbicide Roundup kills weeds. Why do farmers want crops which are genetically engineered to be "Roundup Ready?
Those crops resist the Roundup that then kills all the weeds around them when it's sprayed.
Once DNA has been isolated and cloned, why can't it just be physically inserted into a cell and become functional?
The organism's enzymes would break down the foreign DNA as if it were an infection.
Humans have been selecting for beneficial or desirable traits in crops and domesticated animals for a long time. What's different about doing that through modern genetic engineering?
In modern genetic engineering we can mix genes from different species.