Project Team
Students
Aayushi Patel
Biology
Penn State Harrisburg
Faculty Mentors
Shobha Potlakayala
Penn State Harrisburg
Department of Biology and Science
Sairam Rudrabhatla
Penn State Harrisburg
Department of Biology and Science
Wayne Curtis
Penn State University Park
Chemical Engineering
Project
https://sites.psu.edu/mcreu/files/formidable/2/MC-REU-Poster-Transgenic-Crops-Final-PDF.pdf
Project Video
Project Abstract
Agriculture has supported human life through civilizations despite several biotic (pests, pathogens) and abiotic (drought, cold) stresses posing a challenge to meet the ever-increasing global food demand. Understanding the laws of genetics led to conventional plant breeding in the early 20th century giving rise to improved plant varieties. In the past 50 years, the understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms in plants led to novel innovations in biotechnology for introducing desired genes/traits through plant genetic engineering. Commercial development of genetically modified crops such as tomatoes, corn and soybean led to 185.1 million hectors of global land use in 2016 thereby accelerating the process of conventional breeding to sustain the nutritional need of humans. Most recently, targeted genome editing technologies such as Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFNs), Transcriptor Activator-Like Effector Nucleases (TALENs), and Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) systems have emerged as powerful tools for crop improvement. For example, genome editing with CRISPR is proving to be an efficient, simple process that involves low cost, can target multiple genes and that can be applicable to most plants. CRISPR is currently being used to engineer plant metabolic pathways to create resistance to viral, bacterial, or fungal pathogens, or abiotic stresses such as drought and cold in preparation for the global nutritional and food security. These novel genome editing technologies are poised to meet the UN sustainable development goals such as zero world hunger and good human health and well-being. In addition, these technologies could be more efficient in developing transgenic crops and speed up the mandatory regulatory approvals and risk assessments conducted by the US Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Evaluate this Project
Use this form link to provide feedback to the presenters, and add your project evaluation for award(s) consideration.