Author
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Coe Jr, Edward |
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Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 10/26/2000 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: The corn plant is more than just a green canopy that captures light energy and carbon atoms. It is a complex, high-efficiency organic synthesis factory. For starters, its products include animal feed; human food; starch and starch derivatives; and edible oils. There is every reason to believe that the factory can be redirected, based on its proven malleability. The current level of productivity, resistance to stresses and pests, and quality of crops such as corn was started with selections by indigenous peoples. These properties are advanced now by experimental plant breeding science applied on diverse sources (germplasms). Genomic knowledge and molecular tools available to today's plant breeder, separately from gene transfer, have further increased the already-impressive pace at which advances are made. Whenever goals appear to be attainable with existing germplasm, the limitations are more in the genetic systems than in metabolic ones. Whenever goals appear to be unattainable with existing germplasm and require gene transfer, the limitations are in knowledge, technology, and predictability. The need is greatest for specific knowledge of pathways; of metabolic signaling and regulation; and of the dynamics of formation, transport, and deposition of products. Given the knowledge, the factory is malleable. |
