Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I wonder when/if we will be able to get our hands on super broccoli? I'd really like to get that going in an A/P GB.

http://www.webmd.boots.com/heart-disease/news/20111004/new-super-broccoli-going-on-sale
http://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/research/current/super-broccoli.html
http://www.beneforte.com/

Do you think seeds will be obtainable, or just the grown product?

This is a good thing:

do you have any idea whats allowed in "traditional breeding techniques"?

I can soak the seeds in any number of carcinogens and mutagens, I can expose it to any amount of high intensity UV light, I can run it through any number of generations selecting for the traits I require... without any care for other mutations that pop up and affect who knows what....

now, i'm not saying that all genetic modification is right, and i'm against moving genes between species (ie, pesticide resistance into new plants), but at least if I modify the gene that I know controls the trait I want, I know thats the only change i'm introducing...

That's not necessarily true. Some compounds found in are body server multiple roles, and effecting the amount up or down will effect different things. Its not hard to imagine that this is true for plants biology.

For example testosterone and estrogen are both present in both sexes. Both are maintained at certain levels in the body naturally, and if altered up or down in concentration effect many things.

When it comes to manipulating genes in plants, its hard to determine ALL of the effects of human involvement. Even if we are only adding one set of "good" genes, the new result may take many man hours to determine the full effect of that expression on the plant, soil the plant lives in, and the animals that eat that plant.

Don't get me wrong, gene manipulation IS the future, but we are in the infancy of it, and we will get it wrong, but it has great potential and great risks.

BTW on that topic Gattaca is a great movie.

I would not think that soaking seeds in "carcinogens and mutagens"
to create triploids would be considered traditional, and selective breeding for good traits will
generally unlock recessive traits, which are then out bred or discarded for plants that have
mostly good traits

Genes play an interactive role with each other, so to say that introducing 1 gene code will not affect the genes already present could be wishfull thinking
In an F1 generation u may not see any adverse affects but 100 generations down the track who can say what the effect will be?




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