Are genetically-engineered trees really ‘the future’

Subject : Science and Technology

Section: Biotechnology

Context: As the US mulls over releasing genetically engineered trees in the wild, experts warn of its possible environmental impact

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More than a century after the American chestnut tree became functionally extinct, the United States is weighing whether to allow a genetically engineered (GE) version to spread in the wild.
The population of the American chestnut, a deciduous tree native to North America, dwindled in the first half of the 20th century when a fungal blight, Cryphonectriaparasitica, killed over four billion trees. The blight is believed to have travelled to the US from the Chinese varieties of the tree.
Ever since, millions of American chestnut stumps have continued to sprout every year, but only a handful of them survive long enough to produce nuts. Most of them get re-infected with the blight and die, restarting the cycle again.
A group of researchers at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry began experimenting with a GE blight-resistant American chestnut in the 1980s.
They finally added an enzyme from wheat that breaks down the toxin produced by the blight to develop the Darling 58 line of blight-tolerant trees.
The researchers now, citing conservation of the species, hope to win the approval of the US government for the unregulated release of these GE varieties into the wild.

Genetic Engineering:

Genetic engineering, often known as genetic alteration or modification, or manipulation, is a technique that modifies an organism’s DNA using technology developed in labs.
It entails altering a single base pair (A-T or C-G), erasing a section of DNA, or incorporating new DNA.
It may also mean extracting DNA from another organism’s genome and combining it with the DNA of that individual.

GM Rubber:

The world’s first genetically modified (GM) rubber plant has been planted at the Rubber Board’s Sarutari research farm on the outskirts of Guwahati in Assam.
The GM rubber plant has been developed by Kerala-based Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII), which comes under the Rubber Board supervised by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The GM rubber sapling, said to be world’s first, has been modified by inserting additional copies of the gene MnSOD (manganese-containing superoxide dismutase).
This gene enables the newly developed rubber plant to tide over extreme climatic stress such as hot and cold temperatures, along with drought-like conditions
The new crop is expected to cut short the maturity period of rubber, indicating chances for an early yield.
his will provide a further boost to the production of the crop in the northeastern region of the country, since natural rubber is a native of warm humid Amazon forests and is not naturally suited for colder conditions in the Northeast.