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Comment by peter b dunn on September 10, 2010 at 8:06am

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/7959463/group-produces-gm-rice

Group produces GM rice

A team of Australian scientists has genetically modified rice to improve its tolerance to salt, offering hope of increased global production.

And work is already underway to transfer the technology to wheat and barley, other staple foods for billions of people around the world.

The scientists from the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) at the University of Adelaide worked in collaboration with colleagues based in Cairo, Copenhagen and Melbourne.

They used a new technique to trap salt in the root of the rice plant, reducing the amount building up in the shoots and increasing its tolerance to salinity.

Research associate Darren Plett said the breakthrough offered the chance to increase global rice production, especially in areas where salinity was an issue.

"Rice is often grown on land that is prone to high levels of salinity," Dr Plett said on Friday.

"Lands that accumulate salt have lower crop yields, which can threaten food supply.

"This has made salinity tolerance an increasingly important factor in the efforts to secure global food production."

Dr Plett said the research team modified a gene to increase the number of salt-transporting proteins in specific cells in the roots of the rice plant.

The modification resulted in salt being trapped in the root, where it is less harmful to the plant and prevented it travelling to the shoot where it does the most damage.

"Our results provide a new approach for genetic modification to increase the tolerance of crops to the toxic sodium ion, which is a major environmental stress," Dr Plett said.

"Successful genetic engineering efforts using this technology should assist in global food production."

Result of the group's work have been published in the online peer-reviewed science journal PLoS ONE.

Bob Phelps, executive director of Gene Ethics, an anti-GM advocacy group, said there was little prospect of commercial success from the latest research.

He said the drought tolerance trait was mediated by multiple genes and the only successful GM crops to date involved transformations of single genes.

"Multi-genic traits are just too complex for crude genetic manipulation techniques," he said.

"Monsanto and the rest of the GM industry have spent tens of billions of dollars over 30 years to create drought and salt tolerant plants, nitrogen fixation in grains and more nutritious foods.

"They have failed."
*****8
Sounds like a good thing but .. Makes me wonder..

Comment by Anthony Kimbrough on September 1, 2010 at 4:13pm

I can tell you that UT's cancer center has had an increase in the last year. When I done chemo last year you could just about pick your seat. Now it is standing room only.

Comment by Jeff on April 19, 2010 at 7:42pm

Fluoridating water is one of the more absurd things humans do. But it confirms the absolute stupidity of the general public.

Comment by Jeff on April 19, 2010 at 6:56pm

That reminds me, pretty soon they'll calling us Genetically Modified Gary, Deoxy-Ribo-Nucleic Greg and Chemically Deformed Jeff. The Big Pharma Trio. With Patriot Half-Horse Half-Cow on drums.

Comment by Jeff on April 19, 2010 at 6:43pm

You mean they aren't descended from Black people? The science behind archeology is wrong?

Comment by Jeff on April 9, 2010 at 1:14am

On topic

Comment by Jeff on April 9, 2010 at 12:44am

I think the people that started the Big Pharma medical cartel are descended from black people.

Comment by Jeff on March 25, 2010 at 9:53am

I read about that today Tara. It's a fascinating subject but carries little weight with people that believe the earth is less then 6,000 years old. Truth is based on perception and we all have different truth's. Embracing our inner darkness is probably appropriate. Science says that ALL people were descended from Lucy.

Comment by Tara on March 25, 2010 at 9:45am

Embrace your inner darkness Greg, lol! I posted a discussion about archaelogists finding a bone from a new human group that was dated 30,000-48,000 years ago. It's an interesting article and kind of ties into our being much darker in the beginning. http://snardfarker.ning.com/forum/topics/bone-may-reveal-a-new-human

Comment by Jeff on March 25, 2010 at 9:35am

Because, like me, you're descended from people that migrated. I think the evidence suggests that we're all descended from the same people. Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization, where Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. That's in Iraq. The evidence also suggests that the original people that first inhabited the earth were pretty dark folks. Not white. Not blond. Evolution and genetic changes I think account for blond hair, blue and green eyes and other changes we see in humans today.

If we assume the bible's interpretation, for the moment, there were two people, Adam and Eve, in the beginning.

So were they white people? If so where did black people come from? Or were they black people? And where did white people come from?

I think they were black, or very dark and we've all changed over the course of many years based on our environments.

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