The research provides a succinct analysis of the vulnerability to a specific parasite of sorghum. A term you will need is an 'obligate parasite' since it's mostly intuitive insofar as something is obligated to parasitize but I looked it up again since dredging the 70's school days isn't making it solid.
An obligate parasite has no choice; unless it parasitizes some host during some stage of its life cycle, it will not survive.
Witchweed (Striga) is a parasitic plant that devastates arable crops in the tropics.
Science: Crop resistance to parasites
The article is short so we will take it apart line by line.
The parasitic weed Striga infests a large proportion of cereal crops in Africa and parts of Asia, which has a devastating effect on farming, particularly in subsistence communities.
- Science
The problem is clear that the parasite is stealing vital crops from us.
An obligate parasite, Striga requires a chemical signal from the host plant to germinate, offering an avenue for genetic improvement of host crops.
- Science
The Striga actually waits until it 'knows' there is sorghum nearby or it won't even germinate. Since it's dependent on getting that chemical signal from the sorghum, the geneticist thinks, aha, that's where I change the sorghum to get it to stop sending that signal. Presto, no more Striga.
Note: the type of genetic relationships between unlike species but which have 'knowledge' of the DNA of another species were a specific study and a brilliant one by Richard Dawkins (before his mind turned to cabbage and he started anti-preaching).
Gobena et al. studied the difference between sorghum strains associated with high and low Striga germination levels and mapped a mutation associated with low Striga germination (LGS1) to a previously uncharacterized sulfotransferase gene.
- Science
They have identified the responsible gene so the next move is to break out the handy CRISPR kit to kill it.
Deletion of this gene does not result in reduced levels of root chemical signaling, but rather in a change in the composition of chemicals exuded from the root.
- Science
Rather than suppressing the chemical, they go with the CIA technique of misinformation.
Identification of this gene could allow marker-assisted breeding to generate sorghum varieties with reduced Striga infestation.
- Science
It sounds like they have already identified the gene and the thing they need is the locus to determine where to whack it.
Ed: it is an offense against Nature in this GMO!
Yah, yah, tell it to Luther Burbank, likely America's foremost hero of recombinant DNA but he did it the Mendelian way (i.e. no CRISP genome editing).
Luther Burbank inventing the Russet Burbank potato and that was such a bad idea, huh? (WIKI: Luther Burbank)
Note: you could tell him it was a bad idea but he died almost a century ago. Meanwhile, his potato which was specifically bred to be blight-resistant is one of the foremost varieties of potato in the world.
Luther Burbank also gave us the Shasta Daisy so how much more proof do you need he was a genome-meddling monster from the depths of burning hell.
An obligate parasite has no choice; unless it parasitizes some host during some stage of its life cycle, it will not survive.
Witchweed (Striga) is a parasitic plant that devastates arable crops in the tropics.
Science: Crop resistance to parasites
The article is short so we will take it apart line by line.
The parasitic weed Striga infests a large proportion of cereal crops in Africa and parts of Asia, which has a devastating effect on farming, particularly in subsistence communities.
- Science
The problem is clear that the parasite is stealing vital crops from us.
An obligate parasite, Striga requires a chemical signal from the host plant to germinate, offering an avenue for genetic improvement of host crops.
- Science
The Striga actually waits until it 'knows' there is sorghum nearby or it won't even germinate. Since it's dependent on getting that chemical signal from the sorghum, the geneticist thinks, aha, that's where I change the sorghum to get it to stop sending that signal. Presto, no more Striga.
Note: the type of genetic relationships between unlike species but which have 'knowledge' of the DNA of another species were a specific study and a brilliant one by Richard Dawkins (before his mind turned to cabbage and he started anti-preaching).
Gobena et al. studied the difference between sorghum strains associated with high and low Striga germination levels and mapped a mutation associated with low Striga germination (LGS1) to a previously uncharacterized sulfotransferase gene.
- Science
They have identified the responsible gene so the next move is to break out the handy CRISPR kit to kill it.
Deletion of this gene does not result in reduced levels of root chemical signaling, but rather in a change in the composition of chemicals exuded from the root.
- Science
Rather than suppressing the chemical, they go with the CIA technique of misinformation.
Identification of this gene could allow marker-assisted breeding to generate sorghum varieties with reduced Striga infestation.
- Science
It sounds like they have already identified the gene and the thing they need is the locus to determine where to whack it.
Ed: it is an offense against Nature in this GMO!
Yah, yah, tell it to Luther Burbank, likely America's foremost hero of recombinant DNA but he did it the Mendelian way (i.e. no CRISP genome editing).
Luther Burbank inventing the Russet Burbank potato and that was such a bad idea, huh? (WIKI: Luther Burbank)
Note: you could tell him it was a bad idea but he died almost a century ago. Meanwhile, his potato which was specifically bred to be blight-resistant is one of the foremost varieties of potato in the world.
Luther Burbank also gave us the Shasta Daisy so how much more proof do you need he was a genome-meddling monster from the depths of burning hell.
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