Thursday, February 03, 2005

GM trees to save the day?

While most of the world's attention is focussed on genetically modified food. It is interesting to see other applications of genetically modfied organisms. Various groups working independently have produced genetically modified trees with different lignin and cellulose composition ratio in order to achieve the optimal mix for using these trees to produce paper. The modified trees apparently grow as strong as their wild type counterparts, and grow faster too. A group in New Zealand is looking at inserting the Bt gene into trees. However, I have my reservations about pesticide resistant plants. In my opinion, their effects will wear off after about ten years or so, once Nature catches up.

Read more with this article from the Economist, 6th January 2005.

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