Tree Tumors and GMOs

Agrobacterium

• what is wrong with this poor tree
• those globular outgrowths are surely abnormal
• and indeed they are
• in fact
• they’re tumors
• bacteria called Agrobacterium are responsible for these nasty galls
• the bacterium actually transfer their own genes in to tree cells causing them to grow in this nasty fashion
• but
• strangely enough
• this mechanism of taking over tree cells has proved useful for engineering plant improvement
• if you take plasmids (genetic material) from the bacterium and delete all of the genes that induce tumor formation
• those plasmids can be used to transfer genes between plants
• so they’re really helpful in making GMO’s
• this all happens via a process called transformation
• which is actually as miraculous as it sounds
• a cell can be genetically altered by intaking the genetic material of another cell
• it can even occur naturally between some species of bacteria
• with plants, we have to help along the intake process
• but that hasn’t posed too much of a problem

So, fancy that. A tumor causing bacteria has beneficial uses. Without Agrobacterium, we would not have the transgenic cotton, corn, soybean, sugar beet, alfalfa, wheat, or rice crops that attempt to keep our egregiously large population fed and clothed. We’ve discovered how to manipulate the natural world in our favor with impressive adeptness, but is our own cleverness enough to take care of our own species while also leaving this planet habitable? We can cut down the forests, farm the land, and burn fossil fuels to our hearts’ content, but where is the tipping point?

Seems we’re getting close to the edge.