Biotechnology for Solving Agricultural Problems

ISBN-13: 9789024733118 / Angielski / Twarda / 1986 / 416 str.

Patricia C. Augustine; Harry D. Danforth; Murray R. Bakst

Opis

The Annual Beltsville Symposium provides a forum for interaction among scientists involved in research that has vital impact on agriculture and on the agricultural sciences. The 10th Symposium in the series, Biotechnology for Solving Agricultural Problems, focuses on the use of a revolutionary new set of tools, biotechnology, and attempts to define the set in terms of its applications in agriculture. Biotechnology has already contributed to the genetic improvement of agricultural products. Procedures that were impossible to test or to implement in the past because of technological limitations are now routinely used by many scientists. Four areas that have benefitted from advances in biotechnology are covered in the symposium proceedings. These areas include genetic manipulation, nutrition, health and disease, and natural resource management. The 31 invited speakers have identified programs of basic and applied research on plants, animals, and insects that fall within these broad areas. Their research strategies included such techniques as germline modification, gene mapping, monoclonal antibody production, and gene transposition. These strategies have tapped new well springs of information and technologies ranging from the regulation of gene expression (and with it, the regulation of development, growth, disease resistance, and nutrient metabolism) to degradation of pesticides and toxic wastes. The applications of biotechnology to agricultural research have opened virgin vistas with enormous potential. The new biotechnological techniques and those that will evolve with their use will contribute markedly to the capacity of the agricultural sciences to advance the well-being of the human race.

Spis treści

1. Introduction: Biotechnology in Perspective.- 1: An Overview of Biotechnology.- 2. Recombinant DNA — An Introduction.- 3. Gene Mapping in Domestic Animals.- 4. Application of Hybridoma Technology to Problems in the Agricultural Sciences.- 5. Pronuclear Transplantation Reveals Progressive Imprinting of the Genome during Gametogenesis.- 6. Somaclonal and Gametoclonal Variation.- 2: Genetic Modifications.- 7. Lectin Genes and a Transposable Element in Soybean.- 8. Microinjection for Polygenic Traits.- 9. Flow Cytometry: Analysis and Sorting of X and Y Chromosome-Bearing Spermatozoa.- 10. Modification of the Germ Line in Animals.- 11. Root Culture System Useful in the Study of Biotrophic Root Pathogens in Vitro.- 12. Identification of CIS-Acting Regulatory Sequences by P Element-Mediated Germline Transformation of Drosophila Embryos.- 3: Nutrition.- 13. Insulin and Insulin Receptors in Early Chick Embryo Development.- 14. Agricultural Opportunities from Nitrogen Fixation Research.- 15. Biochemistry and Genetics of Microbial Iron Assimilation.- 16. Molecular Biology of Zinc.- 4: Health and Disease.- 17. Novel Approaches to Improving Disease Resistance in Plants.- 18. Molecular Response of Plants to Infection.- 19. Biocontrol of Insects — Bacillus Thuringiensis.- 20. Spectrum of Cellular Immune Responses in Host Resistance.- 21. Genetic Control of Host Resistance to Diseases.- 22. Genomic and Antigenic Variation of African Swine Fever Virus.- 23. Genetic Manipulation of Escherichia Coli K99 Pilus Production.- 24. Vaccinia Virus Vectors.- 25. A Genetic Engineering Methodology for Insect Pest Control: Female Sterilizing Genes.- 5: Natural Resources Management.- 26. Biotechnology in Pesticide Environmental Research.- 27. Genetic and Molecular Basis of the Microbial Degradation of Herbicides and Pesticides.- 28. The Challenges of Conferring Herbicide Resistance on Crops.- 29. Biotechnology, “Avian Society,” and “Human Society”.- 30. Overview Address.- Indexes.