A graduate student has applied for a 15 million dollar grant to secure funding f
ID: 149143 • Letter: A
Question
A graduate student has applied for a 15 million dollar grant to secure funding for her dissertation project, which revolves around engineering a rice plant that can outcompete other plants. Engineering rice varieties for food security Mrs. Jane Goodall, PhD Candidate of Plant Biology Perdue University It is no secret that food security is a major issue in today's world. Billions of people are chronically malnourished. Since rice is a staple food for approximately half of the human population, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms of rice development. Furthermore, genetic engineering techniques have been established for many cereals, including corn, rice, and wheat. Therefore, I propose to engineer a novel rice plant using an existing rice variety that will be a secure food source for the world's population. To this end, I will increase the height of the rice plant, tolerance to drought, and rice fruit production. Objective 1: Increase the height of rice plants. To increase rice plant height, I will insert genes that will allow for primary cell wall growth in the form of parenchyma cells. This will allow for the plant to be very sturdy, even at a height of 20 ft. The fact that this plant can grow taller than other varieties allow for it to collect more sunlight leading to a healthier plant. Objective 2: Engineer drought tolerant rice varieties. To increase rice tolerance to drought, I propose to decrease the number of guard cells in the plant. If there are fewer guard cells, then less water will be able to be lost. Furthermore, I will insert genes that increase the production of ethylene, resulting in plants that can open/close stomata. Objective 3: Alteration of floral organs to increase fruit production. Lastly, to increase fruit production, I will increase the amount of pollen produced by the stamens. Unfortunately, the flower has only a limited amount of room to fit all the floral organs. Therefore, I will reduce the number of carpels on each flower Since rice is primarily wind pollinated, they have very small petals and sepals. Therefore, petal and sepal area is not a cond 1. Which of the following best explains why her first objective is flawed a. Parenchyma cells are not found in plants. b. Rice only grows through lateral growth. C. Genes do not determine the structure of a cell d. Parenchyma cells lack thick walls necessary for sturdiness.Explanation / Answer
d) parenchyma cells primarily have thinner cell walls that cannot guarntee towards sturdiness of the plant. c) less guard cells will lead to less CO2 and therefore less photosynthesis. a) higher ABA d) fewer number of carpels will lead to decreased pollination that is because carpel is the female reproductive part. Three main parts of carpels are stigma, style and ovary and pollination occur through stigma.