Corn, Tobacco, and Rice engineered with HUMAN GENES

With genetic engineering, scientists can breach species barriers set up by nature. For example, they have spliced fish genes into tomatoes. The results are plants (or animals) with traits that would be virtually impossible to obtain with natural processes, such as crossbreeding or grafting.

What combinations have been tried?

It is now possible for plants to be engineered with genes taken from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals or even humans. Scientists have worked on some interesting combinations:

* Spider genes were inserted into goat DNA, in hopes that the goat milk would contain spider web protein for use in bulletproof vests.
* Cow genes turned pigskins into cowhides.
* Jellyfish genes lit up pigs� noses in the dark.
* Artic fish genes gave tomatoes and strawberries tolerance to frost.
* Potatoes that glowed in the dark when they needed watering.
* Human genes were inserted into corn to produce spermicide.

Current field trials include:

* Corn engineered with human genes (Dow)
* Sugarcane engineered with human genes (Hawaii Agriculture Research Center)
* Corn engineered with jellyfish genes (Stanford University)
* Tobacco engineered with lettuce genes (University of Hawaii)
* Rice engineered with human genes (Applied Phytologics)
* Corn engineered with hepatitis virus genes (Prodigene)



MORE AT - [link to www.epatienthealthcare.com]