What is the importance of gene manipulation in agricultural practices?
Solution:
- Gene manipulation is a method useful in agriculture as it has been useful in inculcating drought resistance, pest resistance and several other useful traits in plants.
- Manipulation means changing something in a skillful manner to produce more advanced form of that thing.
- Genetic manipulation is a process where the gene for a particular character is introduced inside the chromosome of a plant cell. When the gene for a particular character is introduced in a plant cell, a transgenic plant is produced. These transgenic plants exhibit characters governed by the newly introduced gene.
- For example, let us assume there is a wild plant that produces small fruits. If the gene responsible for a larger fruit size is introduced in this plant, this plant becomes transgenic, and starts producing larger fruits. Similarly, genes for higher yield, disease resistance, etc. can be introduced in any desired plant.
- Therefore, gene manipulation plays an important role in agricultural practices. Some of them are mentioned below:
- Increased crop yield: Gene manipulation can be used to introduce desirable traits into crops, such as increased resistance to pests and diseases, resulting in higher crop yields.
- Improved crop quality: Gene manipulation can be used to improve the nutritional content of crops, making them more nutritious and healthful for human and animal consumption.
- Increased crop tolerance to environmental stress: Gene manipulation can be used to introduce traits that allow crops to better withstand environmental stresses such as drought, cold temperatures, and salinity.