Environmental Impact of Hybrid Poplar Cultivation

Transgenic corn lines have been created with higher than normal levels of essential amino acids and/or that produce proteins with higher contents of these acids, and they are already in commercial production.

Transgenic soybean oil contains predominantly a cis-monounsaturated fatty acid, which has good stability, reduced off-flavor, and is healthier to consume.

Conventional breeding can address the deficiency in the sulfur-containing essential amino acids in soy protein.

The promoter used to silence the fatty acid desaturase genes in the high oleic acid transgenic soybean effectively eliminates expression of one of the major classes of soy proteins that does not contain methionine and cysteine.

The application of biological sciences in agriculture has become less prominent in the past decade.

Genes were first inserted into corn using molecular techniques in 1989.

The significance of biotechnology for environmental risk primarily resides in the fact that a much narrower array of phenotypic traits can be incorporated into crop plants than was possible about a decade ago.

True or false: Iron deficiency can lead to anemia in 40% of all women and 50% of pregnant women?

Our experience with the few herbicide-tolerant and insect- and disease-resistant varieties that have been commercialized to date provides a broad basis for predicting questions needed to be asked when future plants with very different phenotypic traits are assessed for environmental risks.

True or false: Annual vitamin A deficiency contributes to illness and death for approximately 10 million people?

True or false: Overexpressing the gene responsible for the last step in vitamin E synthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana increased the effective vitamin E level nearly 10-fold?

True or false: Glucosinolates found in broccoli and related cruciferous vegetables are thought to help detoxify cancer-inducing carcinogens?

Transgenic crops aim to address three broad social needs: improved agricultural characteristics, greater adaptation to postharvest processing practices, and improved food quality.

The success stories of earlier transgenic crops mentioned in the text include Flavr-Savr tomato, glyphosate-resistant soybeans, and Bt-expressing cotton and corn.

Genetically engineering tree crops for insect and herbicide resistance, as well as increased growth rates, is not mentioned in the text.

The text emphasizes only the potential benefits of new transgenic crops and does not acknowledge the need for regulatory frameworks to address environmental issues associated with these new crops.

Hybrid poplars are resistant to insect attacks and do not require the use of insecticides.

The expansion of transgenic crops to wild and perennial plants like pines and poplar necessitates more complex risk analysis.

Research into using genetic engineering technology to turn annual crop plants into factories producing valuable chemicals is not mentioned in the text.

New transgenic applications may displace food and feed crops, impacting national and global supplies, and may lead to more vertically integrated farm-to-product production systems with potential environmental impacts.