At present no known variety of barley has genes that can resist this fungus. There is a gene, however, in oats that can and does resist fusarium. Today the U.S. Department of Agriculture is doing just that. In a series of gene transfer experiments they hope to produce a transgenic strain of barley able to successfully resist this destructive fungus. One of the lead scientists in this quest, Dr. Anna Maria Nuutila, explains and illustrates some of the details of how this is done.
Gene guns are one of the new powerful tools in genetic engineering.
They were first invented in 1987 for just such applications as this one. The technology was improved in 1991 with the invention of the gene gun used today in this U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory. It uses compressed helium instead of gunpowder as a propellant. This is a gene gun. This is the chamber where the actual bombardment is done and we start getting it ready for the bombardment.