Problems Top 10 good things about the new biologically engineered tomato ' Neal vs. Mothra ' - our group at a glance Bibliography Introduction Genetic engineering in plants has proved to be a very sucessfull means of improving agricultural output. One aspect of plant engineering which makes it so sucessfull is the ability to clone new plants from single somatic cells.
Vectors are plasmids of bacteria that normally infect plants.
Normally the plasmid of this bacteria causes plants to develop tumor-like growths, but using recombinant DNA techniques scientests have been able to eliminate the plasmids negatives effectsand incorperate genes which convey genes with beneficial properties. There are also other technologies such as 'DNA guns' and electroporation. The new DNA gun works by 'shooting' a microscopic bullet with DNA on the tip into the target cell. Electropration works by shocking the cells membrane so that it takes up DNA from its environment. These are all usefull methods but they result in genetic dampering that we don't know the long term affects of.