Golden Rice is a type of rice that is capable of producing Beta carotene. The procedure for producing this rice is to modify the genes to enable the biosynthetic pathway of producing Beta Carotene by using Recombinant DNA technique.

Modification Process

In Golden Rice, Agrobacterium-mediated transformation is used to transform the newly created DNA into the rice. Firstly, plasmids are created to incorporate the 2 genes, Phytoene Synthase (psy) from Daffodil (Narcissus Pseudo narcissus) and bacterial Phytoene Desaturase (crtl) from the bacterium Erwinia uredovora which are responsible for the biosynthetic pathway of Beta Carotene. After that, the natural plasmids that are found on in the Agro bacterium will be replaced with the newly created plasmid vectors. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation will then take place to transform (transfer) the newly created plasmid into the rice nuclear genome. After the plasmid is transformed into the rice genome, it will be under control by the specific endosperm promoter, whose role is to transcript the gene from the newly transformed plasmid to enable the biosynthetic pathway of beta carotene.

Terminology

Recombinant DNA Techniques are techniques that use biological vectors or plasmids from bacteria and viruses to carry foreign genes into the desired cell. The foreign genes will be transported into the desired cells via the Transformation process by bacteria or Transfection process by viruses.

Plasmids are small circular genetic materials that are found in bacteria which are able of crossing cell boundaries of different species of organism. The circles of genetic material of the bacterium plasmids can be modified by breaking down and adding new genetic materials to it. Plasmids that are modified with new genetic material can move across cell boundaries of different species of organism and place the new genetic material into the desired location

Posted By: Koh Yu Yuan