Pesticides Essay

Pesticides and Fertilizer run off from farms causes an overwhelming negative effects on the environment. Pesticides contaminate the water and poison fish both killing them and causing biological magnification in the fish that are higher up in the food chain. When humans eat these fish the risk of being harmed by pesticides is increased. Tobacco plants were engineered to express a gene that detoxifies 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetate ( 2,4-D), one of the most commonly used pesticides world wide, and removes it from the soil.

Plants were transformed with a tfdA gene from Alcaligenes eutrophus (JMP134) using a pCAMBIA1301 plasmid The gene was expressed in the roots. Integration of the gene was confirmed by 2,4-D assay, southern blot and PCR

2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetate is one of the most commonly used pesticides in the world. Unfortunately it is also extremely dangerous causing a range of health problems, from difficulty breathing to reduced fertility. It is also thought to cause cancer. ( Cox, 2008)

Introducing the gene ,tfdA, from a soil bacterium called Alcaligenes eutrophus JMP134 into tobacco plants allows us to not only remove the toxic pesticide, 2,4- dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, from the environment but to also break it down inside of the plant . It codes for an enzyme, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetate monooxygenase (DPAM) , that is the catalyst for the beginning of the catabolism pathway of 2,4-D. (Lyon, 1989) This eliminates the need for a second step of removing the plants and disposing of them in a safe way. The tobacco plants are also able to absorb excess fertilizer from the soil and water to prevent algal blooms in the water that lead to eutrophication.

This can be achieved by planting the transformed ...

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...fully transformed the shows the plants that were transformed were able to thrive in high levels of 2,4-D. The control (wildtype) was unable to grow in any concentration of 2,4-D

A PCR was performed and there was a band at for the tfdA gene at the same length as the positive control and no band in the negative control.

I performed a western blot and got positive results( a band) for the sample and no band for the negative control

On of the biggest problems with this solution to pesticide contamination is that it entails planting of large amounts of nonnative plants along the river banks and in the water. This means that they will be in contest with the native plants for resources. This may cause a disruption in the ecosystem or the food chain and animals depending on these native plants for food or shelter may die off or have to relocate.

Another problem is that