The terminator saga

Gopinathan, KP (1998) The terminator saga. In: Current Science, 75 (5). pp. 416-419.

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Abstract

The terminator concept and its impending consequences in agriculture have been hitting our daily newspaper headlines. The terminator gene if expressed within a seed, will mark the death of the seed and the target can be cotton, millets, rice, wheat or corn. the expression of the terminator itself can be modulated at will. the apprehension has been whether the engineered terminator gene will eradicate particular species of crop plants by preventing the seeds to germinate. Worse still, what if the trait spreads to nontarget crops? These questions evidently are of great concern to our farmers who have been following the age-old practice of saving a portion of their harvest for sowing the next crop and these seeds do not germinate whereas the seed he procures from the industry behaves normally! I have tried to explain here the scientific principles of the terminator concept and how it can be technically achieved without taking sides for or against.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Current Science
Publisher:	Indian Academy of Sciences
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to Indian Academy of Sciences.
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Microbiology & Cell Biology
Date Deposited:	04 Jan 2005
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:15
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/1404

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