Modified
Join me as we dig into a heaped serving of GMO crops through the lens of science, history, and culture. From the Victorian origins of plant genetics through to the genetically modified world we live in today. I’m Orlando de Lange and I’ll be your guide as we explore (true) stories that just might change how you think about the food on your plate, and the future of agriculture.
Episodes
The NewLeaf potato was a failure, appearing and disappearing in under a decade. But it was the first of a new wave of GMO crops that have endured to the present day - Bt crops.
Key references
How one tomato changed the world? Or was it two? And what is a GMO tomato anyway. Slice into the story of the FlavrSavr tomato.
Key references Grierson D. Identifying and silencing tomato ripening genes with antisense genes. Plant Biotechnol J. 2016 Mar;14(3):835-8. doi: 10.1111/pbi.12463. Epub 2015 Sep 15. PMID: 26369550; PMCID: PMC11389017.
https://www.supermarketnews.com/grocery-operations/altered-stakes
From hacking bacteria to blasting your way into the heart of the cell, in this episode we explore the ways to get a transgene into a plant cell and go from there to a whole genetically engineered plant.
Key references
Chimeric Genes as Dominant Selectable Markers in Plant Cells. Herrera-Estrella ...
How did a few labs in the San Francisco area transform our relationship to life itself?
Guidelines for Hybrid DNA Molecules - Maxine Singer and Dieter Soll - Science, 1973
Potential Biohazards of Recombinant DNA Molecules - Berg et al., Science, 1974
Electron Micrograph of plasmid DNA, 1967
Valentine remembered for visionary thinking that transformed agriculture - Trina Kleist, 2023
What actually is plant breeding and how did it become so deeply intertwined with genetics?
Learn what sushi and sugar beets can teach us about how to turn a plant into a crop and how this connects to GMOs.
Ant plants, Chameleon plants, and skinny-peel mangoes. Let's dive into your questions and I'll do my best to answer them.
References
How do plants defend themselves, fighting a war of attrition cell by cell? And how did a scientist in Minnesota in the 1950s reshape how we understand plant immune systems and the genetics at their heart. And of course, how does this all connect to GMOs? Let's find out.
References
What are these little bundles of DNA we call genes and how does a bunch of genes work together to make a whole plant? In this episode we’ll take a journey through plant genetics and see why scientists have been so keen to unlock these secrets and ultimately to shape them to human ends.
References: On the history of Japanese rice research in Taiwan:
Around the same time as Miescher was tinkering with DNA in Tubingen castle, a middle aged friar-scientist Gregor Mendel was experimenting with inheritance of pea plants. He was the first to define a set of mathematical rules behind inheritance that birthed the field of genetics - a field that lay dormant for a few decades before exploding in the 1900s, and continues to develop to this day. Genetics gives us the tools to reshape the...
Genes can be a metaphor for our sense of self. But they are also real, physical, things made up of DNA parts, locked inside the cells of every living organism. In this episode we explore the materiality of genes, as well as some of the human stories behind the science.
References:
Waclaw Szybalski on Martha Chase - Cold Spring Harbor laboratory - Oral history collections.
The roots of today’s genetically modified world stretch back two centuries, to a castle kitchen in Southern Germany. This episode will set the stage for our whole podcast introducing key themes and foundational concepts of genetics and molecular biology.
Everything you wanted to know about GMO crops and hopefully a lot of things you would have never thought to ask. Announcing Modified, a new podcast by Dr. Orlando de Lange - plant scientist, biotechnology educator, and lover of podcasts.
This announcement episode briefly introduces the podcast and lets you know what to expect.
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