Making a Genetically Engineered Crop

 In general there are five different steps required for using biotechnology to creates a new crop variety.  These same steps are used no matter what the crop is.  We will use the example of BT corn for describing each of these five steps.  The soil bacterium, Bacillius thiurengensis, produces an insecticidal protein.  That protein is coded for by a certain gene, one example is cry 1Ab.

1. All of the DNA from Bacillius thiurengensis, is isolated in a laboratory.
2. In the laboratory the specific DNA sequence which makes up the cry 1Ab gene is found and copied.
3. The cry 1Ab soil bacterium version of the gene is modified slightly so that it will work better once in a corn plant.
4. In a laboratory a corn plant is transformed with this new modified cry 1Ab gene which will provide the corn plant with insecticidal protection.
5. The corn plant which is able to be transformed does not contain all of the optimal genes which a producer needs in the field.  Therefore the last step in biotechnology, occurs in the field where plant breeders cross this corn plant (which contains the cry 1Ab gene) with their top performing lines to create a high yielding BT corn variety.