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Science / Medicine : Gene Transfer Is a First

<i> From staff and wire reports</i>

Scientists report that for the first time they have transferred a foreign gene into a walnut tree, a genetic engineering feat that they say lays the groundwork for protecting trees from insects and disease.

The achievement holds major implications for California growers, who produce nearly all of the nation’s $300-million-a-year walnut crop.

The technique eventually may lessen or even eliminate the need for risk-laden insecticides and pesticides, said Abhaya Dandekar, assistant professor of pomology at UC Davis.

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The researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Bio-Technology, used a bacterium called agrobacterium tumefaciens to transfer a special “marker” gene--which is easy to detect in the recipient plant--into cells of the walnut plant.

The bacterium was used to infect embryos of the walnut plant, thus incorporating the marker gene into the plant’s genetic material.

“Little baby” embryos sprouting from the surface cell of the infected embryo were screened to determine whether they had been “transformed” to contain the characteristics of the foreign gene, Dandekar said. The transformed embryos were then grown into tiny walnut seedlings. The researchers found the new trees showed the traits of the foreign gene.

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