Joe,
The National Institute is using five transgenic strains of 41B, each
with a gene that produces virus-killing material implanted...
The "virus-killing material" is simply the gene that codes for the coat
protein of the virus, something that is naturally spliced into the
plant genome upon virus infection anyway. Putting the gene in ahead of
time messes up replication of the virus in the plant cell.
A nice review of this strategy and others for producing virus resistant
varieties is found at:
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/feb102003/341.pdf
test is scheduled to run through 2009, when the results will be
evaluated and the plants destroyed.
Sounds like a careful plan to me.
Mr. Muré, looking at a verdant hillside combed by rows of
grape-heavy vines, worries that the introduction of genetically
modified plants would only create disease-resistant,
climate-adapted vines and increase the volume of mass-produced
wine with a standardized flavor.
"The more diversity, the greater the character of the wine,"
he said, "but there will be no diversity if you use a clone."
Mr. Muré obviously knows little about wine or grapes. Wine is
mass-produced in France and everywhere else, and all wine grapes have
been clonally propagated and grafted for over 100 years.
Dale
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