Question

Important objective of biotechnology in the agricultural sector is:
(a) To produce pest resistance variety of plants
(b) To increase the nitrogen content
(c) To decrease the seed number
(d) To increase plant weight

Answer 1

Hint: In the agriculture sector, the damage caused by pests is a worldwide problem, which directly or indirectly affects the lives of farmers and other humans who are independent of them for food sources.

Complete answer:
Pest resistant, genetically modified crops (primarily cotton and maize) , have been genetically modified so they are poisonous to certain pests and insects. They are often called Bt crops because the bacterium- Bacillus thuringiensis is a common soil bacteria which produces ascertain toxins that kill certain insects. These bacteria produce a group of cry proteins which are toxins to different groups of insects and the gene encoding Cry protein is called cry gene. Biotechnologists have been able to isolate the gene responsible for the production of toxin and introduce a number of crop plants using Agrobacterium Ti plasmid-mediated transformation. The new genetically modified Bt cotton is resistant to bollworm complexes. These kinds of transgenic plants offer many advantages to farmers. The prime advantage is the production of labour free insect protection of crop plants at every single stage of development. But it also has some disadvantages such as the pesticide is produced inside Bt plants, rather than sprayed on the outside, thus toxicity and various types of allergy may be produced by the transgene. The genes modified cannot be washed off, so there are concerns that it may have adverse effects on humans, animals and wildlife if and when the crop is eaten.
So the correct answer is ‘ To produce a pest resistance variety of plants’.
Note: The gene encoding Cry protein is called cry gene. The cry should not be confused with a cry. The Cry is protein and written in roman letters in which the first letter is always capital whereas the cry is a gene which is written in italics and all the letters are small.