Bananas are one of the most important and lucrative fruit cr

Bananas are one of the most important and lucrative fruit crops in the world. Amazingly, the vast majority of the bananas that we eat are clones of a single tree, and this lineage is now sterile can no longer reproduce sexually) In fact, each new banana tree is produced from a cutting of existing banana roots. Bananas are often picked and transported green, but they need to ripen and turn to the appealing yellow color before they reach market. Sellers expose green bananas to ethylene, which speeds ripening. In sequencing the banana genome, scientists were able to identify the genes that are involved in ripening. Ripening Process Ethylene causes the genes responsible for fruit ripening to be up-regulated. Which cellular process would occur first to initiate gene expression (think about the Central Dogma!)? For the process in question la, which biomolecule is the product of this process? Through which process is the biomolecule from 1b converted into a protein sequence? Evolutionary Potential of Bananas Scientists are very worried about the future of bananas in response to new diseases and parasites. Given what you learned above, explain why would bananas be more at risk than other crops You decide to test whether bananas can adapt to a novel pathogen, or whether they are (locally) driven to extinction. What would be your ideal control and experimental treatments? Would you focus on the lifespan of a single clone, or across several generations? Why?

Solution

Part I:

a)

Central dogma is the process in which a particular gene present in DNA transcribed to specific RNA by the process of transcription and then the RNA is translated to the specific functional protein in a process called translation.

b) ACC is the product. ACC is produced from SAM (S-adenosyl methionine) by the enzyme ACC synthase

ACC - 1-aminocyclo propane 1- carbocylic acid

c) Then ACC oxidised by ACC oxidase to produce Ethylene.

Part II

2a) Scientists are very worried about the future of bananas in respose to new diseasesand parasites because they have nearly no genetic diversity -- the plants are all clones of one another. There is no involvement of sexual reproduction for new production of banana tress. The only way is the cloning of the tree. This type of reproduction is called parthenocarpy.

2b) Instead of focus on a life span of a single clone, if we would have conserve the variety in a gene bank and tried for a genetically modified plant (GM), it would be better.