Implications of the Biotechnology Revolution for Agriculture

Neville P. Clarke, director, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station, TX.

Today, agriculture needs a new in- fusion of science and technology and new capabilities that will restore and enhance the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture in the world marketplace.

The products of biotechnology offer one of the most exciting opportunities to meet these urgent needs. In the words of Dr. George Keyworth, former Science Advisor to The President, "U.S. agriculture has got to take advantage of new knowledge in biosciences in order to remain the dominant force it is in the world today."

With help from a microscope attached to closed-circuit television, a plant geneticist injects a chromosome into a plant cell magnified 15,000 times.

But what exactly is biotechnology? The term Biotechnology refers to an array of related basic sciences that have as their centerpiece the use of new methods for the manipulation of the fundamental building blocks of genetic information to create life forms that might not ever emerge in nature life forms that can expand and enhance the well-being of humans in ways that almost extend beyond the imagination.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has termed genetic engineering one of the four major scientific revolutions of this century, on a par with unlocking the atom, escaping the earth's gravity, and the computer revolution. The National Science Board recently said, "The new-found ability to manipulate cellular machinery has been termed biotechnology revolution. It could have as profound an effect on our society as has the information revolution occurring alongside it. Many believe that the impact of biotechnology will be as great or greater in agriculture as in medicine."

Sciences as Base

The biotechnology revolution in agriculture is a part of an overall increasing sophistication of biological techniques for improving the production, processing, and marketing of food and fiber. Biotechnology, for instance, allows an acceleration of the process of selection and breeding that has been under way for over 100 years. While much of the early research in biotechnology addressed the basic biology to solve critical problems in medicine, the opportunities and potential impact of this technology for agriculture make this at least as important an application as medicine. In fact, biotechnology has its broadest applications in sciences that enhance human well-being in the total sense.

In the case of agriculture, biotechnology is built on a broad base of existing and ongoing scientific research that supports and enhances the use of the new methods in genetic engineering and related techniques. This science base helps define what should be genetically engineered and enables the products of fundamental research in the laboratory to be practically applied in the field. The way the pieces fit together and the basic concepts in biotechnology are both exciting and fascinating.

Concepts of Genetic Engineering

Every cell in plants, animals, and microbes contains the genetic information to allow perpetuation of that cell or organism. The study of the structure, chemistry, and function of this genetic material has been the basis of understanding that has enabled the biotechnology revolution to come of age.

This genetic material is arranged in helical strands of amino acids that contain the code for triggering the characteristic functions of that organism in succeeding generations. The discovery of the structure of the DNA helix in the 1950's, the unraveling of genetic code in the 1960's, and the development and refinement of the tools of genetic engineering in the 1970's has caused something fundamentally different to happen in biological science. Using enzymes as "genetic scissors," the genetic structure of cells can be snipped apart and reconstructed in combinations impossible to achieve by natural reproduction. Scientists can not only alter existing genes, but construct totally synthetic genes to cause the organism to perform desired functions.

To make genetic engineering work, methods are being developed to transfer genetic material into plants and animals and to make sure that the function that has been engineered is expressed at the right place and at the right time. But genetic engineering is only a part of biotechnology. The total picture includes understanding the physiology and biochemistry of the function of interest and knowledge of the existing genetic codes that regulate the process. This allows scientists to understand what to genetically engineer to produce a more desirable organism. Once such a product has been created in the laboratory, a variety of techniques such as tissue culture are often needed to recreate an organism that can compete in a practical ecosystem. The techniques of plant and animal breeding and development are used to take the final product back to the field.

Agriculture as a Principal Target

The production of food and fiber is essential to life, and agriculture is the world's largest industry with assets worth well over a trillion dollars in the United States alone. As a biologically based set of industries, agriculture is in the ideal position to reap the major benefits associated with the biotechnology revolution.

In the past, agriculture has been an energy and labor intensive industry. Biotechnology offers the opportunity to reduce both these costs in future operations. Inherent resistance to pests and disease can reduce the use of chemical pesticides, reducing the cost of production and the potentially harmful environmental effects of such practices. The possible uses of biotechnology for agriculture are limited only by imagination and initiative.

The total system for food and fiber production is extremely diverse and multifaceted, providing a broad range of potential applications of biotechnology. Biotechnology is not only enhancing the traditional enterprises in food and fiber production; it also is producing new high technology industries that are in themselves providing new jobs and producing new goods and services. Sometimes thinking of biotechnological applications is limited to production agriculture, where an exciting new array of scientific breakthroughs is being developed. Just as exciting, however, is the new application of biotechnology to food processing and manufacturing, to new methods for ecologically sound disposal of wastes, and to biochemical engineering where totally new products are being produced from agricultural residues using biotechnological tools.

The excitement associated with the biotechnology revolution can be even better conveyed by some specific examples of goals and achievements.