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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

4300 year old genetically altered corn

Prehistoric Farming

Pretty good for goat herders.
Vera

3 comments:

Mintz said...
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Mintz said...

This is selection under domestication. Not genetic engineering.

To clarify - The farmers did not directly manipulate the genes of corn, they manipulated the fitness criteria of survival. They selected and bred corn best fitted to their needs. The random occurrence of beneficial (for the farmers, not the corn) mutations was useful to the farmers because it fed the human population. In one sense we can say that this mutation was ultimately beneficial to survival of the corn because the mutation meant the corn could propagate in the environment of a farmers field.

By the way. There were no goats in the Americas till Spanish arrived.

verandoug said...

I realize that. It is still working with genetics on a simplistic level much like the pea plants.

By the way. There were no goats in the Americas till Spanish arrived.

Hardy hardy. Just following the train of thought that is usually presented.

Vera

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