Chapter 78 Knockout

Chapter 78 Knockout

Chapter 78 Knockout (Additional Update)
Jiang Miao operates the instruments and equipment in the transgenic laboratory and uses CRISPR-Cas9 technology to transform an adenovirus raw material.

The so-called CRISPR-Cas9 technology is a gene editing technology that can artificially remove specific gene fragments in the target gene sequence to achieve the purpose of gene modification.

The CRISPR-Cas9 technology does not directly cut gene sequences, but requires the manufacture of tools first.

The adenovirus he is modifying at this time is such a tool.

Using instruments and auxiliary drugs, specific nucleases are inserted into the CRISPR-Cas9 protein, and then implanted into the adenovirus to transform the adenovirus.

You can then start cultivating this modified adenovirus.

In order to carry out the research, Jiang Miao had already instructed the purchasing department in advance to purchase more than a dozen beautiful silk cotton trees.

These beautiful kapok trees, which are five or six meters tall, cost 1200 yuan each and were purchased from a nursery company in the neighboring Yudu. They are currently placed on a sloping land in Nanhu Farm. Once the mountain land behind the feed factory is contracted, they will all be moved there.

These days, he took the time to collect some buds and leaves of the beautiful silk cotton tree as raw materials for tissue culture.

At the same time, the genetic sequences of these beautiful silk cotton trees were carefully examined through the identification panel.

While the special adenovirus was still replicating and multiplying, he re-observed the genetic sequence data of the beautiful silk cotton tree and quickly wrote and drew on a notebook with the name of the beautiful silk cotton tree on the cover.

However, the content above is like a hieroglyphic book, because it is a private code that only Jiang Miao can understand, mainly to prevent someone from stealing paper materials.

In the notebook, he wrote like a god:
'First, we need to knock out the gene fragments related to reproduction. These seven gene fragments are all related to reproduction...'

Jiang Miao wrote in his notebook: Knockout, gene, YMM-2536, YMM-2544...

He wrote this number himself, and others would be confused after reading it, because he did not write the characteristics of this gene fragment, nor did he indicate what function this gene fragment has.

"It is not safe to simply knock out the gene fragments for reproduction, as others can still cultivate them through tissue culture technology. Therefore, it is necessary to implant the gene fragments that will cause a timed death. Once the time is up, it will be automatically activated, allowing these genetically modified kapok trees to wither on their own."

The reason for this design is to control the growers. If there is no setting for regular death, given the longevity of trees, after durian is grafted, a tree can bear fruit for decades, which is obviously not conducive to control.

This is like the planned obsolescence of modern industrial products.

If this method is not adopted, farmers who grow grafted durian will sooner or later act on their own and ruin the entire market.

Jiang Miao is not exaggerating; this is human nature.

Last year, the Durian Association and local officials in the Siam region issued repeated warnings to local durian growers, but some growers could not resist the temptation and cut the fruit early for sale under the allure of money.

There are indeed simple good people among the farmers.

But we must not bring the entire peasant group into the impression that they are good and honest people, because no matter which group it is, not all of them are good people.

On the other hand, a group of all villains may exist.

Jiang Miao scrapped his plan to play with the genetic version just to be on the safe side so that he could punish those growers who did not follow the rules.

Although the growers have to sign a contract first before Hailufeng Company will sell seedlings to them, there must be relevant penalty clauses for breach of contract in the contract.

But Jiang Miao was very clear about the situation in the country. The atmosphere in some rural areas was very bad. People often helped their relatives instead of others, or pushed some old men and women to take the lead.

If all the growers in a village breach the contract, the other party can just act like a rogue and even if you take the case to court, it may be difficult to crack down on them.

Therefore, Jiang Miao plans to keep a trick and lock the service life of the genetically modified kapok tree to 3 years. Once the 3 years are up, the genetically modified kapok tree will automatically wither.

In this way, Hailufeng Company can settle accounts with those growers who breach the contract. As long as they do not provide them with new genetically modified kapok trees or other technical services, the grafted durians will soon wither.

After killing chickens to scare monkeys a few times, those farmers will understand the consequences of violating the rules. However, trees and perennial herbs definitely do not have genes related to timed apoptosis, so they can only be selected from some annual herbs.

Jiang Miao did not conduct research in this area immediately, but continued to study the genetic modification plan of the silk cotton tree.

The contents of the notebook continued to grow.

"To increase the success rate of grafting, we must knock out the immune gene that specifically targets foreign objects in the kapok gene..."

'At the same time, it also enhances the resistance genes of silk cotton to specific fungi and bacteria, avoiding the genetically modified silk cotton being susceptible to diseases due to the knockout of some immune gene fragments...'

'At the same time, we need to enhance the nutrient transport efficiency of the top branches, so that nutrients can be supplied to the grafted branches of the side branches through topping, increasing the number of fruits...'

'We also need to knock out the leaf-shedding gene fragment of the kapok plant, so that it can still photosynthesize efficiently in the autumn and winter, and accumulate enough nutrients for flowering and fruiting the following year...'

Before he knew it, Jiang Miao's notebook had already been filled with more than twenty pages.

He plans to knock out 34 gene fragments of the silk cotton tree and implant 86 new gene fragments.

It is not very difficult to knock out the genes of the beautiful silk cotton tree, but implanting new genes is more complicated and troublesome because these genes must be genes of other organisms, and there are many problems to be solved.

However, this was only a preliminary genetic modification plan. Even if he knew the complete genetic sequence of the beautiful silk cotton tree and the functions corresponding to these genetic sequences, there was still no way to accomplish it overnight.

Because it is unknown whether knocking out or implanting genes will cause other chain reactions or lead to gene collapse.

The identification panel has no way to simulate unknown situations. He needs to make the genetically modified kapok before he can see the stability of its genes, functional expression, and the harmony between gene sequences.

But even so, it is actually very impressive.

This can shorten the scientific research time by at least 99%, and make the experimental results visible within a few days instead of actually needing to be planted.

This is also a huge advantage of identification panels in biotechnology.

The second largest application area of ​​identification panels is the synthesis of new materials.

As long as Jiang Miao is willing, he can use all kinds of chemicals to make a hodgepodge mixture, perform hundreds of synthesized products at the same time, and then identify the effects of these synthetic substances through the identification panel, which is equivalent to taking a chance.

However, at this stage of human civilization, a large part of the achievements in the field of new materials are indeed obtained through constant luck.

If others can try their luck, he can naturally do the same.

As long as the number of experiments is large enough, in the process of large-scale random synthesis, the blind cat will always catch a dead mouse.

The existence of the identification panel allows Jiang Miao to skip the complicated experimental testing, verification and repeatability stages and directly see the various conditions of the new materials.

This saves a lot of inefficient time.

As for why he doesn’t enter the new materials field now, it’s mainly because Jiang Miao does not have enough confidence and background.

His major is bioengineering, and he is currently working on artificial breeding technology for eels and genetic modification technology, which are extensions of bioengineering and not too big a leap.

But it is somewhat illogical to jump all of a sudden from bioengineering to the field of new materials.

Even if he wants to start a scientific research project on new materials, Jiang Miao plans to make a transition first through the route of biosynthesis of new materials to reduce some of the outside world's doubts about him.

What's more, to some extent, biomaterials are also one of the major directions of the future, such as genetically modified spider silk.

(End of this chapter)