Two scientists in California developed a new variety of mandarin from the Kinnow mandarin called KinnowLS. Both mandarin were developed at UC Riverside. The newer mandarin have much less seeds than the regular mandarin, is sweeter, and juicer. This was achieved through mutation breeding. The new variety also grows well in desert regions, which is very attractive to areas in the world that do not have lots of water or is very hot. Citrus fruits are grown by budding instead of planting the seed into the ground. This is also the case in apples. Like apples, these citrus trees do not produce much fruit until the third year, so it will take 5 years before the KinnowLS can hit the supermarket aisle.
This is an example where scientists take a fruit and make it better. This happens all the time, like it did with cotton, corn, and rice. I think its a great thing to make something better if it is possible to do so. If this could be applied to certain other foods, as it was with rice in the Green Revolution, then there would be much less people starving in the world. However, genetically modified mandarin will not do much to cure hunger, but this could be used as another example for people to get motivated to do something better for society. So, if you see any hippies protesting at your local supermarket in about 5 years, youll know why.
I read this article also and found it really interesting. I think it's great that they were able to basically make the fruit a more efficient food by mutation breeding. It also reminded me of the movie The Botany of Desire that we watched in class and the section about apples where they discussed breeding the apples for different qualities, one of them being sweetness.
ReplyDeleteI though of The Botany of Desire video as well, especially with the comparison to apples. The apples were modified to be sweeter so they would be more appealing, which is the same case with the mandarian orange so many years later. The most important point to me is that this new mandarian was made to be successful in hot, dry regions, where many plants that provide food have a difficulty survivng. This could be very beneficial to people living in these parts of the world.
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