These photos are freely available for use for teaching & communication, as described at the foot of the page
Insect Resistance and Herbicide Tolerance
The soybean at left expresses a Bt gene for resistance to caterpillars. Commercialized.
Insect resistant soybean
The damage corn rootworms can do is easily visible in the root at right. Commercialized.
Insect resistant corn
Roots of plants resistant to the corn root worm. Commercialized.
Insect resistant corn
The white spots in the front row indicate where cutworms killed off the plants. The row in the back has a transgene for insect resistance. Commercialized.
Insect resistant corn
Harvesting corn resistant to the African stem borer (right) vs conventional on the left. 2006 South Africa. Commercialized.
Insect resistant corn
Asian corn borer damage to ear resulting in fungal growth (mold) and sprouting – compared to Bt transgenic ear – Philippines. Commercialized.
Insect resistant corn
The plants on the right are resistant to the Colorado potato beetle. No longer on the market.
Insect resistant potato
The fruit on the right is engineered; that on the left has been attacked by the eggplant fruit borer. This product is under development in the Philippines. Not commercialized.
Insect resistant talong (eggplant)
Susceptible (L) and transgenic (R) brinjal (eggplant) with Bt gene in India. Not commercialized.
Insect resistant brinjal (eggplant)
Susceptible (L) and transgenic (R) brinjal (eggplant) with Bt gene in India Not commercialized.
Insect resistant brinjal (eggplant)
Susceptible (L) and transgenic (R) brinjal (eggplant) with Bt gene in India Commercialized in Bangladesh.
Insect resistant brinjal (eggplant)
The boll in the foreground is engineered; the one in back was attacked by the cotton bollworm, and will not produce cotton. Cali, Colombia, 2011. Commercialized.
Insect resistant cotton
Asian Farmers Exchange field tour, 2008, Philippines. Comparison of traditional corn on left with insect resistant, herbicide tolerant stacked trait corn on the right. Commercialized.
Insect & herbicide tolerant corn
The corn on the left was engineered for herbicide tolerance; that on the right is killed. Commercialized.
Herbicide tolerant corn
On left, the dead weeds cover and protect the soil. Hoeing would be needed to control the weeds in the non-engineered corn. Commercialized.
Herbicide tolerant corn
Insect resistant and dicamba & glufosinate tolerant cotton, Macon Co., GA Sept 2012. Photo shows what happens when herbicides are not used. Approval pending.
Insect resistant & herbicide tolerant cotton
HT3 Corn (dicamba and glufosinate tolerance) – vs Control – Jerseyville, IL 2012. Approval pending.
Herbicide tolerant corn
Soybeans resistant to glufosinate, after application of the herbicide. Note the non-GM soybeans on the sides are suffering from the herbicide. Commercialized.
Herbicide tolerant soybean
Glufosinate tolerant soybeans on the right allow for easy weed control through herbicides. The non-engineered soybeans on the left require additional labor to control the weeds. Not commercialized.
Herbicide tolerant soybean
Disease Resistance
Yellow squash. The row on the right is engineered for virus resistance; the rest suffer the effect of virus diseases. Normally, farmers use insecticides to kill the insects that transmit the virus. With the engineered squash, such insecticides are not needed. Commercialized.
Virus resistant squash
The pods on the right come from plants engineered to resist the Bean Golden Mosaic Virus; those on the left were not engineered. Developed in Brazil and approved for commercialization and in the pre-market stage.
Virus resistant bean
The back row was engineered to resist Bean Golden Mosaic Virus; the plants in the foreground are suffering from the virus. Developed in Brazil and approved for commercialization and in the pre-market stage.
Virus resistant bean
The large plants were engineered to resist the Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus; the small plant was not. Not commercialized.
Virus resistant peanut
13-month-old papaya plants in Puna, Hawaii. Those on the right were engineered for resistance to the Papaya Ringspot Virus, by Cornell, the University of Hawaii, and the USDA-ARS. These papayas were one of the first GM crops to reach the market. Commercialized.
Virus resistant papaya
The plants at right were made resistant to late blight, by engineering them with a gene from another potato. Not commercialized.
Late blight resistant potato
The large potato plants within this field are engineered to confer resistance to late blight. Not commercialized.
Late blight resistant potato
VF36 tomato side by side with the transgenic showing resistance to bacterial spot disease. The resistance comes from the Bs-2 gene from bell pepper, in University of Florida hybrid, Fla. 8314. Not commercialized.
Bacterial spot resistant tomato
Transgenic banana resistant to BXW disease and control non-transgenic plant showing BXW symptoms after artificial inoculation.
BXW resistance plants
30 days post inoculation with blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica strain EP155. Wild type American chestnut seedlings (left), Darling 54 transgenic American chestnut engineered with resistance to blight (middle), & Chinese chestnut control (right).
Blight resistant chestnut
Quality Improvement
These purple tomatoes were engineered to produce high levels of anthocyanin, in comparison to the red control fruit. Not commercialized.
Anthocyanin enriched tomatoes
Arctic® Golden slices (bottom) compared to conventional Golden slices. Pending approval.
Browning resistant apple
Juice of Arctic® Golden (top left) & Arctic® Granny (bottom left) compared to conventional Golden Delicious (top right) and Granny Smith (bottom right). Pending approval.
Browing resistant apple
Bowls of Golden and conventional rice. The golden color comes from ß-cartone, which the body converts to vitamin A. See http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricephotos/sets/72157626241604366/with/5516750104/ for more images. Not commercialized.
Vitamin A enriched rice
Left: InnateTM 10 hours after cutting; Right; traditional potato 10 hours after cutting. Pending approval.
Cotton naturally makes a toxic compound in its leaves and seeds called gossypol. Gossypol is very useful in the leaves, as it helps prevent damage from insects (left panel). Cotton seeds are very nutritious, but their use as feed is limited by the gossypol. There is a natural mutation (called glandless) that cannot make gossypol (center panel). Whereas seeds from glandless plants make very good feed, the leaves are destroyed by insects. The best of all worlds would be to keep gossypol in the leaves, but not in the seeds (right panel). Such an ideal situation was produced via genetic engineering. Not commercialized.
Gossypol-free cotton
Late rains at harvest time will cause wheat seeds to sprout while still on the plant, leading to a loss of yield and quality. Here, seeds engineered to not sprout while still on the plant are compared to conventional wheat. Not commercialized.
Wheat resistant to preharvest sprouting
The limes on the left and center are genetically engineered to produce higher levels of anthocyanin, using 2 different genes, than the control lime on the right. Not commercialized.
Anthocyanin overexpressing Mexican Limes
Basic Research
Not all transgenics are meant for use as agricultural production. Most GM plants are made to understand how plants work, and never leave the lab. In this example, adding a gene makes the trichomes (hairs) on the leaf disappear.
