Craig Venter and others have constructed synthetic copies of viral genomes. For example, the genome for poliovirus and the 1918 influenza strain responsible for the pandemic flu have been assembled this way. The United States currently has a moratorium on federal funding for 'gain-of-function' experiments which increase the virulence or transmission potential of viruses. What concerns might ethicists have about synthetic biology studies involving potential pandemic pathogens?

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Welcome back. Here's our next question. It says, how can gain a function, technology directly help address food security amidst climate change problems? Well, let's recall what gain of function technology is just put up a little definition here and that would be a mutation in which the altered gene product produces new molecular functions or a new pattern of gene expression. So we're talking about creating transgenic organisms in which they've been altered to fundamentally in which a new, you have a new gene product producing new functions or the gene being expressed in a different pattern. So how can technology like this directly help address food security amidst climate change problems? Well, food of course, would be talking about plant or animal food sources that would be genetically altering to help them be produced in significant amounts of greater amounts despite climate change issues. So with that in mind, let's look at our answer choices and evaluate them choice. A says it can make weather conditions more stable. Well, genetically altering plants or animals is not going to affect the weather. So we'll go ahead and eliminate that choice. B says it can reduce the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gasses. Well, again, we're genetically altering food sources, plant or animal and that would not be our answer. I mean, I guess you could have a far fetched situation where you'd alter animals so they wouldn't produce methane gas. But I don't think that's what our question is asking us about. So we'll go ahead and eliminate choice. B choice C would say it can help produce drought resistant plants. Well, this is a case where gain of function technology can help address this food insecurity because you can add genes or alter genes in plants since you can genetically alter plants to tolerate lower water levels and higher salt concentrations that will allow them to be more sustainable in long term droughts which again are result. We see of climate change where it's changing weather patterns and causing more sustained droughts finally to be through. Let's look at choice D it says it can lessen global warming. Again, we're talking about genetically altering the plant or animal food sources so that not is not in and of itself going to lessen global warming. So choice D is not correct. Again, how can grain a function technology directly help address food security amidst climate change problems. Choice see it can help produce drought resistant plants thereby making the food source of crops more tolerant to climate change. See you in the next video.

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Key Concepts

Synthetic Biology and Genome Synthesis

Gain-of-Function Research

Ethical and Biosafety Concerns in Pandemic Pathogen Research