Consider the following techniques/phenomena:

1. Budding and grafting in fruit plants
2. Cytoplasmic male sterility
3. Gene silencing

Which of the above is/are used to create transgenic crops?

[UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2014 Prelims]

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3

(c) 1 and 3

(d) None

Answer: (b)        

Explanation:

• Transgenic crops refer to crops whose genetic material has been intentionally modified using genetic engineering techniques. This can involve the insertion of foreign genes or the removal of harmful ones, with the goal of introducing new traits that do not exist naturally in the plant.
• In the budding process, a bud is taken from one plant and grown on another. It does not lead to any genetic modification. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• Cytoplasmic male sterility is total or partial male sterility in plants as the result of specific nuclear and mitochondrial interactions.
• The cytoplasmic male sterility systems are widely utilized in crop plants for hybrid breeding due to the convenience of controlling sterility.
• Gene Silencing using RNA interference technology, transcriptional gene silencing, virus-induced gene silencing, has been used in horticultural techniques.