Modified

The NewLeaf potato was a failure, appearing and disappearing in under a decade. But it was the first of a new wave of GMO crops that have endured to the present day - Bt crops. 
 
Key references
Insect Resistance in Crops: A Case Study of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and its Transfer to Developing Countries. 1997.
 
The chronicle of the ups and downs that made Bacillus thuringiensis a natural insecticide by Ninfa Rosas-Garcia, 2023. 
 
https://dfg-vk-darmstadt.de/Lexikon_Auflage_2/BerlinerErnst.htm
Biographical details about Ernst Berliner. 
https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-practices-management/biotechnology
→ 2025 USDA data on Bt crops
 
https://farmingfirst.org/2025/12/how-africa-can-benefit-from-south-africa-success-with-gm-crops/
⇒ GMO crops in South Africa. 
 
https://farmingfirst.org/2025/12/how-africa-can-benefit-from-south-africa-success-with-gm-crops/
⇒ GMO crops in Kenya
Rise and fall of the New Leaf Potato - https://krautnah.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/15_7_2_Thornton.pdf. 
https://time.com/archive/6925559/why-mcdonalds-pulled-frankenfries-from-menu/TIME article about lack of commercial interest in NewLeaf potato. 
Resources on Bt and milkweed
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/1999/04/toxic-pollen-bt-corn-can-kill-monarch-butterflies
https://academic.oup.com/jee/article/116/2/297/6968925
→ 2023 review paper on Bt crops and resistance
https://www.monarchscience.org/single-post/2020/09/02/a-look-back-at-the-time-when-the-entire-world-thought-bt-corn-was-killing-monarchs
→ Blog post summarizing the incident
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0001415
→ Bt crops and bees
https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.241503398
→ read this and see if its useful

How one tomato changed the world? Or was it two? And what is a GMO tomato anyway. Slice into the story of the FlavrSavr tomato. 
 
Key references
Grierson D. Identifying and silencing tomato ripening genes with antisense genes. Plant Biotechnol J. 2016 Mar;14(3):835-8. doi: 10.1111/pbi.12463. Epub 2015 Sep 15. PMID: 26369550; PMCID: PMC11389017.
 
 
https://www.supermarketnews.com/grocery-operations/altered-stakes
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/jun/14/hot-tomatoes-genetically-altered-tomatoes-are/
→ Articles about the sales of the Flavr Savr.
Commercialization_of_a_tomato_with_an_antisense_po.pdf - 1994, Euphytica
The Flavr Savr Tomato, an Early Example of RNAi Technology.pdf - 2008, HortScience
 

From hacking bacteria to blasting your way into the heart of the cell, in this episode we explore the ways to get a transgene into a plant cell and go from there to a whole genetically engineered plant. 
 
Key references
Herrera-Estrella L. My journey into the birth of plant transgenesis and its impact on modern plant biology. Plant Biotechnol J. 2020
 
Chimeric Genes as Dominant Selectable Markers in Plant Cells. Herrera-Estrella et al., 1983, the EMBO Journal. - First publication of delivering a recombinant T-DNA plasmid into plant cells.
 
History of Plant Tissue Culture. Trevor A Thorpe. University of Calgary
 
Current Advancement and Future Prospects in Simplified Transformation Based Plant Genome Editing. Han et al., Plants (Basel). 2025 - Review of plant transformation techniques. 
 
Deep Dive into Plant Transformation: Protoplast Mediated, Biolistic, Agrobacterium Mediated Gene Transfer. Dr Adriana Gallego. GoldBio.  - Article about different plant transformation methods. 

How did a few labs in the San Francisco area transform our relationship to life itself?
 
Guidelines for Hybrid DNA Molecules - Maxine Singer and Dieter Soll - Science, 1973
Potential Biohazards of Recombinant DNA Molecules - Berg et al., Science, 1974
Electron Micrograph of plasmid DNA, 1967
Valentine remembered for visionary thinking that transformed agriculture - Trina Kleist, 2023

What actually is plant breeding and how did it become so deeply intertwined with genetics?

Learn what sushi and sugar beets can teach us about how to turn a plant into a crop and how this connects to GMOs. 

Ant plants, Chameleon plants, and skinny-peel mangoes. Let's dive into your questions and I'll do my best to answer them. 
 
References
Leaf Mimicry in a Climbing Plant Protects Against Herbivory - Gianoli & Carrasco-Urra - Current Biology, 2014
Boquila trifoliata Mimics Leaves of an Artificial Plastic Host Plant - White & Yamashita - Plant Signaling & Behavior, 2021
Endophytic Bacterial Communities are Associated with Leaf Mimicry in the Vine Boquila trifoliata - Gianoli et al. - Scientific Reports, 2021
How the Tulip Breaking Virus Created Striped Tulips - Wong, Carrero & Hillen - Communications Biology, 2025
Start of the Art of Dahlia Breeding - A dissertation by Karen Renae Bender - Iowa State University, 2022
The Genome Evolution and Domestication of Tropical Fruit Mango - Wang et al. - Genome Biology, 2020
 

How do plants defend themselves, fighting a war of attrition cell by cell? And how did a scientist in Minnesota in the 1950s reshape how we understand plant immune systems and the genetics at their heart. And of course, how does this all connect to GMOs? Let's find out. 
 
References
H. H. FLOR: PIONEER IN PHYTOPATHOLOGY
Jin L, Chen M, Xiang M, Guo Z. RNAi-Based Antiviral Innate Immunity in Plants. Viruses. 2022 Feb 20;14(2):432. 
FAO. 2022. FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division. Rome.
PAPAYA RINGSPOT VIRUS (PRY): A SERIOUS DISEASE OF PAPAYA  
2024 STATE AGRICULTURE OVERVIEW - Hawaii

What are these little bundles of DNA we call genes and how does a bunch of genes work together to make a whole plant? In this episode we’ll take a journey through plant genetics and see why scientists have been so keen to unlock these secrets and ultimately to shape them to human ends. 
 
References:
On the history of Japanese rice research in Taiwan:
Tracing the Roots of Taiwanese Rice. Cathy Teng, photos Chuang Kung-ju, tr. by Scott Williams July 2016 
Leow, W.Y. (2020). Horai Rice in the Making of Japanese Colonial Taiwan. Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 9(1), 40-66.
Wikipedia: Taiwan Under Japanese Rule
On Gibberellin research
Hedden, P., Sponsel, V. A Century of Gibberellin Research. J Plant Growth Regul 34, 740–760 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-015-9546-1
RADLEY, M. Occurrence of Substances Similar to Gibberellic Acid in Higher Plants. Nature 178, 1070–1071 (1956). https://doi.org/10.1038/1781070a0
Bernard O Phinney. By Ann Hirsch. UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. 
 

Around the same time as Miescher was tinkering with DNA in Tubingen castle, a middle aged friar-scientist Gregor Mendel was experimenting with inheritance of pea plants. He was the first to define a set of mathematical rules behind inheritance that birthed the field of genetics - a field that lay dormant for a few decades before exploding in the 1900s, and continues to develop to this day. Genetics gives us the tools to reshape the living world with intention and at speed. 
 
References:
1. Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden. Zwei Abhandlungen. (1865 und 1869.) Von Gregor Mendel. Herausgegeben von Erich Tschermak [Experiments in Plant Hybridization. Two Treatments. (1865 and 1869). By Gregor Mendel. Published by Erich Tschermak. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hs118q&seq=7
 
2. Gregor Mendel and his Precusors. Conway Zirkle. 1951. https://www.jstor.org/stable/226964?seq=1
 
3.  Bateson W. (1906) "The progress of genetic research" Report of the Third International Conference 1906 on Genetics, W. Wilks, ed. London, England: Royal Horticultural Society. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/206746#page/129/mode/1up 
 
4. Fairbanks, D.J. Demystifying the mythical Mendel: a biographical review. Heredity 129, 4–11 (2022). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41437-022-00526-0