Military Technology

Chapter 2387 Living Plants

This is true for him, not to mention Shen Ning and a few others. Shen Ning and the others couldn't help but feel a little scared when they so casually produced a white mouse.

As for Yang Fang, she took off her gloves with a smile, threw them into a yellow medical trash can nearby, then squeezed some hand sanitizer to wash her hands, and wiped them after use.

After finishing her work, she smiled and said to everyone: "I'm used to it, don't be surprised. This little white mouse has completed its mission. Next, we will send it to the laboratory for dissection and observe its internal body." Penetration of toxins.

Finally, the bodies of these mice and the medical waste will go into the incinerator, be harmlessly treated, and then buried in deep pits to prevent these wastes from polluting the outside environment. "

Wu Hao glanced at Shen Ning and the others who were still a little frightened over there, and then smiled at Yang Fang and asked: "Tell me about this Venus flytrap. Why did you cultivate such a dangerous species? It needs to be leaked." The spread will have a serious impact on the entire natural ecosystem and even destroy the biological chain ecosystem in some places."

"Haha, this is purely an experimental exploration. You can rest assured that these plants cannot be leaked out without permission. We have two main purposes for cultivating this Venus flytrap. First of all, we want to find the flytrap. Some controller genes in the flytrap have been released to respond to movement. The flytrap is probably one of the rarest moving plants in the world. We hope to extract these genes that control plant movement and then implant them into other plants. On some plants, these plants also have functions similar to Venus flytraps.

To give a simple example, we want to cultivate a flower that will bloom quickly when people approach or touch it. Then after a while, it tucks itself away and waits for the next time it’s touched.

We plan to extract the gene that controls the blooming of this flower when it is touched, from Mimosa pudica. Mimosa leaves quickly become sensitive when touched by the outside world. We plan to implant this gene into flowers.

This is not done for novelty, nor is it all about looking good. In fact, it has great application value.

For example, pollen-borne plant fruit breeding in this desert has always been a big problem. Because there are relatively few insects in desert areas, it is very difficult for them to spread pollen. Compared with some areas with more insects, pollination in desert areas takes much longer.

However, due to the harsh natural conditions in the desert area, high temperature, drought, and windy sand. These flowers may have dried up due to high temperature and drought before they were pollinated, or they may have withered away due to wind and sand.

And if we insert mimosa genes into these plants. Then the flowers of these plants can be retracted directly when affected by high temperatures or external forces. In other words, the flowers will bloom only when bees and insects rest on them, making it easier for bees and other insects to pollinate.

Similarly, the genes of this Venus flytrap are actually similar to those of Mimosa pudica. We also hope to find the genes that control the plant's responsiveness by comparing the genes in these motile plants. "

After listening to Yang Fang's explanation, everyone finally understood. I didn't expect that such a dangerous and disgusting plant could be used in this way, and it's amazing to extract the gene from such a plant and inject it into flowers, allowing people to touch them and bloom. When they thought of this, the fear, fear, and nausea in everyone's hearts disappeared, and they couldn't help but fantasize about the flowers that would bloom in the future.

Wu Hao, on the other hand, smiled and nodded and said: "Continue!"

yes! Yang Fang responded, and then went on to introduce: "In addition, we also hope to cultivate a specialized mouse-catching job and plant it in some areas with serious rodent infestations.

For example, there were news reports a few days ago that a grassland in Mongolia was severely infested with rats, resulting in a large amount of grassland being destroyed and herders suffering heavy losses. Conventional rodent killing methods without bad words are difficult to work.

Chemical poisons can easily pollute the environment and cause damage to the ecological chain. Therefore, experts are also very worried about how to eliminate rat infestations.

If we have rat-catching grass like ours, we can plant it in these grasslands with serious rat infestations, which can greatly control the rat infestation. More importantly, this is a biological method of catching rats that will not pollute the environment or affect other animals and people. It is very safe, efficient, and cheap. "

Hearing Yang Fang's words, Wu Hao couldn't help but frowned and looked at her and asked: "It's a good idea, but is it really feasible? Let's not talk about other things, but is this plant safe? Once it becomes like other invasive alien plants, If it spreads wildly on the grasslands, it will be a huge disaster for the ecological environment of these areas.

It can hunt mice, which means it can hunt some small animals, such as rabbits, hedgehogs, minks, foxes, and some birds, which are the main components of the ecosystem.

In addition, is its gene stable? If it is unstable, it will also contaminate some surrounding grassland plants, thus causing a serious ecological crisis. "

Hearing Wu Hao's words, Yang Fang smiled and replied: "First of all, let me answer your second question. Regarding the issue you are worried about, we are still in the process of conducting observation experiments and cannot obtain accurate experimental results yet. .

However, judging from the current series of observation experiments, its genes are relatively stable, and there will be no problems with gene expansion and gene contamination. Of course, this is only the current result, and everything is subject to the final experimental test results.

Then the first question is, your concerns are not unreasonable, and this is something we have always paid more attention to. To this end, we have also done a lot of work to try to minimize this threat, or eliminate it directly.

To prevent this kind of plant from spreading wildly, the simplest and most direct problem is to eliminate its reproductive ability, so that it cannot bear fruit, or the fruit it bears cannot mature or bud.

In addition, we need to require that the branches and leaves of this kind of mousetrap do not have the ability to be cut again. Whether it is natural causes that cause these plants to break and insert themselves into the ground, or man-made causes that catalyze them, they cannot take root and germinate.

In this way, we can greatly prevent the crazy spread of this kind of mousetrap after it is terminated. "

After hearing what Yang Fang said, Shen Ning, who was standing behind Wu Hao, couldn't help but wonder: "It has no fruits and cannot be cut. How can this plant reproduce?"

"Haha, it's very simple, laboratory cultivation." Yang Fang replied with a smile: "Just like orchid cultivation, we only need to take out an embryo from the plant, then put it into the culture medium for cultivation, and wait until it grows up , and then removed for cultivation.”