Statement I: Using Agrobacterium vectors, nematode-specific genes were introduced into the host plant.
Statement II: The capacity to generate a whole plant from any cell/explant is called totipotency.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Both Statements I and II are correct.
The two statements come from two parts of the chapter: protecting a plant from a nematode by RNA interference, and growing whole plants by tissue culture.
Statement I: Using Agrobacterium vectors, nematode-specific genes were introduced into the host plant. — True. To protect tobacco from the nematode Meloidegyne incognitia, nematode-specific genes were put into the plant with Agrobacterium vectors. The plant then made sense and anti-sense RNA, which formed dsRNA and silenced the nematode’s mRNA.
Statement II: The capacity to generate a whole plant from any cell/explant is called totipotency. — True. An explant is any part of a plant taken out and grown in a test tube. The ability of a cell or explant to give rise to a whole plant is called totipotency; tissue culture is based on it.
NCERT Extract:
Biotechnological Applications in Agriculture – “… It was learnt by scientists, during 1950s, that whole plants could be regenerated from explants, i.e., any part of a plant taken out and grown in a test tube, under sterile conditions in special nutrient media. This capacity to generate a whole plant from any cell/explant is called totipotency.”
Biotechnological Applications in Agriculture – “… Using Agrobacterium vectors, nematode-specific genes were introduced into the host plant …. The introduction of DNA was such that it produced both sense and anti-sense RNA in the host cells.”