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Date November 2016 Marks available 2 Reference code 16N.3.HL.TZ0.10
Level Higher level Paper Paper 3 Time zone TZ0 / no time zone
Command term Outline Question number 10 Adapted from N/A

Question

Crop genetic engineering was performed to improve drought tolerance in tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum) by adding a gene from an edible fungus (Flammulina velutipes). The cotyledons of tomato plants were cut and co-cultivated with Agrobacterium tumefaciens containing the transgenic Ti plasmid. Plates containing kanamycin were used to select for transgenic cotyledons. The graph shows concentrations of three constituents of the wax that coats wild type plants (control) and transgenic tomato plants.

Outline the use of kanamycin in the selection of transgenic cotyledons.

[2]
a.

State how the sequence of the target gene from the fungus could be identified using a bioinformatics tool.

[1]
b.

Suggest whether the results of this experiment show that these transgenic tomato plants are more resistant to drought.

[2]
c.

Markscheme

a. kanamycin resistance as marker gene

b. when organisms grown in kanamycin, only resistant survive
OR
those that took up resistance/cloned ones survive

a.

database/NCBI search to find target gene/OWTTE
OR
search for target gene in other/related organisms

Allow other named database.
Please check unfamiliar names for authenticity.

b.

a. more wax deposition constituents «in leaves» of transgenic than control plants

b. wax is waterproof

c. less evaporation from «waxy» leaves «protects from drought»

c.

Examiners report

[N/A]
a.
[N/A]
b.
[N/A]
c.

Syllabus sections

Option B: Biotechnology and bioinformatics » Option B: Biotechnology and bioinformatics (Core topics) » B.2 Biotechnology in agriculture
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Option B: Biotechnology and bioinformatics » Option B: Biotechnology and bioinformatics (Core topics)
Option B: Biotechnology and bioinformatics

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