Can Molecularly Engineered Plant Galls Help to Ease the Problem of World Food Shortage (and Our Dependence on Pollinating Insects)?

Abstract

The world faces numerous problems and two of them are global food shortages and the dwindling number of pollinating insects. Plant products that do not arise from pollination are plant galls, which as in the case of oak apples, can resemble fruits and be the size of a cherry. It is suggested that once research has understood how chemical signals from gall-inducing insects program a plant to produce a gall, it should be possible to mimic and to improve nature and "bioengineer" designer galls of different sizes, colorations and specific contents to serve as food or a source of medicinally useful compounds. To achieve this objective, the genes involved in the formation of the galls need to be identified by RNA-sequencing and confirmed by gene expression analyses and gene slicing. Ultimately the relevant genes need to be transferred to naïve plants, possibly with the aid of plasmids or viruses as practiced in crop productivity increases. There is then even the prospect of engineered plant galls to be produced by plant tissue culture via genetic manipulation without the involvement of insects altogether.

Keywords: alternative foods; bio-engineered nutrition; crop pollinators; entomophagy; plant galls; pollinator losses.

Figure 1

One of many cartoons that appeared in newspapers and magazines [6] after it had been suggested in 1975 that insects could ease the problem of global food shortages.

Figure 2

Drawing of mature and bisected oak tree galls, known as oak apples, on an oak leaf.