Chapter 80 - 79: Knockout
Chapter 80: Chapter 79: Knockout
Jiang Miao was in the genetic modification lab, operating the equipment to alter a raw adenovirus material using CRISPR-Cas9 technology.
CRISPR-Cas9 is a gene-editing technique. It allows for the targeted removal of specific gene fragments from a sequence, thus achieving genetic modification.
However, the CRISPR-Cas9 technique doesn’t cut the gene sequence directly. First, a tool must be created.
The adenovirus he was modifying was precisely such a tool.
He used instruments and auxiliary drugs to insert a specific nuclease into the CRISPR-Cas9 protein, which was then implanted into the adenovirus. Once the adenovirus was modified, he could begin cultivating it.
To begin his research, Jiang Miao had already instructed the purchasing department to buy a dozen or so floss silk trees.
These floss silk trees, each five to six meters tall, cost 1,200 yuan apiece. They were purchased from a nursery company in the neighboring Jade Capital and were currently situated on a slope at Nanhu Farm. As soon as the lease for the mountain land behind the feed factory was secured, they would all be moved there.
Over the past few days, he had found time to collect some buds and leaves from the floss silk trees to serve as raw material for tissue culture.
He also used the Identification Panel to carefully examine the floss silk trees’ genetic sequences.
While the custom adenovirus was still replicating, he returned to observing the genetic sequence data of the floss silk trees. In a notebook with "Floss Silk Tree" on the cover, he wrote and sketched rapidly.
The contents, however, were like a heavenly script, a private cipher only Jiang Miao could understand. This was mainly to prevent anyone from stealing his physical notes.
In the notebook, his pen flew across the page as if divinely guided:
’First, I need to knock out the gene fragments related to reproduction. These seven are all reproductive fragments...’
Jiang Miao wrote in his notebook: Knockout, gene, YMM-2536, YMM-2544...
This was his own numbering system. Anyone else who saw it would be completely baffled, as he hadn’t noted the fragments’ characteristics or functions.
’Just knocking out the reproductive gene fragments isn’t enough to be secure. Someone could still use tissue culture to propagate them. Therefore, I have to implant a timed-death gene fragment. Once the timer is up, it will automatically activate and cause these transgenic floss silk trees to wither away on their own.’
He designed it this way to control the growers. Without a programmed-death setting, the long lifespan of the trees meant that a single specimen, once grafted with durian, could bear fruit for decades. This was obviously not conducive to control.
It was just like planned obsolescence in modern industrial products.
Without such measures, growers who planted the grafted durians would sooner or later take matters into their own hands and completely ruin the market.
This wasn’t Jiang Miao being alarmist; this was just human nature.
Last year in Siam, the durian association and local officials issued repeated warnings to the durian growers. Yet some growers, unable to resist the lure of money, harvested and sold their fruit prematurely.
There were certainly simple, good people among farmers.
But one must never stereotype all farmers as good, honest people. No group is made up entirely of good people.
Conversely, a group of all villains might actually exist.
Jiang Miao’s genetic version of planned obsolescence was a failsafe, a way to punish growers who refused to play by the rules.
Although the growers would have to sign a contract before Hailufeng Company would sell them saplings, and the contract would certainly include penalties for any breaches...
...Jiang Miao knew the domestic situation all too well. The culture in some rural areas was toxic. People often sided with kin over reason, or they would push their elderly out to the front lines to act as shields.
If all the growers in a village were to breach their contracts, they could simply play dumb. Even if he took them to court, it would be difficult to get any effective results.
Therefore, Jiang Miao decided to keep an ace up his sleeve: he would lock the lifespan of the transgenic floss silk trees at three years. Once the three years were up, the trees would automatically wither.
This would allow Hailufeng Company to settle accounts with any growers who violated their contracts. By simply refusing to provide replacement trees or other technical services, their grafted durian trees would soon die off.
After making an example of a few, the other growers would quickly learn the consequences of breaking the rules.
However, the genes for programmed apoptosis couldn’t be found in trees or perennial herbs. He would have to select them from certain annual plants.
Jiang Miao didn’t immediately begin research on this aspect. Instead, he continued to work on the genetic modification plan for the floss silk tree.
The notes in his journal continued to grow.
’To increase the grafting success rate, I have to knock out the immune genes in the floss silk tree that target foreign bodies...’
’At the same time, I need to enhance its resistance to specific fungi and bacteria. This will prevent the transgenic tree from becoming susceptible to disease after some of its immune gene fragments are knocked out...’
’I also need to boost the nutrient transport efficiency to the apical branches. That way, I can top the tree to divert nutrients to the grafted side branches, increasing the fruit yield...’
’And I have to knock out the tree’s leaf-abscission gene fragments, allowing it to continue photosynthesizing efficiently through autumn and winter and accumulate enough nutrients for the next year’s flowering and fruiting...’
Before he knew it, Jiang Miao had filled over twenty pages of his notebook.
He planned to knock out 34 of the floss silk tree’s gene fragments and implant 86 new ones.
Knocking out the floss silk tree’s native genes wasn’t too difficult. Implanting new ones, however, was far more complex and troublesome, as these genes would have to come from other organisms, which presented numerous problems to solve.
However, this was just a preliminary plan. Even though he knew the floss silk tree’s entire genetic sequence and the function of each part, he still couldn’t accomplish everything in one go.
Whether knocking out and implanting genes would trigger other chain reactions or cause a total genetic collapse were all unknown variables.
The Identification Panel couldn’t simulate unknown outcomes. He would have to actually create the transgenic floss silk tree to observe its genetic stability, functional expression, and the compatibility between its gene sequences.
Even so, this was already incredibly powerful.
It could shorten his research time by at least 99%, allowing him to see experimental results in a matter of days instead of having to actually grow the plants.
This was the Identification Panel’s huge advantage in the field of biotechnology.
The Identification Panel’s second major area of application was the synthesis of new materials.
If he wanted to, Jiang Miao could mix all sorts of chemicals in a massive hodgepodge, performing hundreds of syntheses simultaneously. He could then use the Identification Panel to analyze the properties of the resulting substances—essentially, trying his luck on a massive scale.
But at this stage of human civilization, a large portion of breakthroughs in the field of new materials were, in fact, achieved through trial and error—just trying one’s luck.
If others could get lucky, so could he.
With enough experiments, during a large-scale, random synthesis process, even a blind cat will eventually stumble upon a dead mouse.
The existence of the Identification Panel allowed Jiang Miao to skip the complex phases of testing, verification, and reproducibility, letting him see the properties of a new material instantly.
This saved a massive amount of time that would otherwise be spent inefficiently.
As for why he wasn’t entering the new materials field yet, it was mainly because Jiang Miao lacked the necessary foundation and background.
His own field of expertise was bioengineering. Working on artificial eel breeding and genetic modification was a natural extension of his specialty, not too great a leap.
But to suddenly jump from bioengineering to new materials would defy logic.
Even if he were to start a research project in new materials, Jiang Miao planned to first take the route of biosynthesis. This would act as a transition and reduce any outside suspicion about his abilities.
Besides, to a certain extent, biomaterials like transgenic spider silk were a major direction for the future anyway.