Biotechnology in the grocery store
We are often told that biotechnology began when the founders of Genentech realized they could make proteins in E. coli. The key technique, cloning, involves copying genetic information and reproducing those copies. Cloning is not restricted to small bits of DNA. Animals can be cloned. Plants can be cloned. We can even clone mushrooms.
If we look at the foundation of biotechnology, that is the ability to make a clone, we can argue biotechnology began a few decades earlier and it wasn’t with E. coli.
Cloning first happened with orchids.
Long before the first E. coli culture was transformed with a recombinant plasmid, Hans Thomale (1956) and Georges Morel (1960) cloned orchids from shoot tips (1).
We often say no one knows what biotechnology is and yet, many of us walk by one of biotechnology’s most common products, cloned orchids, at least once a week. Could it be that our fixation with biotechnology’s medical applications blinds us to the existence of products closer to home?
For many decades, orchids were the domain of wealthy aristocrats who could fund jungle expeditions and specialized greenhouses. Today, because of biotechnology, orchids are sold at the grocery store. Even with their humble presence in the flower section, the estimated market value for orchids was $751.9 million dollars in 2023 and is expected to keep growing (2).
Even with orchids everywhere in the market, there are still orchids in trouble in the wild. A graduate from Palm Beach Community College works at a center focused on saving species of endangered orchids (3).
For a really interesting look at orchids and their fans, I highly recommend The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean (4). It is a wonderfully entertaining book with a mix of eccentric characters, history, biology, and a fascinating industry. It made me want to set up a lab in our basement and start cloning orchids myself.
References:
- Yam, T.W., Arditti, J. History of orchid propagation: a mirror of the history of biotechnology. Plant Biotechnol Rep 3, 1–56 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11816-008-0066-3
- Zion Market Research (accessed 7/30/2024) https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/orchid-market
- Alexandra Gorgevska, 2022. Saving rare orchids through plant tissue culture.
- Susan Orleans, The Orchid Thief, 1998 Ballantine Books, New York.