In a word, no.

The aim is to aid genetic engineering the old-school way i.e in the ways that farmers having been doing it for thousands of years by selecting for strains with desirable traits. Marker assisted breeding just allows traits that may not be obvious to be selected for.

As for whether corporates are or will be helped - I certainly hope that the knowledge generated will be of aid for anyone that is working on rice or for that matter for anyone that is trying to understand plants or biology - whether that is an academic scientist or Monsanto. The utility of the knowledge and potential good is separate matter from how the knowledge should be used. If one disagrees with the way the corporations are using the knowledge, the proper response is to try to change the way the corpoations are run or regulated, not to stop the research which in this case has broader implications in understanding protein folding.

While we mention Monsanto and genetic engineering lets look at some facts. Yes there is a possibility of creating wonderful healthy plants that do not suffer from common diseases and grow in poor soils. This is the potential of Genetic Engineering, yes. Monsanto know this and advertise it. What they do however is develop seeds that do not reproduce - forcing farmers to repurchase seeds every year. Great huh? They also make the plant herbicide resistant so they can up the doses of herbicides and who cares about soil ferility or environmental pollution, not to mention cause allergies and damage the health of the consumers - Fantastic. When their dodgy seeds crosspollinate with the organic farmer next door instead of an apology they take them to court for unauthorised use. Yep this is happening and has already happened a number of times. They also add some animal genes so that the farmer can harvest the crop even earlier for easy transport - who cares that the result is even less nutrition content and tastes like cardboard it will look great on the shelf. And because of this there is less waste and they can undercut the farmers doing the right thing by the planet and by their customers. Let's not go into the growth hormone in milk and who helped them develop that technology??? No our girls are developing breasts at 8 - fantastic. Now tell me that corporates have laws and ethics.

Good point and a great way of looking at it.

Where I'm coming from is that all of these ingenious finds, even the atom bomb, were developed by souls with a good heart and good intentions. Corporates at least most of them have no such things.

I would love to support good research leading to good outcomes for the planet and the people on it.

Thanks for replying.
M

But the development of the atom technology was well underway.
The Manhattan Project was just a side effect of the interest of man in the atom technology. It just speeded up a little the technology, but in no way was a catalyst for it.