Consider the following techniques/phenomena : 1. Budding and grafting in fruit plants 2. Cytoplasmic male sterility 3. Gene silencing Which of the above is/are used to create transgenic crops?

States that grafting and vegetative propagation produce plants genetically similar to the parent (clonal propagation).

A student can combine this with the fact that transgenic crops require deliberate DNA modification to infer grafting/budding alone do not create transgenics.

Explains that budding and vegetative propagation are forms of asexual reproduction producing new individuals from one parent.

Use the asexual/clonal nature to reason that these methods duplicate existing genomes rather than introduce new foreign genes as in transgenesis.

Notes practical use of grafting and budding in fruit trees to obtain earlier yields and propagation advantages.

A student could infer these techniques are horticultural/propagation tools (not genetic-modification methods) and so are unlikely to by themselves produce transgenic varieties.

Defines genetically modified (GM) crops as those whose DNA has been modified using genetic engineering techniques.

Combine this definition with the cloning/propagation clues to conclude that creating a transgenic crop requires DNA-engineering steps beyond grafting/budding.

Mentions production of 'disease-free and genetically better transplants' under protected cultivation.

A student might distinguish 'genetically better' via breeding/selection or biotech from vegetative propagation, and thus seek whether any DNA-engineering step is involved for transgenics.