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nafex - [NAFEX] Transgenic technology (was: Grapple)

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  • From: abb7@Lehigh.EDU
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Transgenic technology (was: Grapple)
  • Date: Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:10:20 -0400

From: Kevin Moore <aleguy33@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <590577.91256.qm@web46008.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I couldn't disagree more! Selective breeding is essentially making use of a >natural process to our benefit. (Usually.) Transgenics has two major flaws: It >is moving genes from animals, fungi and viruses into plant material which could >never have gotten those genes in a natural manner.

Many transgenic plants are made using the bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens, which makes its living inserting its DNA into the genomes of various plants. Nonetheless, it is used to make transgenics that would not have existed without the intervention of the researcher. I understand that many people are concerned about introducing genes from one organism into another...personally, I am not. It is a judgenment call, and on that point, I am content to disagree.

It also puts those genes in >a separate package that is not integrated into the >plants' chromosomes and is >subject to migrate into cells in the intestinal >tract of anything that eats >those plants.

This is a misunderstanding of transgenics. The introduced genes are in fact integrated directly into a chromosome, usually in the nucleus, but sometimes in the chloroplast. They replicate and segregate right along with the rest of the DNA. This is the only way introduced genetic material can be maintained in the plant. Anything not integrated into a chromosome is lost. AFAIK, the introduced genes are no more likely to migrate into cells in the intestinal tract than any other gene we eat. If you can point me to evidence that indicates otherwise, I'd be very interested, especially in the mechanism. Documentation of horizontal gene transfer from ingested food would be a huge story in the field of genetics and evolution, but I've heard nothing of it.

I would say transgenics is a disaster waiting to happen, except several rather >major disasters have already happened. There are very sound scientific reasons >as well as cultural ones for such plants to have been banned in Europe.

"Major disaster" is hyperbole IMHO...how many people have died from eating transgenic food compared to the number of deaths from contaminated spinach and peanuts and other instances of food poisoning? I agree that transgenic technology has its own set of problems, just like any other technology. Unfortunately, the loudest protests often do their own cause a disservice when they are based on misinformation.

Alex

From: abb7@Lehigh.EDU
Sent: Apr 5, 2009 8:51 PM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 5 Apr 2009 09:55:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: Kevin Moore <aleguy33@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Grapple
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <469850.16321.qm@web46015.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

It sounds really horrible! I wonder who's brainchild that was. I
remember tasting >one of the first GM tomatoes that was touted as
the future because it had this >really long shelf life. It tasted
like gasoline! I still don't understand what is >so wrong with our
natural produce that "they" keep wanting to mess with it.

Does grafting and countless generations of selective breeding not
count as "messing with it"? Most of the fruit trees we grow are not
really "natural"... Transgenic technology is just another tool to
introduce new characteristics to the plants.

Alex


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