NEWS: Genetically Modified Food: Time to try the forbidden fruit GM food…
BioPortfolio
March 20, 2007
Excerpt…
Time to try the forbidden fruit GM food has had a terrible press, but without it we would all starve, argues biologist Olivia Judson.
I like genetically modified…food. I'd happily tuck into a bowl of GM soy; I'd even choose it over a bowl of organic soy. I know this sounds eccentric: genetic modification is usually decried. But while much has been made of possible risks, little is made of the considerable and real benefits. Genetic modification is a useful tool that could have helpful impacts, particularly on the environment. Indeed, in my view, support for GM is a green position.
Genetic modification sounds complicated. But actually, it's simple. There are only two things you need to know to make sense of it. The first is that a gene is a piece of DNA that contains the instructions for making a protein. Different proteins do different jobs within the body. Lactase, for example, is a protein that allows you to digest milk. The second thing you need to know is that genetic modification just means copying a gene from one organism - say, a jellyfish - and inserting it into another - perhaps a rabbit - so that the receiving organism can make a new protein.
Today, genetic modification is a routine technique in laboratories around the world. Since the potential for it was discovered, 30 years ago, millions of experiments with it have been done. One of the most common modifications is to insert a jellyfish gene into something else. The jellyfish Aequorea victoria has a gene for a protein called green fluorescent protein? The protein glows green when you shine blue light at it. If you add the gene for green fluorescent protein to the end of some other gene, you can see when that other gene is being used: a little green light goes on. This doesn't harm the organism - and gives us a way to watch what's happening in the cell.
What's more, there's nothing preordained, or even fixed, about which organisms make which proteins. As organisms evolve, some genes fall out of use and disappear, and new ones are added. From time to time, the new ones arrive from other organisms: in other words, genes sometimes jump from one species to another. For example, the fungi that live in cows' stomachs appear to have taken their genes for digesting cellulose from bacterialco-occupants of the stomach. (Cellulose is the stuff that plants put into their cell walls; we find it rather indigestible). There are several ways this can happen. And when we genetically modify an organism, we mimic this jumping.
The great advantage of GM is that it allows us to make precise tweaks to a plant or an animal. For thousands of years we've been doing genetic modification in a far cruder way, by selective breeding. Through this, we have created extraordinary varieties of animals and plants, taking them far beyond their natural state. From wispy grasses, we have developed new varieties of wheat and corn, impressive giants with plump kernels that we can harvest with machines. And we've bred exotica such as featherless chickens and super-muscly cows….
Original source: The Daily Telegraph – 03/19/07
Read the full article at BioPortfolio.
