Can anyone explain how genes from one species are supposed to be able to go to another species especially when the first has been genetically engineered? What is this process called? Any good cites?
Or, is this just a myth?
The process is called paranoid moronic Luddism. With a few exceptions ov extremely closely related species, genes cannot cross from one species to another. What more rational folks are worried aboutis not that the ordinary weeds will turn into superweeds, but that the supercrops will turn into superweeds. Even here, genetic engineering has an advantage over crops produced by conventional methods: It’s possible to engineer a plant that can only survive for a few generations, making it self-controlling. Pass the mutant tomatoes, please.
Ah yes…the genentically modified organisms (GMO) issue. Much of the hate mail you will read is courtesy of the U.K. and Brazil, both of which have banned the use of genetically modified foods. You will also hear complaints from farmers who are pissed off that so called ‘terminator seeds’ were developed by Monsanto (I think that’s right but check Cecil’s columns as I know he did one on this). These are seeds that produce crops for a single generation and die off forcing the farmer to surprise have to buy a ton more seeds from the supplier rather than reusing those of their current harvest for free. Gee, I wonder why that pissed them off…Needless to say, you can see why they are also on the bandwagon of hating genetically modified foods.
In reality, what Chronos suggests is right. Unless the species are very similar, cross breeding should not occur any more so than occurs naturally. Things that are being modified are generally beneficial anyway such as rice with beta carotene or weed killer resistant crops that allow higher crop yields (Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” brands). Then you have all the products in development that will be disease/ temperature resistant so they can grow them in poorer countries where conditions are less than ideal. Why people are against this is beyond me.
I suppose like all things, we can’t be 100% sure that modifying gene A will not lead to further mutations in gene B down the road of a given crop species, but I sincerely doubt we will have any kind of catastrophe that will wipe out the world.
I think the nut logic goes something like this:
- Genetically modified corn with ‘terminator seed’ gene is planted near ‘normal’ corn crops.
- Cross-breeding occurs with two species and you get a crop that lasts, say 10 generations before dying.
- Most of the world ends up using the ‘normal’ corn seeds which are really the hybrid 10 generation death seeds
- After everyone is unknowingly using these seeds, generation 10 hits and all the world’s corn crop goes to hell.
- Two choices here: A) Evil Monsanto corportion charges an arm and a leg to poor countries to give them the ability to re-grow corn driving them further into poverty or B) Monsanto stops making GMOs and no one is left to restock the world with real ‘normal’ corn.
Yes, I know these are stupid examples, but I also think the people who oppose GMOs are idiots too. Even if you hate terminator seeds, why would you oppose vitamin fortified crops or those that grow better with a better yield. Using the crossbreeding fear example, maybe they WILL crossbreed and make an EVEN better naturally occuring version of the crop in question
There is a discussion in GD on genetic engineering in this thread
Horizontal gene flow does occur in nature, but most of the time the foreign gene is “silenced” by the host plant.
I quoted this from a magazine article:
Genes from genetically modified crops can spread from biotech plants into other forms of wildlife, new research shows. Researchers in Germany studied honey bees fed pollen from GE canola. When they looked at bacteria and fungi from the gut of the bees, the researchers found that the biotech genes had jumped from the canola to these microorganisms.
The concern is that herbicide and pesticide resistance, as well as antibiotic resistance from the marker genes used to transfer the DNA might end up in all sorts of organisms where we don’t want it.
Actually, Chronos, the process is called hybridization. Many native species of plants are already threatened by the introduction of imports and hybrids, let alone genetically engineered (read: with unknown affects on an ecosystem) plants.
Speciation (the point at which closely related organisms are designated separate species) is entirely a man-made concept; nature doesn’t follow the rules as closely as we’d like. Calling this species A and that species B is somewhat arbitrary–and often (yes, even in the scientific world) political–and sometimes organisms will hybridize (reproduce across species lines) without checking with the scientists first.
If you introduce A into an ecosystem where B is established, and they happen to hybridize, their offspring will not have the “pure” B genes of their native parent. Further generations may see the “dilution” of the B gene progress to the point where the native B gene no longer exists in it’s original form.
This happens naturally, of course, but many people are concerned about what might happen if this process occurs involving the unknown variable of species that are of human “invention,” and that therefore are not the product of evolution, which tends to winnow out non-adaptive (i.e., non-beneficial) genetic changes along the way.