Bacteria in the soil were the engineers, just as many GMO seeds are created today using harmless Agrobacterium. The woman on Facebook is not an isolated ccomplainer.
Usually, the parents are naturally compatible varieties within the same species. Unlike hybrids, which are developed in the field using natural, low-tech methods, GM varieties are created in a lab using highly complex technology, such as gene splicing. Basically, the writer tried to distinguish between hybridization and GM technology based on the level of technology.
As GLP director Jon Entine noted recently, life on Earth is a web of genes that are constantly exchanged between organisms. We have bacterial genes, protozoal genes, dog genes, plant genes, you name it.
The so-called human genes in the cell nucleus constitutes a minority of the entire genome. For the record , we share 24 percent of DNA sequences with wine grapes, 44 percent from honey bees, and 73 percent from zebra fish. The only thing that makes a gene human or plant is the fact that the human or plant shares the gene with other humans or plants. Historically, the existence of religious prohibitions against grafting and mixing together just about anything suggests that there have always been people with disturbed about fusing life forms or their products.
To this day, Orthodox Jews will not wear wool and linen together because of laws in the Torah stemming from agricultural practices in Iron Age Israel. Sound familiar? Beyond cultural practices, because hybridization IS genetic modification, perhaps there could be some dangers. Researchers in China, published a study in the online journal PLOS ONE two years ago showing that grafting between plant species species that anti-GMO activists consider naturally compatible can cause heritable changes in DNA methylation in certain plants.
Methylation is a process vital to gene regulation — turning genes on and off. This is not to say that there should be health concerns, but the study does illustrate a point that hybridization is not just mixing of genes, but is a process with potentially major consequences on cell genetics. And that makes embracing hybridization with exchanges of multiple, unknown genes, while rejecting carefully controlled transfer of individual genes with specific, traits illogical.
David Warmflash is an astrobiologist, physician and science writer. Follow CosmicEvolution to read what he is saying on Twitter. The GLP featured this article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis.
Participate Newsletter Donate. GLP Annual Report. The GLP is committed to full transparency. Download our Annual Report. GLP Annual Reports. Global Gene Editing Regulation Tracker. This GLP project maps contributions by foundations to anti-biotech activists and compares it to pro-GMO industry spending. David Warmflash November 17, Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Reddit. Cereal grains , seeds, beans. It is easier than ever for advocacy groups to spread disinformation on pressing science issues, such as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
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Genetic engineering is the process of breaking the natural boundaries that exist between species to produce new life forms that will produce a variety of desired traits. For example, genes from salmon can be spliced into tomatoes to make them more resistant to cold weather, thereby yielding a larger crop when the weather is less than favorable.
Hybridization is the fertilization of the flower of one species by the pollen of another species-or artificial cross pollination right? Many argue the two are essentially the same thing. Hybridization is just crude genetic engineering, " says the technology commentator Robert X.
Environmental activist organizations, such as Greenpeace, argue that companies are putting profits over safety and are provoking unforeseen health, environmental, and socioeconomic consequences by tampering with corn genes.
On the other side of the argument, the biotechnology industry, lead by companies such as Monsanto argue that GM foods are feeding a world population that is starving. They say that environmentalists and even the Environmental Protection Agency are overreacting. Genetically modified food proponents argue that the process of splicing genes from one organism onto the genes of another is nothing different than what native Americans did hundreds of years ago.
Critics of GM food argue that the accelerated push for more modification in all sorts of foods and the degree of that modification is unchecked and requires more study. This is an ongoing debate. What is GM food and what is the difference between genetically modified food and hybridization? Show Comments.
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