Unforeseen consequences

Opponents and supporters of genetic modification converge in one. This technology has a potential for harm. But if the latter call for a balanced analysis of risks, comparing them with risks already existing, then the former prefer to think more straightforwardly. “If we release a genenic genenic modification from a bottle, then anyone can create a unique biological weapon that destroys selectively the enemy’s crops or even manpower. Without clear changing the genomes, we risk imperceptibly crossing the line, after which there will be no return back. We may encounter consequences that we could not foresee, ” - typical statements of those who want to leave everything as they are.

This can be said in general about any technology. And the point of non -return in the difficult matter of changes in organisms we passed ten millennia ago, first planting the seeds of the ancestor of modern cereals in the ground, changing it until ignorance, tying our lives to the place of food production, making life entirely dependent on the possibility of food production, on the ability to solve problems earlier than the starvated death relieved hunger.

As for unpredictable consequences - they certainly have any technology. Genetic modification is no exception. Below is one example.

Many have heard about the benefits of plant antioxidants. Folk healers and herbalists, trying to attract at least some evidence to their blessed craft, love to speculate on the healing action of these substances. It is natural and useful, this is the strength of nature. Meanwhile, the discussion about the beneficial and harmful effects of antioxidants is far from the completion, and even further from therapeutic prescriptions. But interest is high, and even genetic engineers do not bypass this topic.

A few years ago, scientists created a new variety of GM-tomato. Purple color. The unusual color was due to the presence of anthocyans - natural antioxidants present in many plants. In the particular case, the necessary genes for the implementation of modification were borrowed from the lion's pharynx [1].

The new tomato really had some health benefits. Experiments staged on a special laboratory mice line showed that purple vegetable can extend life rodents.

Perhaps the effect will be observed on a person. And perhaps not. But so far there is no unambiguous answer, I will not, like folk healers, promote GMOs from cancer. Now I am not so much interesting to the potential benefits from anthocyans as the side effect of genetic modification, which scientists recently reported [2].

Suddenly it turned out that GM Tomets have not only an interesting color, but also the best taste, as well as more than twice an increased shelf life-a month and a half against ordinary (for store tomatoes) for three weeks.

This is a wonderful and unexpected bonus, because a short shelf life is a problem. The problem is for the seller forced to throw off the unsaturated goods. The problem is for the manufacturer, purposefully supplying immature fruits to avoid losses. The problem for the buyer forced to buy tomatoes with the taste of plastic. The most delicious tomatoes are the most mature and most prone to corruption. So nature came up with, it was necessary for the effective spread of seeds.

Although, if you think about it, the effect was predictable. Recall the famous fact. The function of secondary metabolism products is not at all the protection of mice from cancer or people from vitamin deficiency, but most often the protection of plants themselves from pests, including people and mice. Anthocials are also protection, and not just color [3]. These are real pesticides that many plants have learned to produce inside themselves so as not to be eaten ahead of time. That's the usual gray mold, responsible for damage to the commodity of red tomatoes, did not like purple fruits rich in anti -vocyanis harmful to mold. In addition, it turned out that the Anthocyans themselves slow down the process of “overexposure” of tomatoes.

The largest barrel of tar is that we are unlikely to see such amazing fruits on sale. Law and public opinion will not allow. They are better than the old, proven, red, tasteless and mold mold than a purple GM Chudisch. Anthocials in tomatoes are unnatural, and it is generally not clear what harmful effects will open. To know where it is, it is "natural"? Ten thousand years ago ended forever, and since then no one has seen him.

By the way, about anthocyans and genetic modification. Some 400 years ago, all oranges were yellow. Until one day, the Bloody Oranges appeared. Only when this variety was removed, the breeders had nothing to do with it, they were just lucky. “Bloody Orange” is the result of unexpected genetic modification.

Once, a random retrotranspozon was built into a random place of DNA of a random orange [4]. He could "integrate" in the middle of a vital gene and kill the plant. He could integrate, as is most often the case, into a non -leading area of ​​DNA, and we would not see any changes. But he was built in such a way that as a result, the transcription of the gene, who was silent for many generations, was launched. Gene responsible for the production of anthocyans. The orange became bloody red. And, unlike tomatoes, no one has ever checked this orange for any harmful or useful consequences.

1. Www.nature.com/nbt/ Journal/v26/n11/abs/nbt.1506.html

2. Www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/s0960-9822 ( 13)00513-7

3. Http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-0-387-77335-3_2

4. Www.plantcell.org/Content/Early/2012/03/14/tpc.11.095232.abstract