GMO - What exists already and what might…
Genetic modification has been a common practice for decades in many regions of the world.
The key is to cause a double strand break at an extremely precise point in the chromosome.
There are currently three reagents we can use to split the DNA in this way, by far the most popular in research labs around the world, is CRISPR-Cas.
CRISPR-Cas is system used in bacteria that protects them from invading viruses.
This system allows bacteria to recognise and cut apart the DNA/RNA of invading viruses, destroying the invader.
We are currently using the same principles to isolate genes in some crop species and reinserting them into others.
A visualisation of how a small DNA sequence in the chromosome, encoding for a single, or very few genes, is removed and replaced.
These genes promote pest resistance, disease immunity, longer preservation… the list of beneficial genes is long.
We lose billions of pounds worth of potatoes here in the UK each year for example, many of the crops unfortunately die of PYV, an extremely destructive virus.
Imagine the humanitarian and economic benefits of saving that volume of food from being tossed out.
It’s widely believed that genetic modification could be a major contributor to tackling world hunger and poverty.
You could modify crops to soften more slowly, resist infection and repel pests.
Crop yields increase, waste and use of pesticides go down…
It’s important to remember that these genes are collected from elsewhere in nature, they are not some sort of artificially designed genes for example.
A beneficial gene in one species is identified, isolated and transferred into another.
There are hopes that this technology could eventually cure devastating genetic diseases like sickle cell and cystic fibrosis.
At the moment there are no GM foods that are authorised for consumption in the UK or the EU, although there is no evidence to suggest they are harmful or any different organically to any other produce.
Many of our farm animals however, our cows, chickens and pigs, are fed GM-feed.
Corn and soybeans for example, that are fed to our livestock. These crops make up for the frequent shortages in livestock feed due to soil quality, pests etc.
If your meat produce is advertised as organic, the livestock has been fed non-GMO feed.
All genetically modified organisms (GMOs) undergo extremely thorough and tight regulation before receiving approval, especially in the UK and Europe.
Brexit provides a new independence to the UK to define its regulation on GM produce. Could that be a great thing?
Any risk associated with GMOs is not in the nature of genetic modification itself but more to do with what gene we are introducing into the crop/organism.
This gene will receive extensive scrutiny as to wether it poses any risk to human health.
Hundreds of studies comparing GMO to traditional produce have confirmed no difference in toxicity i.e. negative implications on organ health, fertility, potential of gene transfer etc.
These studies would usually compare organ health for example of rat populations fed a diet of tradition potato VS a diet of GMO potato.
Fertility of these test animals has also been thoroughly investigated.
Of course, animal testing in itself poses a number of ethical questions. The basic principle of changing genetic make-up also poses a myriad of ethical dilemmas.
Out of the countless global WHO and FDA experiments, none have yet produced evidence that would cause concern about the safety of GMO foods.
Perhaps helpful to remember also, that any given organisms we consume already posses their own natural genome, their DNA, which do not ordinarily cause us any harm or interfere with our DNA.
But much like most scientific advancements, the field is moving in baby steps to ensure public safety.
Do you have any thoughts or concerns about the implications of this technology? Do share with me, I would love to talk about it over on my social media!