Franken Foods: GM industry puts human gene into rice

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GMW: GM industry puts human gene into rice

" GM WATCH " <info

Sun, 24 Apr 2005 14:07:44 +0100

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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Quote of the week:

 

" The industry is capable of anything "

 

In fact, they've been busy inserting human genes into plants for nigh

on a decade:

 

A mammalian 2-5A system functions as an antiviral pathway in transgenic

plants. Mitra A. et al (1996) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93:

6780-6785.

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GM industry puts human gene into rice

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

Independent on Sunday, 24 April 2005

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=632444

 

Scientists have begun putting genes from human beings into food crops

in a dramatic extension of genetic modification. The move, which is

causing disgust and revulsion among critics, is bound to strengthen

accusations that GM technology is creating " Frankenstein foods " and

drive the

controversy surrounding it to new heights.

 

Even before this development, many people, including Prince Charles,

have opposed the technology on the grounds that it is playing God by

creating unnatural combinations of living things.

 

Environmentalists say that no one will want to eat the partially

human-derived food because it will smack of cannibalism.

 

But supporters say that the controversial new departure presents no

ethical problems and could bring environmental benefits.

 

In the first modification of its kind, Japanese researchers have

inserted a gene from the human liver into rice to enable it to digest

pesticides and industrial chemicals. The gene makes an enzyme, code-named

CPY2B6, which is particularly good at breaking down harmful chemicals in

the body.

 

Present GM crops are modified with genes from bacteria to make them

tolerate herbicides, so that they are not harmed when fields are sprayed

to kill weeds. But most of them are only able to deal with a single

herbicide, which means that it has to be used over and over again,

allowing

weeds to build up resistance to it.

 

But the researchers at the National Institute of Agrobiological

Sciences in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo, have found that adding the human

touch

gave the rice immunity to 13 different herbicides. This would mean that

weeds could be kept down by constantly changing the chemicals used.

 

Supporting scientists say that the gene could also help to beat

pollution.

 

Professor Richard Meilan of Purdue University in Indiana, who has

worked with a similar gene from rabbits, says that plants modified

with it

could " clean up toxins " from contaminated land. They might even destroy

them so effectively that crops grown on the polluted soil could be fit

to eat.

 

But he and other scientists caution that if the gene were to escape to

wild relatives of the rice it could create particularly vicious

superweeds that were resistant to a wide range of herbicides.

 

He adds: " I do not have any ethical issue with using human genes to

engineer plants " , dismissing talk of " Frankenstein foods " as

" rubbish " . He

believes that that European opposition to GM crops and food is fuelled

by agricultural protectionism.

 

But Sue Mayer, director of GeneWatch UK, said yesterday: " I don't think

that anyone will want to buy this rice. People have already expressed

disgust about using human genes, and already feel that their concerns

are being ignored by the biotech industry. This will just undermine their

confidence even more. "

 

Pete Riley, director of the anti-GM pressure group Five Year Freeze,

said: " I am not surprised by this.

 

" The industry is capable of anything and this development certainly

smacks of Frankenstein. "

 

 

 

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