Blight-resistant GM potatoes field trial begins (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Mark Kinver

Science and environment reporter, BBC News

A field trial of a genetically modified (GM) variety of potato resistant to "late blight" - a major threat to the crop - has begun in eastern England.

The global annual cost of crops lost to the disease is estimated to be £3.5bn.

The trial, carried out by scientists from The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL), will last three years.

Anti-GM campaigners criticised the trials, saying it was possible to grow blight-resistant potatoes using conventional methods.

The project's research team said it was necessary to carry out the field trial in order to test the plants' resistance to naturally occuring pathogen Phytophthora infestans - the fungus-like organism that causes late blight in potatoes.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10254905.stm

[Jamastiene]

1. Question:

I hope someone can answer in layman's terms, if possible.

What is the difference between cross breeding naturally blight resistant varieties and genetically modifying the potatoes (or any veggie)?

Do they just cross pollinate blight resistant varieties or do they do something hideous to the genetically modified versions?

[Hydra]

2. I'm not an expert

But non-GM usually involves normal evolution, ie: potato survived. Yay! Reuse!, while GM involves splicing something that didn't belong in there, ie: bacterial gene added to potato that kills potato bug that eats it.

The problem comes in the results. Potato 1 is getting stronger and more resistant, while potato 2 is weeding out all the bugs that are resistant to that particular chemical and allowing them to thrive and breed.

[bananas]

3. Big difference

You can't cross-breed a tomato with a fish. Genetic engineering involves snipping out a dna fragment from one organism (such as a fish) and inserting it into the dna of another organism (such as a tomato plant).

The famous "Doomsday Clock" lists genetic engineering as one of the ways we might do ourselves in:

http://www.thebulletin.org/content/doomsday-clock/overview

The Doomsday Clock conveys how close humanity is to catastrophic destruction--the figurative midnight--and monitors the means humankind could use to obliterate itself. First and foremost, these include nuclear weapons, but they also encompass climate-changing technologies and new developments in the life sciences that could inflict irrevocable harm.

The Sierra Club describes the difference between cross-breeding and genetic engineering in layman's terms:

http://www.sierraclub.org/policy/conservation/biotech.aspx

The following policies on Biotechnology have been adopted by the Sierra Club Board of Directors:

GENETIC ENGINEERING is a new technology which, unlike traditional breeding methods, allows the transfer of genetic material from one organism into a host organism of an unrelated species, thus bypassing the natural reproductive barriers between species. The genetic manipulation resulting from genes inserted by genetic engineering cannot be recalled; the altered characteristics will be passed on to future generations and continue to be reproduced in the environment.

Genetic engineering became possible with the advent of recombinant DNA technology, which for the first time allowed for the transfer, using laboratory procedures, of DNA from one species into the DNA of an unrelated species. For purposes of this policy, however, we define genetic engineering to include all direct molecular manipulation of the genetic structure of organisms or viruses, including additions of foreign genes (transgenes), gene alterations, duplications, or deletions.

Genetic engineering is not, as many of its supporters claim, merely a more efficient form of traditional plant and animal breeding. There is a clear boundary between traditional breeding methods and the radically new technology of genetic engineering.

A GENETICALLY ENGINEERED ORGANISM (GEO) is a single-celled or multicellular organism, the genetic structure of which has been altered by genetic engineering, resulting in genetic changes that could not be achieved using conventional breeding methods. (The terms "GEO," "genetically modified organism" and "genetically altered organism" all have the same meaning.)

<snip>

Wikipedia has a long article describing the controversy over GM food: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_food_controversy

The Union of Concerned Scientists has a number of articles on genetic engineering at http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/impacts_genetic_engineering/impacts-of-genetic.html

[Nihil]

4. Bum.

> The genes, taken from inedible wild plants that grow in South America,
> were used to to produce a genetically modified Desiree variety.

That seems a smart thing to do with a primary food crop ...

:banghead:

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Hey, let's try it and see what happens.

Scientific method at work.