Rats Fed Lifetime of GM Corn Grow Horrifying Tumors, new study.

Ziphius wrote: »

Yep, many crop plants such as cabbage, wheat, and watermelons have had polyploidy (i.e. increasing the number of chromosomes) induced via the chemical colchicine.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyploid#Polyploid_crops

Hopefully it won't be too much an ordeal to remove these from your diet.

Ziphius wrote: »

Yes I did. Cabbage and numerous other crops have been genetically modified already.

steddyeddy wrote: »

This is just a quick summary I wrote about Genetic engineering of plants. There might be some mistakes so apologies in advance!




The debate about genetic engineering is extensive and has being going on for decades however the purpose behind genetic engineering is to breed a crop with a desired trait and this in itself has being going on for thousands of years. Although recent techniques allow us to modify, cut out and insert genes into crops with relative accuracy the desire to imbue a desired trait into a crop led farmers and plant breeders to experiment with breeding and cross breeding species of plant in an effort to breed the ideal crop. The very fact that there is “domesticated” plant species and wild plant species is testament to the fact that sometime in the past man has cultivated plants to have a desired trait such as sweetness, faster growth or larger tubers. These early farmers knew nothing of genetic engineering yet they still managed to completely breed thousands of species with the desired traits. The potential to manipulate plant growth and trait development is huge in plants as they are totipotent, that is plant cells have a high differentiating potential. This can be seen when plants generate an entire individual out of a small branch cutting.
In 1865 a monk called Gregor Mendel published a paper which would bring science into the art of plant breeding. Mendel experimented with different varieties of peas and began to see that certain hybrids and patterns were emerging with remarkable consistency. This led Mendel to theorize that the traits being expressed were the result of dominant and recessive “alleles” and that by breeding a certain variety of plant with another variety certain traits could be selected for. Unfortunately Mendel’s paper was ignored when it was first published until three scientists rediscovered it simultaneously. The new techniques first discovered by Mendel brought with it major advances in plant breeding. One of the first crops to benefit was corn which was previously allowed to cross pollinate, new techniques and insights into heredity led to plant breeders were artificially self-pollinated and cross pollinated again in order to procure a crop with favourable alleles.
Every once and a while a trait began to spring up in plants that hadn’t previously exhibited it. Scientists concluded that this must be a result of random mutations. This realization spawned the technique of inducing mutations rapidly with chemicals or using methods involving x-rays or gamma rays. Another method of inducing rapid mutations involved growing a plant using a tissue culture. Undifferentiated plant cells grown in a tissue culture could be artificially manipulated and induced to grow into whole plants.


In 1953 Watson and crick discovered the famous double helix structure of DNA as well as the essential function and base pairing aspects of DNA. This had major implications for the field of genetics and the scientists involved in plant breeding began to take notice and use this new knowledge to incorporate new methods of breeding into their efforts. One of the new methods to be explored was haploid breeding, this methods takes advantage of the fact that some naturally occurring plants were haploid that is they contained only one set of chromosomes. Species of Wheat for example which has been cultivated for thousands of years by humans can be diploid or even tetraploid. Once scientists found haploid plants they set about doubling the single set of chromosomes to obtain two identical sets of chromosomes. This technique is mainly used for research but it has been used to create cultivars of maize, barley and tobacco to name a few.
The pinnacle of genetic engineering of crops came with the development of the transgenic plant. The transgene is a gene that is transferred naturally or through genetic engineering from one organism to another. The passing of genetic material occasionally occurs naturally in plants through a process called horizontal gene transfer, this is facilitated by viruses, transposons or retro viruses which can transfer themselves to new sites in a genome.
Previously plants could be breed with in their own species and sometimes their own genus however the use and development of the transgene meant that genes could be passed between plants that could not conventionally breed, In some cases genes from bacteria were inserted into plants in order to achieve a desired trait.
The process of creating a transgenic species is a complicated one simply knowing which trait you want to imbue the target plant with is not sufficient. First you have to locate the gene that expresses the desired trait which is no simple task since gene expression never boils down to a single gene. Each gene will have promoters and regulators. The transgene could potentially have other effects on the plant or the genes expression could interfere with other active genes, all these issues have to be addressed.
Once the gene of interest is located it is isolated and cloned by amplification in a bacterial vector. A vector is a DNA molecule which is attached to a gene or DNA of interest to enable it to be taking up by a host organism, in this case a bacterium. The most common types of vectors are plasmids or cosmids.

When the gene is cloned and amplified in a vector several modifications must be made. First promoter genes are attached to ensure expression of the gene, a terminator sequence is then attached to ensure the gene gets switched of at the right point and finally a marker is added to ensure the gene was successfully integrated into the target genome.
There are several methods used to insert the gene into the genome, the most commonly used methods are by use of a gene gun which is an electronic method of delivering plasmids or by use of a bacterium called agrobacterium. Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a soil dwelling bacteria that “infects” a target plant with its DNA through a plants wounds. This bacteria causes gall diseases in certain plants however by removing the gene in Agrobacterium tumefaciens which causes tumours and replacing it with a modified transgene it can be an accurate way of ensuring the transgene is integrated into the target genome. These selective markers contain genes that bestow immunity from herbicides or antibiotics, the plant tissues would then be transferred to a medium containing herbicides or antibiotics and the tissues in which the genes have been successfully integrated would be the only ones remaining. The first transgenic plant was a tobacco plant engineered in 1986 to be resistant to herbicides. The plant cells are then grown in controlled environmental conditions and fed with special nutrients and hormones to ensure correct growth; this is known as tissue culture. The growth of these transgenic plants has been the hardest aspect of the genetic engineering of crops but new developments are being made to ensure more species of plant benefit from this method.
Cisgenesis is another more recent method of genetic engineering and involves the transfer of a gene from a plant to another species of plant from the same family or even the same genus i.e. the gene transfer is between crossable plants and doesn’t involve a transgene. The gene that is transferred includes the introns, promoters and terminator sequence of a gene so it is a lot faster than transgenesis and early results have been promising and The fact that the genes transferred come from crossable plants has led some state that plants bred by Cisgenesis should not be subject to the same level of regulation that transgenic plants are subject to.




The traits selected for in genetic modification include but are not limited to increased resistance to herbicides, increased resistance to pests, increased resistance to extremes of cold and heat, increased yield, the addition of nutrients and manipulation to increase the rate of growth. We see from the above history of modification of crops that certain traits have been selected for and against for thousands of years. What has changed is the methods and accuracy involved in the selection of such traits.
Since the modification through direct genetic manipulation there has been an increasing division in scientists and the public regarding the benefits and costs of genetically modified foods or GMOS. The arguments against GMOS have been made from an ethical, ecological, human health and economical perspective. Most of these arguments have escalated following the progression of transgenics.
The environmental arguments are based around the effects of placing foreign genes in an organism. Some propose that the due to the natural process of horizontal gene transfer some transgenes will naturally end up in foreign organisms. This would be a concern if a gene for herbicidal resilience ended up in weeds for example. There is also concern that some of these genes will or could mutate producing unknown consequences. The possibility also exists that promoter regions added to transgenes could activate what are known as “sleeper” genes with in an organism. The activation of sleeper genes along with most other concerns involving the use of transgenic plants is just a theory at the moment and hasn’t as of yet been observed in action. One thing is certainly true is that if a transgene “migrates” to unintended organisms then they would be very hard to recall.
Along with the environmental concern there is also debate about the potential effects of GMOS on human health. When a gene found in Brazil nuts was transferred to a soybean variety it was found that people with allergies to nuts who consumed to soybean experienced the same allergic reactions associated with Brazil nuts.
While as of yet unobserved some people have theorized that the antibiotic resistant markers added to the transgene in order to identify it could bestow an antibiotic resistance on other species however since this concern has been raised scientists have stopped using gene markers with potentially negative connotations for the environment or human health.


The proposed classification of GMOS in some countries such as the UK is based on the assessed risk involved with the potential effects on human health or the environment but there is also an economic effect to consider. Many fear that small farmers will suffer as a result of the increased use of GMOS. Many have theorized that biotechnology companies will dominate the market and that they will take up niches previously occupied by the agriculture sector. Fear has also been expressed that the biotechnology companies could claim that their methods and products are intellectual property and fail to release their research to the public research sector. This would have the most effects in poor countries that lack a large private research industry.
There is validity in many of these points indeed the introduction of allergens into a foreign organism has already happened but much of the concerns can either be rectified or have yet to be observed. The relatively recent development of Cisgenesis carries less of the implications of transgenics and as such has been met with excitement by people on both parts of the debate. Like all science this is a work in progress and no doubt major progress will be realized.
The listing the benefits of GMOS is in many cases as simple as stating the trait added to each crop but there are several wide spread benefits that proponents of GMOS advocate. The negative effects on the environment, human health and the economy are often countered when examining the benefits of GMOS.
The proponents argue that adding traits to imbue higher resistance to stress, cold and disease would no doubt increase the productivity of the agricultural sector. The variables in the success of most crops often depend upon the weather, diseases or stress the very problems that GMOS could combat. Reduced losses would yield greater yields.
Even human health could benefit from GMOS as one of the first applications for genetic modification was the introduction of nutrients previously absent from crops that often formed the staple diets of millions. Many diseases in developing countries are the result of a basic lack of nutrients; Indeed protein has been added to many strains of potato in an effort to combat malnutrition in developing countries. Even the accidental addition of an allergen from a Brazil nut to a soybean could help scientist identify the gene that expresses allergens in nuts.