Science

MindMover

(5,016 posts) Wed Jun 11, 2014, 02:25 PM Jun 2014

Horizontal Transfer of GM DNA Widespread But No One is Looking, Almost

Last edited Wed Jun 11, 2014, 03:22 PM - Edit history (1)

The first genetically modified (GM) crop was commercially approved and released into the environment 20 years ago. From the beginning, some of us have been warning repeatedly of hidden dangers from the unintended horizontal transfer of GM DNA (transgenes). A comprehensive review [1] Gene Technology and Gene Ecology of Infectious Diseases, ISIS scientific publication) and successive updates were submitted to the World Health Organization (WHO) and regulatory agencies in the US, UK and European Union (see [2] Ban GMOs Now, ISIS Report); all to no avail.

The position taken by regulators and their scientific advisors today is perhaps best represented in a recent publication [3] with lead author Kaare Nielson at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who both advises Genøk-Centre for Biosafety and serves as member of the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) GMO panel.

The paper, entitled “Detecting rare gene transfer events in bacterial populations”, recognizes that horizontal gene transfer is part of the risk assessment for GMOs, and that the large-scale cultivation of GM-plants on more than 170 m ha worldwide results in “multitudinous opportunities for bacterial exposure to recombinant DNA and therefore opportunities for unintended horizontal dissemination of transgenes.” It admits that horizontal gene transfer has indeed been demonstrated in the laboratory. “But in natural settings, negative or inconclusive evidence has been reported from most sampling-based studies of agricultural soils, runoff water and gastrointestinal tract contents.”

It tells us that horizontal gene transfer research “suffers from significant methodological limitations, model uncertainty and knowledge gaps.” In particular, on account of the “low mechanistic probability of horizontal transfer...in complex environments”, it would take “months, years, or even longer for the few initially transformed cells to divide and numerically out-compete non-transformed members of the population” for them to be “detectable.” The rest of the paper mentions a mathematical model based on those very assumptions, the most important being the very low probability of horizontal transfer; which has been contradicted by empirical evidence, most decisively from a study in China reported in 2012 [4].

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Horizontal_Transfer_of_GM_DNA_Widespread.php

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60 Countries are already aware that GMO's are extremely dangerous to all living things ... and are currently doing something about it

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Horizontal Transfer of GM DNA Widespread But No One is Looking, Almost (Original Post) MindMover Jun 2014 OP

:facepalm: jeff47 Jun 2014 #1

Eukaryotes do take up foreign DNA, actually NickB79 Jun 2014 #2

jeff47

(26,549 posts)

1. :facepalm:

Reply to MindMover (Original post)

Wed Jun 11, 2014, 11:22 PM

Jun 2014

ISIS isn't a journal. They're a special interest group. Their publications are as scholarly as any special interest group's publications. As in, not at all.

For example, someone who knows a minimal amount about microbiology knows that this:

The paper, entitled “Detecting rare gene transfer events in bacterial populations”, recognizes that horizontal gene transfer is part of the risk assessment for GMOs, and that the large-scale cultivation of GM-plants on more than 170 m ha worldwide results in “multitudinous opportunities for bacterial exposure to recombinant DNA and therefore opportunities for unintended horizontal dissemination of transgenes.”

is really, really dumb.

Bacteria have to be specially treated to take up foreign DNA. Recombinant DNA isn't some magic goo that spreads to anything it touches. That treatment isn't going to happen in a typical field - it requires thermal and chemical shocks.

Further, plant DNA is within the nucleus of the plant's cells. It's not getting out for a stroll and stumbling into a bacteria.

But let's assume GMO DNA is magical goo that teleports out of the plant's nucleus and spreads to anything it touches. Now that it's in a bacteria, what happens? The bacteria dies.

See, expressing a gene that protects C4 photosynthesis from RoundUp in plants isn't going to be helpful for a bacteria. Most likely the bacteria isn't photosynthetic, and even if it is, it isn't doing C4 photosynthesis. As a result, the bacteria is wasting a lot of resources to make proteins that do nothing for the bacteria. Thus the unmodified bacteria will easily out-compete the modified bacteria, not the other way around as they claim.

IOW, their claims are utterly wrong. But they are exciting and effective link bait.

Btw, wanna know why they're talking about bacteria? Because eukaryotes (aka non-bacteria) don't take up foreign DNA into their cells. That's why it's taken decades to figure out how to make GMOs.

NickB79

(19,225 posts)

2. Eukaryotes do take up foreign DNA, actually

Reply to jeff47 (Reply #1)

Sun Jun 15, 2014, 05:03 AM

Jun 2014

For example: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15761667

And: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer#Eukaryotes

And: http://precedings.nature.com/documents/5690/version/1

And: http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2010/100511DeWoodySturgeon.html

However, this transfer must be moderated by bacteria, taking genes from one species and inserting it into another's genome, and is fairly rare as far as we can tell.

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