Biofuel Readers, Since soy and others plants in biofuel, Provided is an unofficial overview of current discussion on risks of gentically modified plants as it relates to the recent posting of the Center for Food Safety and the 35s Promoter. My recommendation is to read the current literature and make your judgements because I only included two or three weblinks. For those with not time to read here is a conclusion by a Professor Emeritus:
Conclusions: • "Transgenic lines need to be examined over a number of generations under field conditions to obtain the necessary data on trans gene stability and agronomic performance"... Overview: Discussion took place of bioengineered plants and a recent report by the Center for Food Safety on the issue of legal pressures on farmers. A subsequent discussion took place regarding the “risks” of GMO plants, especially with regard to the Califlower 35S promoter used as the GMO agent. Below are bullet points to assist readers with such discussion: • The Monsanto patent in question is patent No. US5352605:Chimeric genes for transforming plant cells using “viral promoters” with authors listed in public domain. • “Viral Promoters” are a bioengineering method to insert genetic code into host code. Includes the untranscribed promoter and a polyadenylation signal that is transcribed but not translated. Downstream of the promoter there is an untranslated leader sequence of great importance. • Patent utilizes the actual Cauliflower Mosaic Virus 35s (called CaMV 35s) methodology. The CaMV 35s promoter was first patented by Monsanto and six later improved with "enhancer" and other "elements" under separate patents. CaMV 35S promoter is widely used to drive transgene expression in plants throughout the world. (Do an internet search and find out) Risks: • Why all the talk about risks? "..It has been presumed that the organisms (mammalians) destroys (GMO’d) food genes during digestion and excretion BUT studies on DNA immunization showed that DNA could be delivered to the immune system through oral uptake = http://www.psrast.org/jcfateofgen.htm (you are what you eat) • All of the GM crops marketed or being field tested presently contain bacterial sequences as a part of the plasmids used for delivering genes and many of the primary crop protection genes are of bacterial origin = http://www.psrast.org/jcfateofgen.htm • Insertion of genes into DNA may cause metabolic disturbances, or unpredictably generate potentially harmful substances - http://www.psrast.org/psrlet.htm • The bacterial genes used in constructing GM crops have a property that impacts on the immune system over and above the ability to produce antibodies • Eukaryote DNA has relatively low frequencies of the dinucleotide motif "cytosine-phosphate-guanosine" also called CpG and that motif is methylated and plays a role in gene regulation while bacteria and their viruses have a high frequency of the CpG motif that is usually unmethylated (nature recognizes foreign bodies by recognized foreign bodies that are unmethlyated to the methylated DNA. If unmethylated sites are present then a response occurs at the cellular level and observable via chromatin) • Apparently the CpG motif (cytosine-phosphate-guanosine (CpG)) in DNA molecules and oligonucleotides provides a signal that the immune system recognizes and initiates a primary sequence of reactions leading to activation of the immune system leading to inflammation (for readers, the phosphate bonds provide energy for a cellular pathway and thus energy for a reaction) • Other evidence: "The innate immune system is geared toward providing a rapid response to foreign pathogens by pattern recognition receptors that distinguish prokaryotic from eukaryotic DNA.1 These receptors specifically bind to unmethylated cytosine-phosphate-guanosine (CpG) dinucleotides, enabling bacteria and other pathogens to stimulate the innate immune system" = http://www.bloodjournal.org/cgi/content/full/98/4/1217 • Correlated Evidence:"Bacterial DNA activates cells of the innate immune system due to the relative abundance of unmethylated CpG-DNA motifs = http://www.jimmunol.org/cgi/content/full/168/10/4854#R1 (see paragraph 4) • As it relates to infection therapy:"Besides potential beneficial effects of microglia activation in the course of infections, activated microglia is also thought to cause detrimental reactions in autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases. In this context, the strong IL-12 production induced by CpG-DNA is of particular importance. While in the periphery this unique capacity of CpG-DNA to induce Th1-biased immune responses (19) is utilized in vaccination protocols (18, 59), excessive IL-12 levels induced by CpG-DNA might also give reasons for severe concerns" = http://www.jimmunol.org/cgi/content/full/168/10/4854#R1 • In conclusion, the bacterial genes used in GM crops have been found to have significant impacts on the individuals ingesting GM crops. The impacts include inflammation, arthritis and lymphoma promotion. = http://www.psrast.org/cornvircorresp.htm • http://www.psrast.org/cornvircorresp.htm • In one of the two studies transgenic DNA from a plasmid is clearly circulated to tissues while in the other transgenic DNA was not detected in tissues = http://www.psrast.org/jcfateofgen.htm Key Words in Reasearch: • Instability of GM constructs and GM lines • Safety concerns over the possibility that the GM genes could spread out of control to unrelated species • Problems of horizontal gene transfer and recombination. • Instability of GM constructs and GM lines extra unstable •Evidence: Recent tests show GM barley lines became unstable and variable in later generations of field trials other tests with maize did not. • Transgenic stability and agronomic performance • Concerns about the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (CaMV) 35S promoter and its predominance as the vehicle of gene sequence insertion • The promoter has a 'recombination hotspot', a breaking point that makes it much more likely to recombine (increasing chances of horizontal gene transfer?) • The development of 'clean DNA' technology as a possible solution to the GM problems • All GM crops currently on the market or under review contain the CaMV 35S promoter and many, also the plasmid backbone, including the origin of replication. Conclusions: • Transgenic lines need to be examined over a number of generations under field conditions to obtain the necessary data on trans gene stability and agronomic performance Some references: http://www.biotech-info.net/CMV_risks.html __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Read only the mail you want - Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable): http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
