OpEdNews - Page 3 of Article: The new weapons of genetic engineering

A second important promise for industry is the stable passing on to the next generation of the foreign DNA. Organelles are transferred through the so-called "maternal inheritance" as identical copies. A female animal will transfer identical copies to all its offspring and a plant to all the seeds it produces, without changes from one generation to the next. Industry claims that this will ensure the stability of the GE traits from generation to generation. They also claim that, as pollen grains and semen cells do not carry GM organelles, there is no possibility of them being accidentally transferred to other organisms. In other words, GM organelles will be a powerful biosafety tool for preventing genetic contamination, they say. [14]

An obvious powerful development would be to put these two techniques together. The different research groups that have been developing the new techniques do not seem to be talking much to each other, but some of the big biotech companies are working hard to combine the techniques and to use them together, mostly in plants. Bayer has been very active through Icon Genetics Inc. They already claim widespread success in engineering plastids, and have at least one patent related to minichromosomes. Monsanto, which was the first company to engineer chloroplasts, has funded research on minichromosomes at the University of Missouri and has signed a licence agreement with Chromatin Inc., one of the leading players in the new field, for the use of its minichromosome technology. Syngenta is also working with both technologies, although it seems less actively involved than Bayer and Monsanto.

What can be expected from all this?

Artificial minichromosomes and GE plastids are advancing fast, especially for plant species, and some of their field applications are already available. Their impact – independently or working together – may well be huge. The production of all types of molecules and chemicals is now within reach and economically promising, and for various biotech companies the opportunity is too attractive to let pass. It seems inevitable that in the not too distant future we will have multiple GE crops producing toxic substances. Due to their possible application in biofuels and industrial inputs, such toxic crops will eventually cover large areas. Because biotech companies claim that engineered organelles will contain genetic contamination, they will probably manage to introduce the new crops into the field without proper tests or regulation.

The new technologies are, however, far from safe. It may well be true that engineered plastids will not be transferred through pollen in 99 per cent of cases but, given the huge number of pollen grains that any plant can produce, one per cent transfer is enough to produce widespread contamination. Toxic genes will be disseminated at a lower speed than is the case with current transgenes, but they will still be disseminated. [15]

There is another route for genetic contamination by artificial chromosomes: widespread transfer through bacteria. Bacteria are readily able to acquire DNA from other bacteria [16] and to transfer it to other bacteria and micro-organisms, and to plants. The pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens is used in the genetic engineering of plants because it is particularly effective at doing this, but all bacteria have the potential to do the same. Artificial minichromosomes share important characteristics with bacterial DNA, and it is to be expected that bacteria will be able to incorporate some of their genes and transfer them to other bacteria, micro-organisms and plants. So artificial minichromosomes will create new forms of contamination, between species and, more alarmingly still, between kingdoms.

Industry acknowledges other dangers too. Icon Genetics, which is owned by Bayer, indicates in one of its patent applications that not only will the transgenes in chloroplasts lead to the production of different drugs and chemicals, but the hyperproduction of those substances can be highly toxic for the plants, to the point of endangering their development and survival. Instead of seeing this as a good reason for stopping the development of the technology, Icon Genetics is using this as a justification for developing different forms of Terminator-type technology. They are developing plants with genes that will control the expression of other genes at almost any point of development. The control can be switched on and off by externally applying substances as diverse as DNA, RNA, lactose, tetracycline, arabinose, ethanol, steroids, copper ions and so on. [17] Once this technology is accepted, nothing will stop industry from using it to produce Terminator seeds.

It must not be forgotten also that both new technologies will significantly broaden the scope of patentable "inventions." Gene patenting will be expanded to the patenting of chromosomes, organelles and entire physiological processes. Given the wide and diverse potential applications of minichromosomes and transformed plastids, patents and patent claims will multiply quickly and aggressively. The web pages for the laboratory of Dr H. Daniell at the University of Central Florida states that "Dr Daniell's chloroplast genetic engineering technology is protected by more than 90 US and international patents." [18] Industry is not lagging behind. In a list of patents published at MolecularFarming.com, two thirds of those related to pharming to have been filed or granted since 2001 are in the hands of major biotech companies. [19]

We urgently need to monitor these new developments closely and to strengthen social opposition to these and other forms of genetic engineering. Far from solving the many problems caused so far by genetic engineering, artificial chromosomes and transformed organelles create new dangers, exacerbate industrial concentration and corporate control, and open the way for serious and perhaps irreparable damage to all forms of life on our planet.

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1 - See, for example: "Now: The Rest of the Genome", New York Times, 11 November, 2008.
2 - Rachel Shulman, "New gene-silencing pathway found in plants", American Association for the Advancement of Science: Eurekalert, 17 November 2008, http://tinyurl.com/6q3fqv
3 - University of Missouri College of Arts and Sciences press release, 17 December 2007, http://tinyurl.com/a32fpp;
entry in Yenra online encyclopaedia, 24 September 2003, http://tinyurl.com/ay2r9v
4 - Weichang Yu and James A. Birchler, "Minichromosomes: the next generation technology for plant genetic engineering", University of Missouri, Division of Biological Sciences, August 2007, http://tinyurl.com/7k26mn
5 - See, for example patent WO 2007137114 20071129 at http://tinyurl.com/8bxone
6 - Arnaud Ronceret, Christopher G. Bozza and Wojciech P. Pawlowski, "Naughty Behavior of Maize Minichromosomes in Meiosis", The Plant Cell, American Society of Plant Biologists, 2007, http://tinyurl.com/9vhxup
7 - "Transplastomics: a convergence of biotechnology and evolution", WordPress.com blog, posted 16 November 2008, http://tinyurl.com/82rs2d
8 - Melinda Mulesky, Karen K. Oishi, David Williams, "Chloroplasts: transforming biopharmaceutical manufacturing", Biopharm international, 1 September 2004, http://tinyurl.com/8em3je
9 - See Patent Storm, US patent 7235711, 26 June 2007, http://tinyurl.com/9de8y3
10 - See http://tinyurl.com/7hafo7
11 - WIPO Patent N°.2007/030510, http://tinyurl.com/a9crbb
12 - Melinda Mulesky, Karen K. Oishi, David Williams, "Chloroplasts: transforming biopharmaceutical manufacturing", Biopharm international, 1 September 2004, http://tinyurl.com/8em3je
13 - WIPO Patent N°.2007/030510, http://tinyurl.com/a9crbb
14 - Bao-Rong Lu "Transgene escape from GM crops and potential biosafety consequences: an environmental perspective", International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Collection of Biosafety Reviews, Vol. 4, 2008: 66–141, http://tinyurl.com/7nn3h7
15 - "Transplastomics: a convergence of biotechnology and evolution", WordPress.com blog, posted 16 November 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/82rs2d; "Researchers attach genes to minichromosomes in maize", Biology News Net, 14 May 2007.
http://tinyurl.com/92xlsk
16 - Entry giving definition of "plasmid" at Answers.com, http://tinyurl.com/7yn9tb
17 - Icon Genetics and Stefan Mühlbauer, WIPO patent application (WO/2005/054481) "Controlling gene expression in plastids", 16 June 2005, http://tinyurl.com/a5nzcc
18 - "About Dr. Henry Daniell", Daniell Lab for Molecular Biotechnology Research, University of Central Florida College of Medicine, 2008, http://tinyurl.com/7mn99a
19 - "Molecular farming and plant pharming/biopharming – Chloroplast transformation method and Chloroplast engineering patents", MolecularFarming.com, http://tinyurl.com/7fbobc

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