Flaws in Artificial Genetic Modification

http://www.biosafety-info.net/article.php?aid=1037

Publication date: January 27, 2014 Posting date: January 27, 2014

THIRD WORLD NETWORK BIOSAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE Dear Friends and Colleagues  Review Highlights the Flaws in Artificial Genetic Modification  It has been about 20 years since genetically modified (GM) organisms were introduced into the world on a commercial basis. The original rationale and impetus for artificial genetic modification was the “central dogma” of molecular biology which assumed that DNA carried all the instructions for making an organism, transmitted via RNA to protein to biological function, in linear causal chains. This  dogma has been debunked by the “new genetics” of the “fluid genome” (where the organism conducts its own natural genetic modification) which emerged in the mid-1970s. This situation is discussed in a review article by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, a renowned genetic scientist from the Institute of Science in Society, London. The review was published in the journal Entropy and clearly lays out the differences between natural and artificial genetic modification: “natural genetic modification is quite precise and predictable, is negotiated by the organism as a whole, occurs at the right time and place without damaging the genome….(and) is appropriate to the organism as a whole in its environmental context (whereas) artificial genetic modification, in contrast, is crude, imprecise, unpredictable, and uncontrollable….and interferes with the natural process.”   The article, entitled “The New Genetics and Natural versus Artificial Genetic Modification”, reviews empirical evidence on how artificial genetic modification disrupts the natural process. Dr. Ho covers, inter alia, transgene instability, horizontal gene transfer, and the hazards of using the CaMV 35S promoter and the agrobacterium vector in genetic engineering.   The full article can be downloaded from:https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/11/4748/pdf‎ and the abstract is reproduced below. With best wishes  Third World Network 131 Jalan Macalister 10400 Penang Malaysia Email: twnet@po.jaring.my Website: http://www.biosafety-info.net/ and http://www.twn.my/ To subscribe to other TWN information services: www.twnnews.net To unsubscribe, please reply to news@biosafety-info.net Review: The New Genetics and Natural versus Artificial Genetic Modification Mae-Wan Ho, Institute of Science in Society, London. https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/11/4748/pdf‎ Abstract The original rationale and impetus for artificial genetic modification was the “central dogma” of molecular biology that assumed DNA carries all the instructions for making an organism, which are transmitted via RNA to protein to biological function in linear causal chains. This is contrary to the reality of the “fluid genome” that has emerged since the mid-1970s. In order to survive, the organism needs to engage in natural genetic modification in real time, an exquisitely precise molecular dance of life with RNA and DNA responding to and participating in “downstream” biological functions. Artificial genetic modification, in contrast, is crude, imprecise, and interferes with the natural process. It drives natural systems towards maximum biosemiotic entropy as the perturbations are propagated and amplified through the complex cascades of interactions between subsystems that are essential for health and longevity.