RNA threat

Transgenics and microRNA

A BIGGER THREAT TO HUMAN HEALTH?

From Devon Peña's environmental justice blog

FULL ARTICLE AT: http://ejfood.blogspot.com/2012/06/geo-watch-microrna-threat.html?m=1

For several decades now, scientists have been warning of the dangers of genetically-engineered crops. Many of these concerns have focused on environmental risks. One pattern of such risks involves development of so-called Super Weeds. A well-known example is mutating wild Pigweed  that has developed resistance to Monsanto's flagship glyphosate herbicide, Roundup. 

These mutated weeds pose a bigger threat to organic farmers who rely on natural and cultural controls that can be undermined by these anthropogenic (human-induced) changes in weed morphology, reproduction, and biogeographic distributions.  

Many scientists  also share longstanding concerns over introgression and horizontal gene transfer (HGT). While HGT occurs in nature as in the transfer of genetic sequences between bacteria and plants, the advent of transgenic crops presents a novel set of circumstances and basically involve the contamination of native land races and wild weedy plant genomes by the altered transgene sequences of the bio-engineered crops. 

MIT Tech Review on RNA sprays

Next up: spray-on GMOs

MIT Technology Review

Get ready to hear A LOT about Monsanto’s latest GMO. The biotech firm says their new RNA-based sprays could be a miracle-worker-- silencing specific genes in a plant for just a few days at a time, precisely killing only target insects and harmlessly degrading into the soil. Monsanto hopes that the sprays will go over better with the public than traditional GMOs have, since RNA occurs naturally in all living things. But advocacy groups like the National Honeybee Board Advisory want the EPA to proceed with extreme caution, especially since the sprays are in part designed to be used in conjunction with weedkillers like RoundUp to combat superweeds.

Securing the safety of genetic modification, by Heinemann, Agapito and Carman

http://theconversation.com/securing-the-safety-of-genetic-modification-13102

Most genetically modified (GM) crops are based on movingDNA from one organism to another to introduce a new protein. Now a growing number of genetically modified crops are based on intentionally changing RNA. However this new technology may prove to be risky business.