Most of the soybeans on the market today are genetically modified soybeans, which have been transferred to a certain kind of genes, which makes soybeans resistant to herbicides or pests. This facilitates field management, reduces the use of pesticides, and reduces production costs. It also protects the environment and farmers. There are benefits and there are no obvious benefits to consumers. Such GM crops are sometimes referred to as first-generation transgenic crops.
Recently, the United States Department of Agriculture approved the cultivation of a new breed of GM soybeans developed by DuPont. The content of GM soybean oleic acid is relatively high, and the oleic acid content of any existing soybean variety is higher, and the extracted oil is very stable. In general, people use chemical methods to process edible oils and produce trans fatty acids by hydrogenation. Trans fatty acids are relatively stable and easy to store, but harmful to health. The new GM soybean oil is relatively stable and does not require chemical processing. It does not contain trans-fatty acids, and the content of saturated fatty acids, another fatty acid, is also reduced by 20%. Foods that have improved the nutrient content of foods, which are beneficial to consumers' health, and allow consumers to directly experience the benefits of transgenes, are called second generation transgenic crops.
Herbicide-resistant or insect-resistant transgenic soybeans were developed using "additions": the introduction of a new foreign gene. High-oleic acid-transgenic soybeans were developed using "subtractive" methods, which caused a gene involved in the synthesis of fatty acids in soybean seeds to be ineffective. This is called "silencing" the expression of genes.
A domestic newspaper that has consistently discredited GM technology reported this news, calling gene silencing technology “a new generation of genetically modifiedâ€, claiming that “the United States is making a second reflection on GM technology,†and “the United States’ GM technology has shifted, It is shifting from the challenge of natural and natural development to the framework of 'respecting nature' and 'obeying nature'." Some people even claimed that "The sudden introduction of the second generation of genetically modified new technologies in the United States" was actually a recognition to the world that "the first generation of genetically modified technology is outdated and failed."
In fact, gene silencing technology is not a new generation or second-generation transgenic technology. The first genetically modified food that was approved for listing in 1994, the transgenic tomatoes, was developed using gene silencing technology.
In the past, farmers had to pick up tomatoes when they were not ripe, and they picked them when they were still green. After the unripe tomatoes were delivered to the store, they were ripened with ethylene and sprayed into red for sale. This artificially ripened tomato is not as tasty as naturally ripe tomatoes.
Why can't wait for the tomatoes to mature, turn red and pick them? Because the tomato is mature, the skin is also soft and easy to break during transportation. Can mature tomatoes not become soft? The skin of a tomato becomes soft because there is an enzyme called polygalacturonase that degrades the collagen in the cell wall. Biologists cloned the gene encoding the enzyme and determined its sequence. Then synthesize an antisense gene that is the opposite of it. The transfer of "antisense gene" into tomato cells will interfere with the activity of the original gene, and it will no longer be able to synthesize polygalacturonase. The colloids in the cell wall will not be decomposed and the tomatoes will mature. The skin will not soften either. We can wait for it to mature naturally and pick it again without worrying about bad transport. In this way, naturally mature transgenic tomatoes will taste better than ordinary ripening tomatoes and can be stored for a long time without being bad. Since the transferred "antisense gene" only interferes with the galacturonase gene and does not interfere with other genes, the nutritional components of the transgenic tomato have not changed.
Most papayas currently on the market are antiviral transgenic papayas, and they have also used gene silencing techniques in their research and development. The use of "subtraction" is lower than the "additional" health risk. What people are mainly worried about is transferring new genes to crops. The new proteins produced will not have toxic side effects or cause allergies. The use of gene silencing techniques to prevent the expression of a gene or the use of gene knock-out techniques to remove unwanted genes can also alter plant traits. Sometimes, simply increasing or reducing the expression of existing genes can also meet our requirements. None of these practices introduce new genes, so there is no need to worry about new protein problems.
In addition, there are other ways to make transgenes safer. For example, if you want to introduce new genes, try to transfer the genes of other edible crops as much as possible, or if the transferred genes are only expressed in non-edible tissues, don't worry too much about whether the new protein it produces can be eaten. Insect-resistant transgenic rice that had recently received a safety certificate only allowed the expression of the insect-resistant genes in non-edible parts and was not expressed in the endosperm. So even if you have doubts about the safety of the product against the pest gene, you can feel safe to eat because it is not contained in rice.
The use of these technologies to develop new varieties of genetically modified crops does not mean that other genetically modified crops are not safe, but only have a lower safety risk. There is a professor of economics in China who said that whether the "gene insertion" or "gene silencing", "the consequences are unpredictable." I don't know why this professor of economics thinks he knows "real life science" better than biologists. Biologists have a thorough understanding of the function of genes to be inserted or silenced, and the results of genetic modification are usually predictable. Moreover, in order to avoid unexpected results, it is also necessary to test its safety through biochemical experiments and animal experiments, using the most stringent food safety inspection standards. If you doubt the results of these experiments, it is doubting the entire food safety inspection system, rather than transgenic technology.
Any food has varying degrees of security risks and any technology can have unpredictable consequences. So far, GM foods have not yet found an example of health that can be identified as detrimental to health. On the contrary, hybrid technology has once cultivated varieties that are unhealthy for health. Since it was untested, it was later listed and later found problems and recalled. I do not know why those who oppose GM are so relieved of traditional crops that are not subject to the same strict management and problems?
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