Natural GMOs are found in approximately 7% of dicotyledonous plants, namely tea, peanuts, wasabi, cranberries, blueberries, cranberries, persimmons, tobacco, sweet potatoes and many more. Biologist Tatyana Matveeva, Professor of the Department of Genetics and Biotechnology at St. Petersburg State University, told socialbites.ca.
The first naturally occurring GMO was found in Nicotiana glauca tobacco in 1983. It contains genomic sequences very similar to those of Agrobacterium. It was later revealed that this foreign genome of agrobacteria was found in sweet potatoes and flax. Moreover, he got there naturally.
“These bacteria cause great harm to agriculture because they reduce crop yields. That’s why people started studying them. It turned out that when a bacterium infects a plant, it manages to insert a piece of its DNA into it. As a result, this DNA works in the plants as if it were a native plant gene.” “It’s starting,” explained the expert.
It is now clear that there are, in fact, many natural GMOs. Approximately 7% of dicotyledonous plants have traces of agrobacterial infection in their genomes, but there are still viruses that can leave traces in the genome. So far, little work has been done on this area, so in the future the list of natural GMO products can be expanded.
“This is a strong argument in the dispute between opponents of GMOs and the fact that genetic engineers are invading nature and we are eating plants obtained in an unknown way,” Matveeva said.
Read more about how a bacterial genome is integrated into a plant, whether GMOs need to be labeled, whether they are dangerous to humans, and what new genome editing technologies are available. material “socialbites.ca”.
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