Post by thefuture on Apr 2, 2010 9:57:41 GMT -8
I subscribe to an engineering magazine that featured a number of food articles in its Feb - Mar issue. One on GM food included the commentary below as a sidebar.
Fast Changes without GM
For a new breed of potatoes, designed to only produce a starch suitable for treating paper as well as foodstuffs, a team at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany used old-fashioned breeding to get the job done. But it was selective breeding with the foot hard on the accelerator, using directed-evolution techniques to speed up the process of producing viable variants.
Although protesters look upon direct genetic modification as 'unnatural', plant breeders have used chemical and radiation treatment for some years to induce mutations that speed up the process of moving the candidate genomes into new territory. However, because these techniques do not carry the tag 'GM', they do not carry the stigma.
'We are working with natural principles. In nature, sunlight triggers changes in the genome, With chemistry, we accomplish the same thing only faster,' says Jost Muth of Fraunhofer IME.
Normally, you have to wait after a burst of cross-breeding and mutation to see what crops develop. Not in this case. As soon as the seeds germinated, samples of the leaves were taken and their genomes analysed to see which mutants had picked up desired traits.
The researchers analysed 2,748 seedlings to find a genome that had the genetic profile they were aiming for: the ability to produce amylopectin exclusively. Luckily the potato already has an amylopectin-production gene, which reduces the amount of mutation that the potato has to go through. However, the aim was to find a mutant that could shut off the production of sister starch amylose, which the 'Tilling' potato could. This avoids the need to purify the starch after harvesting and separation.
This autumn, the team grew about 100t of potatoes with the required genome, and without specialised GM trials. 'Special measures aren't necessary, because the Tilling potatoes are totally normal breed that contains no genetically modified material,' Muth claims.
Fast Changes without GM
For a new breed of potatoes, designed to only produce a starch suitable for treating paper as well as foodstuffs, a team at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany used old-fashioned breeding to get the job done. But it was selective breeding with the foot hard on the accelerator, using directed-evolution techniques to speed up the process of producing viable variants.
Although protesters look upon direct genetic modification as 'unnatural', plant breeders have used chemical and radiation treatment for some years to induce mutations that speed up the process of moving the candidate genomes into new territory. However, because these techniques do not carry the tag 'GM', they do not carry the stigma.
'We are working with natural principles. In nature, sunlight triggers changes in the genome, With chemistry, we accomplish the same thing only faster,' says Jost Muth of Fraunhofer IME.
Normally, you have to wait after a burst of cross-breeding and mutation to see what crops develop. Not in this case. As soon as the seeds germinated, samples of the leaves were taken and their genomes analysed to see which mutants had picked up desired traits.
The researchers analysed 2,748 seedlings to find a genome that had the genetic profile they were aiming for: the ability to produce amylopectin exclusively. Luckily the potato already has an amylopectin-production gene, which reduces the amount of mutation that the potato has to go through. However, the aim was to find a mutant that could shut off the production of sister starch amylose, which the 'Tilling' potato could. This avoids the need to purify the starch after harvesting and separation.
This autumn, the team grew about 100t of potatoes with the required genome, and without specialised GM trials. 'Special measures aren't necessary, because the Tilling potatoes are totally normal breed that contains no genetically modified material,' Muth claims.
