Day: November 30, 2012

Ethanol could increase corn prices and exacerbate climate change

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In a paper recently published in Nature Climate Change, Diffenbaugh et al. (2012) analyze the response of U.S. corn markets to climate volatility under various alternative energy futures, one of which envisions “a binding renewable fuels standard for corn ethanol and capacity constraints on ethanol absorption.” Although this scenario was initially viewed as a strong positive element of both agricultural and environmental policy, the four U.S. researchers unfortunately found that a binding mandate of this nature likely “enhances the sensitivity to climate change by more than 50%,” with the result that it could well “cause U.S. corn price volatility to increase by more than 50% in response to historical supply shocks in the domestic market,” citing Hertel and Beckman (2011).

View the original article here: The Biofuels Mandate and US Corn Prices

Patient’s own blood used to create personalized stem cells

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A patient’s own blood has been used to make personalised stem cells, which doctors hope will eventually be used to treat a range of diseases.

The team at the University of Cambridge says this could be one of the easiest and safest sources of stem cells. In a study, published in the journal Stem Cells: Translational Medicine, the cells were used to build blood vessels. However, experts cautioned that the safety of using such stem cells was still unclear.

View the original article here: Stem cells being made from blood

New class of genes may shed light on evolutionary mysteries

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THE old saying that where there’s muck, there’s brass has never proved more true than in genetics. Once, and not so long ago, received wisdom was that most of the human genome—perhaps as much as 99% of it—was “junk”. If this junk had a role, it was just to space out the remaining 1%, the genes in which instructions about how to make proteins are encoded, in a useful way in the cell nucleus.

That, it now seems, was about as far from the truth as it is possible to be. The decade or so since the completion of the Human Genome Project has shown that lots of the junk must indeed have a function. The culmination of that demonstration was the publication, in September, of the results of the ENCODE project. This suggested that almost two-thirds of human DNA, rather than just 1% of it, is being copied into molecules of RNA, the chemical that carries protein-making instructions to the sub-cellular factories which turn those proteins out, and that as a consequence, rather than there being just 23,000 genes (namely, the bits of DNA that encode proteins), there may be millions of them.

View the original article here: RNA-only genes: The origin of species?

Gattaca’s future is now, “God help us all”

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“Gattaca” is considered to be one of the best science fiction films of the past twenty-five years, but we seem to be on the verge of turning the world it depicts into science fact.

A recent series of articles at Time magazine’s website discussed the potential and pitfalls of a new technology called “whole-genome sequencing” or WGS. WGS can analyze a person’s entire genome and identity genetic risk factors for diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

Anyone who thinks that the widespread adoption of WGS, especially if it’s used in utero, won’t result in discrimination against the already-born and death of countless more unborn is kidding himself. As families growing smaller and health care eats more and more of our GDP, the pressure to use WGS in ways that the movie “Gattaca” envisioned will be almost-irresistible.

View the original article here: Whole-Genome Sequencing Makes It so Gattaca’s Future is Now

 

Human genetic diversity exploded in recent millennia

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A new look at living people’s DNA reveals that the human genome just isn’t what it was in Neolithic times.

Most of the genetic quirks people carry today popped up within the last 5,000 years or so, researchers report online November 28 in Nature. Human populations exploded from no more than a few million to 7 billion, thanks largely to the rise of agriculture.

View the original article here: Genetic diversity exploded in recent millennia

Real-time genetics could squash “superbug” outbreaks

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Genetic sequences of drug-resistant bacteria have helped scientists better understand how these dastardly infections evolve—and elude treatment. But these superbugs are still claiming lives of many who acquire them in hospitals, clinics and nursing homes. And recent outbreaks of these hard-to-treat infections can spread easily in healthcare settings.

Researchers might soon be able to track outbreaks in real time, thanks to advances in sequencing technology. So say Mark Walker and Scott Beaston, both of the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences and Australian Infectious Disease Research Center at the University of Queensland in Australia, in an essay published online November 29 in Science. “Genomic sequencing can provide information that gives facilities a head start in implementing preventive measures,” they wrote.

View the original article here: Real-Time Genetics Could Squash “Superbug” Outbreaks before They Spread

Scientists plan to engineer gluten-free wheat

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People with serious gluten allergies such as celiac disease now have only one tried-and-true option: swear off all foods containing wheat, barley and rye.

Scientists have experimented with another tack: sifting through different varieties of wheat and barley lines that lack, or make a lot less of, key gluten proteins in their grains. ut though they’ve found varieties that lack some of the important allergenic proteins, “None of the tested materials was completely nontoxic for celiac patients and thus could not be recommended for general consumption,” note authors of the current study.

Those authors, Shanshan Wen of Washington State University in Pullman and colleagues, tried a different approach. It hinged on a key enzyme — one that helps activate a whole set of genes that make the most problematic gluten proteins. Using a genetic engineering trick, they knocked out that enzyme. As a result, the seeds of the wheat they studied had sharply reduced levels of this set of problem proteins.

View the original article here: Wheat for people allergic to gluten: Possible?

An interview with anti-GMO crusader Jim Gerritsen

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For nearly three decades Jim Gerritsen quietly farmed organic seed potatoes in Aroostook County. These days he is in the international spotlight as the spokesman for the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against Monsanto Corporation, the world’s largest producer of genetically modified seeds.

Gerritsen is president of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA), whose lawsuit asks to have Monsanto’s patents for genetically altered seeds invalidated.

OSGATA, which has been joined in lawsuit by eighty-two seed businesses, family farmers, and trade organizations, including the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, wants court protection for farmers against possible lawsuits for patent infringement should Monsanto’s transgenic crops be found in their harvest as a result of accidental cross pollination.

View the original article here: Seeds of Discontent – Down East

Researchers Unlock Secrets of Wheat Genome

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Scientists analyzing the complex genome of bread wheat say they have identified characteristics that could help them make the crucial food crop more productive, nutritious and resistant to drought.

The research, published in the journal Nature, used a new strategy that compared wheat genome sequences to known grass genes, including rice and barley.

Researchers have made the decision to release the data quickly and share it freely in the public domain in the hope that scientists the world over can use it to devise new strains that are better able to cope with climate change, pests and other problems.

View the original article here: Researchers Unlock Secrets of Wheat Genome

Pressure mounts for retraction of GM crop-cancer study

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Pressure is growing for retraction of a study which concluded that a genetically modified maize and a weedkiller called glyphosate cause cancers in rats.

The study attracted criticism from the moment it was published on 19 September. Yesterday, it was dismissed as having “serious defects” in a final report on the matter by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and independently by the food safety panels of six European countries. They say too few rats were used to justify the conclusions linking Monsanto’s NK603 maize and glyphosate with cancers in the rats.

Researchers now want Food and Chemical Toxicology, the Elsevier journal that published the original study (DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2012.08.005), to retract it.

View the original article here: Pressure mounts for retraction of GM crop-cancer study

Kenya issues blanket GMO ban

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plant fence

Kenya, one of the first African countries to legalize GM technology, used to be recognized as a leader in that region’s biotechnology development. But in response to the now-debunked Seralini study, Kenya’s Public Health Minister Beth Mugo recently outlawed the importation of all genetically modified products into the country.

Scientists are raising the alarm and pointing out that GM foods have never been associated with health risks, yet the government insists that the ban will remain in effect “until there is sufficient information, data and knowledge demonstrating that GMO foods are not a danger to public health.”

Anti-biotech organizations such as the African Center for Biosafety and the African Civil Society see the ban as an issue of food sovereignty, and are calling for a continent-wide ban.  “Africans must determine what crops are suitable culturally and environmentally,” the coordinator of the African Center for Biosafety told IPS. “Up to 80 percent of our food needs are met by smallholder farmers. These people need support and inputs for integrated agro-ecological crop management. Africa should ideally be a GMO-free continent.”   

And in the midst of it all, many scientists are wondering whether the measure could deny food and medicine to hundreds of thousands of Kenyans.

Additional Resources:

  • Africa: Calling for a GMO-Free Continent
  • Ban on GM products brave but will it work?
  • Motions for and against genetically-modified crops
  • Scientists torn over Kenya’s recent GM food ban
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