Scientists vs Myths: is GMO potato dangerous and how to extract DNA

10:05, August 1, 2016

UrFU researchers debunk the popular scientific stereotypes

E1.RU and UrFU launch the new project Scientists vs Myths. In the frameworks of the project, UrFU scientists debunk various scientific and pseudo-scientific myths.

Our first topic is genetically modified products.

Probably everyone has seen products labeled "NON GMO", and we usually give preference to these products, just in case, because we do not want to eat some harmful "chemistry". We visited the Department of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry of UrFU Institute of Natural Sciences to look at transgenic crops with our own eyes and learn how they are produced. The PhD Alexander Yermoshin studies transgenic plants and cultivates them for 8 years, and knows everything about the most popular horror stories associated with plants-mutants.

MYTH 1: GMO products have the "chemical" gene

The social study, which was conducted on the territory of the Russian Federation included the question: "Do products without GMOs have genes?” Oddly enough, people responded that only GMO products have genes. This is the first misconception! Absolutely all products have genes, everything we eat. Thus, the structure and mechanism of action of all these genes are totally identical. If we introduce a gene from one organism to another, it becomes a part of the genome and will work in the same way as native genes, the plant will not find any differences.

The second misconception is that GMOs are something unnatural, artificial, invented by a man. The man did not invent anything; asexual gene transfer from one organism to another is a natural mechanism. For example, it is widely distributed in bacteria, which is why there is bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Agrobacterium can transfer their genes to plants. It is this natural mechanism of Agrobacterium transfer, which is used by the genetic engineers to create transgenic plants. We find the donor organism, which has the gene of interest, and extract it from DNA.

Perhaps this is a long and complicated process?

The process of DNA extraction is simple; you can do it at home. For example, we take a piece of liver (this is a product, which has many cell nuclei containing DNA). We need to cut it into small pieces, pour some salt, add Fairy (dish detergent); it contains surface-active substances that dissolve lipids that is why it washes fats off easily. Under the influence of such reagents the content of the cells dissolves and comes out. Then we should filter the obtained liquid through cheesecloth, add ethanol - rubbing alcohol or some strong spirit - the filamentous structures of DNA will precipitate. Done.

Of course, genetic engineers do not use commercial products such as Fairy. They use pure substance. However, in general, DNA extraction procedure is the same.

How the ‘correct’ gene is transferred into a plant?

We take agrobacterium and embed the selected gene in it - sew it to a plasmid with the molecular glue, ligase enzyme. By the way, viruses also contain ligase, they use it to embed their genomes in plants; people just started using this mechanism. That is how we got the genetic structure, which we introduce into the bacterial cell. To do this, the bacteria are treated with calcium chloride, then we mix the suspension of bacteria and our plasmid, and bacteria absorb everything around it, and this mechanism is a natural one too.

The next step is to infect the pant with the obtained transgenic bacteria. According to the natural mechanism developed over millions of years, the bacteria will carry a piece of DNA into a plant. They always did, and nowadays we just move the specific chosen fragment. We get a transgenic plant cell that can give rise to a whole organism.

MYTH 2: usual products are safer than GMO products

This misconception is connected with the fact that people are subconsciously afraid of everything new, and it becomes worse when they do not understand the essence of the process. For example, 10 minutes ago you did not know how GMOs are created. The same situation is with nuclear power: many people does not know how an atom decays, so they are afraid of nuclear power, which according to statistics is considered to be the safest. People draw a parallel with the atomic bomb, and say that there is nothing worse... We have the same situation here - we do not know how it works, but it is something complicated, so it is bad. However, we realized that getting GMOs is a natural mechanism, so we should not be afraid of it.

It turns out that all the terrible stories about GMOs are fictions? Then why we can not just explain people that it is not dangerous?

How the idea that GMO products are dangerous appeared? The farmers began to use human fear, and then the economists did the same. Why did farmers do it? The fact is that those transgenic plants, which we use now, are intended to facilitate and improve agricultural harvest. The agricultural lobby came mainly from Europe, where agriculture and harvest level are high for the relatively small number of people. Therefore, in case of increased productivity, the prices would fall dramatically, so farmers have to speculate public fears, saying that it is harmful. The economists also began to use this myth; they did researches and invented a mark "NON GMO”, which means that the product is safe and more useful. Most of people become the victims of this problem, paying double prices, considering that it is safer to buy products without GMOs.

Still, everyone is talking about the fact that traditional products are much safer than GMOs, and only products grown in your own garden without any "chemistry" are not harmful...

Here is the bare facts. Each year, our students conduct laboratory work, they determine the amount of nitrates in the product. Every year several students bring carrot from their gardens insisting it is an ecologically pure product. To check the amount of nitrates, they put a drop of diphenylamine on a carrot cut, which turns blue from the effects of nitrates. The colour of carrot from shop do not change or only faint blue spot appears on the cut, and the carrots from personal gardens becomes black. Why?

We use large amount of organic fertilizers as manure or add mineral fertilizers, thinking that the more we give, the greater will be the harvest. What happens on the field? Manufacturers use the standard amount, because the harvest cannot become twice bigger anyway, or they even begin to save resources and use only a half of the norm. As a result, the level of nitrates in vegetables grown in the garden becomes many times higher than in those bought in the shop.

In addition, any product in the shop passes phytosanitary control; the situation with products grown in the gardens is opposite. No one checks where your garden is located and which soil is in it. You can receive not only nitrates but also heavy metals. That is why it is not always more safe to grow vegetables and fruits yourself.

Which genes are introduced into transgenic crops?

Often they are the genes for resistance to herbicides such as glyphosate, well-known weed-killer. Thanks to these genes we can conduct chemical weeding, transgenic plants will survive. If we take non-GMO, we always use a mixture of several kinds of herbicides; transgenic crops can be processed by only one, so as a result they contain less herbicides.

Another group is transgenic plants with the presence of a protein that breaks the digestion of insects, so-called Bt-toxin. Insects do not eat these plants, and therefore manufacturers do not have to use poison on the field. According to statistics, GMOs contain less agricultural chemicals that products obtained in the classical way. We need to remember that agricultural chemicals can pose a real risk to human. Therefore, choosing between products with GMO and GMO-free, I'm 90% sure that GMOs will have less chemicals. It will be purer raw materials and in terms of energy and nutritional value, they are absolutely identical.

MYTH 3: GMOs cause allergy

People can have allergy to any product, moreover, to agricultural chemistry. The only example about allergies to GMOs is when a gene of Brazil nut has been embedded to soybeans to improve the quality of protein, so that the product contained more essential amino acids. However, Brazil nut is an allergen itself; many people are allergic to it.

When a person eats soy with Brazil nut protein, he or she will also have an allergy, but the allergy won’t be caused by the technology, it will happen because the protein is allergenic in principle. By the way, the soy with embedded Brazil nut protein was produced not for human consumption but to feed animals. There have been cases of people allergies to this soy, but it happened due to misuse. The plants that we use pass very strict examination, and the allergy growth hasn’t been recorded.

MYTH 4: GMOs trigger cancer

There is an opinion that when we eat GMO food, the genes of the food are moving into the intestines triggering that dangerous disease...

It is a curious fact that agrobacteria used for breeding transgenic crops, in nature cause tumor formation in plants, it is called Agrobacterium cancer. That is why people subconsciously start to project it on themselves - if these bacteria cause cancer in plants and the same bacteria are used to produce GMOs, then they will cause human cancer. That is the reason, that I use the other, less terrible name - crown gall, when I read lectures for schoolchildren and teachers.

First of all, the development mechanisms of disease in plants and in animal organism are totally different. Secondly, agrobacteria do not infect human. Thirdly, genetic and biological engineers have already changed the bacteria used to produce GMOs; these bacteria don’t even cause cancer in plants. Fourthly, the plants no longer have bacteria inside; there is no way you can meet with cancer.

As I’ve already said, the gene becomes a part of the genome, it is not transferred anywhere from there. Therefore, the cells of your digestive system will not even feel the difference between GMO or non-GMO product.

However, the Internet is full of horror stories about the dangers of GMOs; they have some grounds, aren't they?

Some scientists, who were checking the safety of GMOs, started speculating about agrobacterium cancer; and ordinary people could read about it in newspapers, see on TV and hear on the radio. I do not use these sources of information, I will not read the forums in the Internet and watch programs of "Ren-TV", I'll take a decent journal and analyze the article which had been reviewed.
Since 2008, I have been reading the articles in original, and there are no serious scientific paper proving that GMOs harm human health, and certainly no paper proving that GMOs increase the risk of cancer. There are several publications that can hardly be called scientific, but they are not published in peer-reviewed journals, one can easily find experimental mistakes in them. For example, animals lived in bad conditions. There are no serious articles about the dangers of GMOs, with reproducible results, but there is a huge number of articles proving the harmlessness of GMOs.

After the interview we went to the lab, where transgenic plants were grown. A small room was divided into two parts by a glass wall. According to Alexander, the box behind the glass wall is cleaner than any emergency room, this is where the scientists conduct manipulation to extract the gene and transfer it to the plant cell. There are also thermostats, sterile utensils and nutrition medium for further cultivation.

The device, in which biotech plants are grown, is called a climate chamber. From outside it looks like a huge refrigerator, inside it has special dishes with growing transgenic crops – several sorts of tobacco and potato; there were also tomatoes, clover and carrots before.

The climatic chamber preserves certain humidity and temperature, the day lasts 18 hours, and night - 6. We came before ‘dawn’, and managed to see both ‘nighttime’ and ‘daytime’.

These plants are grown from a single cell, which you would not even be able to see. This is transgenic tobacco, can you tell the difference? It has more roots; we embedded a gene responsible for the development of the roots. It's an experimental object; of course, it will not be planted in the field.

Transgenic potato is different from the one that grows in the garden. According to Alexander Yermoshin, it is due to the fact that it sprouted from a single cell. It would the same if it sprouted from the seed, and not from the tuber. This potato received a gene that may help in the fight against phytophthora and Colorado potato beetle.

In the greenhouse, the researchers also grow ‘green vaccines’ transferred from Pushchino Research Center. Green vaccines are the plants that synthesize protein, which can be used for vaccine production. In Russia, this method is not applicable, but in Canada and several other countries transgenic tobacco is used to receive flu vaccine.

We would also liked to note, that all the insulin in the pharmacies is produced with GMO technology for decades. The amount of insulin from the pancreases of pigs can not cover demand, and it is too expensive to synthesize insulin chemically. The same technology is used to receive Hepatitis B vaccine and many other pharmaceuticals.

Material from the portal E1.ru