developing countries

Research / Scientific debate

Genetically modified plants

Editorial Posted On May 6, 2016

The aspect of genetic engineering is not something new. For a century now, farmers have depended on selective breeding techniques and cross-fertilization to alter plants and animals to give rise to particular traits that are deemed desirable. This is aimed at improvement of food production as well as human health hence creating a food secure and disease free planet. In this case, the use of biotechnology is central to achieving these goals both in the agricultural and medical system. The use of these biotechnological techniques in agriculture includes bio-fertilization; marker assisted breeding, tissue culture as well as transgenic.

For instance, scientists have been able to utilise the traditional fermentation methods in the process of transforming grains into bread and beer; and milk to form cheese thereby contributing to food security and alleviation of poverty. Transgenic applications, on the other hand, involve the process of modifying the genetic makeup of one organism by introducing a gene of interest from another organism. This technique has been widely exploited in the modification of a wide range of plants, animals, and micro-organisms. The products of these genetically engineered plants are used as vaccines, drugs, foods, food additives, among other purposes. The biotechnological modification of these plants may be beneficial in molecular diagnostics, drug delivery approaches, and bioinformatics among other techniques beneficial to humans. Additionally, this can be used as a way of bioremediation of the surrounding environment.

GM Crops

Bt Cotton

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a bacterial toxin naturally occurring in the soil. This gene has been isolated for production of the bacterium that in turn is used for genetic modification of cotton and maize. The main reason for this kind of change is to increase their resistance to pests. Since 1997, farmers in South Africa have relied on cotton growing for their upkeep. However, since the introduction of the Bt cotton that showed pest resistance traits, over 70 % of the farmers were growing Bt cotton by the end of 2003. This led to a yield increase of over 20 % while limiting the amount of chemicals used in the control of pests.

Potatoes

Many poor communities in developing countries cannot afford vaccines and even the local clinics in remote areas do not have the infrastructure for the appropriate storage of the vaccines. This poses a significant challenge to safeguarding the health of millions of children and adults across the globe. Scientists have exploited potatoes for the development of edible cholera vaccines against the deadly cholera disease causing severe diarrhea in patients. Part of the cholera bacterium can be recognized by the human immune system and thus could be used for development of vaccines. This gene was transferred from the bacterium and engineered into potatoes so that it is consumed as a vaccine.

However, the primary challenge is the fact that people do not consume raw potatoes. The hope thus has been that even in cooked potatoes, the vaccine is still active and thus upon consumption, the vaccine triggered the immune system to produce antibodies against them and thus offering protection against cholera infections. This is cost effective, less labor involved and the fact that the delivery system of the vaccine into the body is not invasive.

Rice

Research has been done in the creation of genetically modified rice with high levels of beta-carotene. This was an inspiration from the bright yellow daffodil and the mechanism it employs in the production of beta-carotene. There was evidence that rice has the molecules that are required for manufacture of bête-carotene but does not have the enzyme that rearranges in the kernels. Can rice be engineered with this gene to make it work? Researchers managed to insert the genes into two Agro-bacteriums. The bacteria were then infected on the rice, and soon Golden rice was produced carrying the three genes. Selection of the golden rice was quite easy because the rice kernels had a golden glow thus providing sufficient Vitamin A for a human health.

Another rice project focused on improving the efficiency of CO₂ to boost its productivity. This involved relying on the photosynthetic pathway of rice. The gene derived from corn was transferred into rice for the CO₂ pump protein synthesis. This led to the faster growth rate of rice and over 35 % lusher grain production due to efficient utilization of CO₂. This technique can also be used in the future on such plants as potatoes, wheat, and oats among other cereals that have poor CO₂efficiency.

Maize

Years ago, farmers discovered the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) infected and killed the caterpillars that often destroyed their crops. This bacterium produces a protein that is not harmful until it transforms in the stomach of the caterpillars due to protein lock action. Scientists, therefore, came up with a way of inserting the gene that codes for the BT protein into crops such as maize to prevent destruction by caterpillars. The gene codes for the protein in the leaves of the plant and hen the caterpillars feed on the leaves, they die. This is a pesticide-resistance strategy thus protecting crops from pest destruction. This approach gave rise to GM maize resistant to parasites and thus ensuring food security in different parts of the world.

Many people believe that GM plants are quite unnatural and thus the reason for the heated disputes and debates across the media houses around the globe. However, there are some that believe that the most promising approach is through sustainable organic farming rather than the gene revolution technological approaches. The aspect of genetic engineering of plants has paved the way for improved nutrition content of foods, improved resistance to pests by crops as well as drought resistance, It is, therefore, important that we all stop debating and tap into the DNA language of genes. This is by only learning the most beneficial ways of practicing plant genomics to catalog all genes that possess desirable traits while eliminating harmful genes. The results of which is promising in leading to the production of safe foods for human consumption, food security and poverty eradication.

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Research / Scientific debate

Genetically modified plants and its impact on the human health

Editorial Posted On May 6, 2016

Genetically modified plants have attracted a wide range of attention from the media in the past and still continue to do so even today. Despite all the media coverage concerning the GM Plants and their impacts on the human health, very few people know what GM plants are and what contribution biotechnology has to offer on the full range of applications of the plants and their products. Since the introduction of the first GM plant, there has been the emergence of two main areas of interest namely; the risk of the GM plants to the environment and the risk on human health. Despite the fact that there have been campaigns to sensitize the general public on what GM plants are, most of the information that is published are quite unreliable and does not state the real facts and scientific evidence of the GM plants.

This article will, therefore, examine the manner in which GM plants directly impacts the human health. This is regarding nutrition and advancement of the recombinant medicine production. This form of discovery is exciting in ensuring that the people’s health is advanced through vaccine production, monoclonal antibodies.

GM plants food applications

Globally, there is a total of 850 million that are undernourished and a surviving on a small ration of calories per day. This translates to approximately 1.3 million people living below the poverty line of spending $1/day. Most of these people are often rural smallholder farmers that occupy rural regions in developing countries who rely almost entirely on agriculture for upkeep. GM plant technologies are one of the approaches that have been developed to take care of these problems by increasing the yield and the nutritional content of the plants.

Nutritional content

In developing countries where people often depend on one food as their staple source of energy, the nutritional content is one of the major areas of focus for biotechnological advancement to alleviate some of the issues associated with plant engineering. This is to ensure that the GM plants can express more products to prevent the problem of malnutrition. An excellent discovery example of the GM plants is “The Golden Rice Project”.

Vitamin A deficiency is a problem that is of global health concern and is estimated to account for over two million deaths in children, especially in developing countries. Additionally, it is this deficiency that is the main reason for blindness among surviving children. Human beings can synthesize Vitamin A from its precursor called β –carotene commonly found in many plants and not cereals. The strategic discovery of the Golden Rice project was based on the targeted introduction of correct steps of metabolism in the endosperm of rice that would permit synthesis of β-carotene. Ye et al. (2000) engineered rice thus giving rise to rice with moderate levels of β-carotene thus paving the way for increased yields of vitamin A. This is estimated that 70 g of dry GM rice produces 50 % of the RDA of Vitamin A for a child aged between 1-3 years. This serves as a brilliant example of a health solution offered through plant biotechnology.

Increasing food production

The yield of crops across the globe is often affected by a wide range of factors that includes pathogens, parasites as well as insects. There are two brilliant examples of discoveries of commercial GM plants that are resistant to insects by expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) gene and GM papaya that is resistant to viruses. The primary cause of plant loss across the globe is abiotic stress, salinity, drought and unfavorable temperatures. Despite the fact that a wide range of abiotic stress tolerant GM plants has been produced, the research is still at the laboratory level. A good example of this is the GM maize that expresses a protein that plays a central role in oxidative signal cascade responsible for tolerating extreme conditions of cold, heat and salinity.

Are GM plants safe for human consumption?

There is evidence that demonstrates that GM plants are not safe for human consumption because of the potential toxins present in them. In 1999, a study showed that GM potatoes expressing a gene coding lectin Galanthus nivalis agglutinin were significantly affected in the sense that they caused damage to the gut mucosa.

The question that most people ask is whether there is any priori reason to believe that GM plants are harmful to humans upon consumption. Many of the reasons often point at the presence of foreign DNA sequence in the food. However, this does not have any intrinsic impact on the human health. What is of most concern is the possibility that protein produced by the GM plant may be toxic and is absorbed into the human system. Potential Allergenicity of the GM plant on consumption poses a great challenge to people’s health such as soft-fleshed fruits, soy among other foods. This is because there is a possibility of protein-protein interaction between the allergenic gene introduced into the plant and the allergenic protein already existing in the plant thus giving rise to novel allergens or altering the expression of proteins by the plant, thus contributing to the toxicity of the plant. Two examples of this include.

A project that was geared towards the production of GM peas through the addition of protein derived from beans. This protein conferred resistance to weevils and in addition to this, the consumption of GM peas led to lung allergies among mice. Another project is that of GM soybeans that involved the expression of Brazil nut protein that caused allergies when consumed by humans.

Non-food discovery of GM plants

The use of GM plants has been a great platform for the production of pharmaceutical products. For instance, GM plants have been used to produce multimeric antibodies. These antibodies have been shown to play a central role in the treatment of topical, mucosal infections. Currently, there is the production of Hepatitis B vaccine using GM yeast.

Based on the findings discussed in this article, it is evident that GM plants play a central role in contributing positively to the human health through nutrition and drug production. However, the major challenge is the exorbitant cost of the product that makes it less affordable by the poor in developing countries. Additionally, the production of GM plants requires a wide space to increase production to meet the growing demand for the products across the globe.

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