Tag: Natural GMOs

Natural GMOs Part 83: Natural biology comes with no guarantee of safety

Scanning electron micrograph of Escherichia coli, grown in culture and adhered to a cover slip: Image: National Institutes of Health (part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services)/Public domain. Natural GMOs can be really really bad and fundamentally unsafe, because Nature is not scrutinised by any human regulatory agency, and many natural GMOs…

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Natural GMOs Part 82: Relocation of genes in new homes creates most of evolution in bacteria

Gene ‘Relocation’ Key to Most Evolutionary Change in Bacteria ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2011) — In a new study, scientists at the University of Maryland and the Institut Pasteur show that bacteria evolve new abilities, such as antibiotic resistance, predominantly by acquiring genes from other bacteria.The researchers new insights into the evolution of bacteria partly contradict…

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Natural GMOs Part 81. Thorough genetic characterisation of a naturally transgenic grass plant variety.

GMOs are often defined as events that cannot occur in nature. GMO Pundit’s series on natural GMOs has provided many examples of movement of DNA between different species, indeed different biological kingdoms that are found in the natural world. Click on the natural GMOs tag to find these examples. This new paper by Pernilla Vallenback…

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Natural GMOs Part 80. Bacteria mate with fungi on plant surfaces.

It has long been known to the common bacterium called Agrobacterium can inject DNA into plant cells. It naturally causes shape alterations called galls on plants that are infected with this bacterium as a result of its ability to inject genes it carries inside its own cells into plant cells. Ability to mate with other…

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Natural GMOs Part 79. It’s not surprising to find, yet again, that genes move around a lot in the ocean

Genetic escape podsMicrobes share and preserve their genetic material by releasing bodies that resemble viruses into the environment [Published 1st October 2010 02:49 PM GMT at The Scientist] Packaging random snippets of DNA into virus-like capsules known as gene transfer agents, or GTAs, may be a key way for marine bacteria to exchange genetic information,…

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Natural GMOs Part 78. Gene movement among bacteria combined with antibiotic overuse is the real antibiotic resistance risk

“The reservoir is in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and is due to factors that are not controllable — overuse of antibiotics, poor hygiene, and diarrhea in an overcrowded overpopulated country.” From Medscape Medical NewsNDM-1 Gene Spreading to Multiple Bacteria Species, Making Them Antibiotic-ResistantAlice Goodman September 22, 2010 (Boston, Massachusetts) — The gene that encodes for…

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Natural GMOs Part 77. Chocolate tree genome only 20 percent transposons

Photo: James Butubu of the Cacao and Coconut Research Institute in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, evaluates the new progeny of a cacao tree. Cacao fruit grows from the tree’s branches. (Credit: Photo by Ray Schnell, USDA-ARS) EurekAlert 16 Sep 2010 Analysis of the chocolate genome could lead to improved crops and products The sequencing and…

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Natural GMOs Part 76. Life before DNA leaves traces today.

Dangerous Bacterium Hosts Genetic Remnant Of Life’s Distant Past 14 Aug 2010 Within a dangerous stomach bacterium, Yale University researchers have discovered an ancient but functioning genetic remnant from a time before DNA existed, they report in the August 13 issue of the journal Science. To the surprise of researchers, this RNA complex seems to…

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Natural GMOs Part 71. Genes from Ebola Virus Family Found in Human Genome: Scientific American

Genes from Ebola Virus Family Found in Human Genome: Scientific American Genes from Ebola Virus Family Found in Human Genome A rush of new research has found evidence that some RNA viruses made their way into vertebrate genomes millions of years ago By Katherine Harmon at Scientific American Viruses do not make good fossils. But…

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