Poisoned Plant Genes

Genetically Engineered Seeds and Plants

From the Lab to the Environment in Which We Live

Debate and activism regarding GE and GMO foods have been ongoing for many years and sad to say, I ignored most of it.  Like most Americans, we are forever busy with day to day matters and distracted by the fast paced world we live in.  We are bombarded with so much news and information that we almost become immune to it all.  Facts are lost in sensationalism and emotional causes.  I decided to find out more.

What I have discovered so far is indeed shocking and hard to accept, but nonetheless true.  Our world is forever changed by the callous disregard for human health and life, which have been knowingly and eagerly sacrificed, so that a few multi-national companies can “play god” and rip apart and manipulate DNA at their whim – not for the good of all – but for money and power.  Who can comprehend that much deliberate evil?

Apocalyptic Genesis: From the Microcosm to the Macrocosm

Gene-Splicing 101.  Transgenisis is a complex subject.  The double helix structure of DNA that contains the genetic code for every living thing was discovered in 1953 and a decade later, molecular biology was born and  Pandora’s box was opened.  Science, knowledge and new discoveries abound in this brave new world, but mankind is still in the Dark Ages regarding the serious and often unforeseen ramifications of tampering and tinkering with the machinery of life.  Would you give a child a nuclear weapon to play with?

Genes give their orders to a cell by creating proteins, which in turn pass a trait along to a plant or animal.  GMOs are created in the lab in order to alter the genetic material of an organism's genome.  In the process, genetic material may be mutated, deleted or added.  When genetic material from a different species is added, the resulting DNA is called recombinant DNA and the organism is called a transgenic organism. The first recombinant DNA molecules were produced by Paul Berg in 1972.

Scientists learned how to divide and connect DNA fragments; to copy and multiply genes and to transfer them from one species to another. Once the species barrier was broken, the possibilities seemed endless and man’s imagination went wild.  Many in the scientific community, however, were rightfully concerned about not only the ethical considerations of such gene tampering but also the unknown dangers.  The Asilomar conference in 1975 was the first international conference on recombinant DNA to discuss such issues. There were attempts to place legal restrictions on these hazardous activities but they were buried while GE experiments flourished. A race for genes between science and industry began and science became commercialized.

Genetic Engineering is not Cross-breeding or Animal Husbandry

Laboratory methods are far removed from traditional cross-breeding practices that have served mankind well.  Plants already possess defense mechanisms designed to protect them from their natural environment but that natural environment did not include glyphosate.

Let the Experiments Begin

At first, “genes of interest” were transferred into plant cells.  Next, restriction enzymes were discovered.  These allowed biologists to cut DNA as if with a pair of scissors.  Biologists then found they needed an intermediary, or a “mule” to transport the selected gene and force it into a target cell.  They did this by using a bacterium – a pathogen – that changed genetic inheritance of cells by infecting them.  In short, they “vaccinated” the target cells.  Transferring flora and fauna genes into bacterium allowed the transgenes to multiply quickly and in large numbers.

In 1975, plasmids (a ring of DNA) were discovered.  The plasmid is a route by which the “infection” is transferred from the bacterium to the plant.  Then they isolated the plasmid in the gene responsible for the infection and replaced that with the gene of interest by using a gene “promoter.”  The promoter is a sequence of DNA that triggers the expression of the gene to be triggered. 

How did the scientists know that the plasmid was working as they thought it would?  They attached a genetic construction which they called a “selection marker” which was often a gene that was resistant to antibiotics.  I am no molecular biologist, but this sounds dangerous.  To verify that a transfer had taken place, cells were sprayed with antibiotics and those that survived were “the chosen” ones. 

Ready for Roundup

The Monsanto research team used the above model of genetic manipulation to create their Roundup Ready/glyphosate resistant cells in seeds.  Other companies were doing the same:  Rhone-Poulenc, Hoechst in Germany (Basta), Dupot (Glean) and Ciba-Geigy (Atrazine).  In their grand and despicable vision – all the food crops of the world could be patented  and those that own the food control the world.

Richard Mahoney, CEO, Monsanto 1984-1985

“We are not in the business of the pursuit of knowledge; 

we are in the business of the pursuit of products.”

In this scramble to create glyphosate resistant cells, they rushed through numerous experiments helter skelter.  Eventually they stumbled upon their “chosen one” but then they had to find a genetic construct that would enable the gene to function after it was introduced into plant cells.  The genetic construct with the gene of interest (CP4EPSPS) – coupled with  the 35S promoter from the cauliflower mosaic virus - was finally discovered after 700,000 hours of research and an $80 million dollar investment   Two other DNA fragments were added which had been derived from the petunia that were intended to control the production of protein.  This unnatural combo was called the “Roundup tolerant soybean gene cassette.”  Monsanto still needed a “mule” however.  Each time Roundup Ready cells were sprayed with antibiotic, the ones that had not absorbed the cassette died.  Those dead cells poisoned the GM cells.

The next weapon in the race for glyphosate tolerant/herbicide resistant plants was the gene gun.  Some guns used microscopic needles and other used electric charges to make little holes in cell walls that would allow the genetically engineered DNA to enter.  They reasoned that eventually, the some of the GE DNA cassette would have to enter the right cell  to create their frankenplant.   To say that this is imprecise science is the understatement of the century.  The gene gun inserted the DNA at random.  After three years of firing DNA into cells in a haphazard, hit and miss fashion, a single soybean line resisted heavy doses of glyphosate.  That was 1994.

Would Could Go Wrong?

Remember how at the beginning of the article we learned that genes give their orders to a cell by creating proteins, which in turn confer the trait to the plant or animal.  Scientists originally thought that each gene controlled one protein.  However, it was later discovered that some genes can make many, many proteins. For instance, a single gene from a fruit fly can generate up to 38,016 different protein molecules.

Originally, the theoretical foundation for creating GE food crops by multibillion dollar industry was based on the idea that one gene controlled one protein.  Now we know differently and we will no doubt, learn much more as these corporations continue to experiment with their products while our nation’s health continues to decline.

Bt crops, including corn, cotton, and canola, are engineered to produce their own insecticide. The foreign gene that produces the Bt toxin is from a bacterium that is devoid of signal beacons also known as molecular beacons.  When the plants produced too small amount of the Bt protein, biotechs attached their own manufactured signal beacons. 

In some scenarios, spiceosomes or “code scramblers” cut up the RNA, rearrange it and then reassemble it. Guess what? Signal beacons not only enable scrambling but they can also pump up protein production.  The scientists discovered that the BT genes with attached signal beacons did produce more Bt.  Each level of discovery opens up new unknowns.  Would the man-made signal beacons ramp up the code scramblers?  It would stand to reason.  The scientists continued their work not knowing if new “hitchhikers” would be added to cells or what the effects on the plant might be!  In the scramble for a profit-making “product”, why look further when the gene did what they designed it to do?

But wait.  There is more.  Proteins can become misfolded and remain biochemically inactive unless they come in contact with a special type of ‘chaperone’ protein that properly folds them.”  When an incorrectly folded cellular protein duplicates itself, infectious neurological disease can result.  One example was the misfolded proteins (prions) that were responsible for mad cow disease in humans.  What else don’t we know?

I have written the first part of this article based on information from two books and give them full credit for the information provided above.  The Seeds of Deception  (2003) by Jeffrey Smith and The World According to Monsanto Pollution, Corruption, and the Control of the World's Food Supply by Marie-Monique Robin. (2009) 

Jeffrey Smith was forced to self-publish this and other books he has written because he could not find a publisher willing to stand up to Monsanto.  How many others who know the truth, have been silenced?

I certainly could not have put this type of information together without relying on their simplification of the biotechnology process that has been employed to create man-made GE and GMOs.  This blog is not only a place where I store the information I have discovered but a place where others can begin their own research – especially people like me, who up until a few months ago, knew next to nothing about the biological dangers of GE and GMOs.

GE crops are abundant especially in the USA. 

They have not been created with exact science but with experimental discoveries found step by step.

Using herbicide resistant crops means that herbicide is sprayed in abundance.

Round Up is not biodegradable.  It remains in the soil.  It seeps down to the water table.  It is in water runoff to streams, rivers and lakes.

Weeds become naturally resistant to Round Up.  More Round Up is needed. Agent Orange may be used to combat those resistant weeds.

The crops cross pollinate, most likely in ways that are unnatural.  Maybe with other crops or weeds.

Some of the GE crops are fed to food animals.

We consume the GE GMOs in our food 

Plant and animal DNA will effect our own DNA and our health at a cellular level.