I love how leftists are oh-so-smug about their support of scientific evidence, then they post images like this and pretend like they’re peer reviewed studies.
I’ll try my best to explain the biochemical differences between genetically altered corn and unmodified corn as well as other variables such as pesticide usage, overall costs, yield and the economic outcomes. Full disclosure, I’m better suited to explain the economic reasoning, but I consulted a biochemist over this who helped me understand the difference between modified and non-modified corn. This biochemist also promised to rip me apart if I get anything wrong, so here goes nothing.
Economically, GMO’s provide higher yields per acre. This isn’t too big of a deal for an industrialized nation like America, but in some countries like India, GMO crops are cutting losses in half.
More food, less hungry people.
So to answer the question, yes, I am smarter than a squirrel.
I wanted to add to this, because GMO’s are so misunderstood and the political controversy that surrounds them is based in scientific illiteracy.
One of the coolest GMO’s I know about is “golden rice.” Vitamin A deficiency is fairly rampant in parts of Asia. When children are deficient in vitamin A it results in blindness. Furthermore, Vitamin A deficiency contributes to 2 million childhood deaths each year (2012 Am J Clin Nutr, 96:658-64). Scientists genetically modified golden rice in order to provide vitamin A.
UNFORTUNATELY political opposition has delayed the release of golden rice for over a decade. And as @libertybill pointed out, no one dies from genetically modified food.
If you are against GMO’s because you think Monsanto is a big baddy (which I’m not going to pretend they haven’t done some asshole-ish things) or you think the GMO is going to cause cancer or some other stupid ass thing, please take time to educate yourself.
Welp. Looks like it’s time for another (educational?) RHS Essay-Post on Animals.
“Don’t have any issues” is inaccurate, or at least unproven. The statistical majority is healthy thanks to carefully selective breeding. HOWEVER: This doesn’t mean that the whole breed is healthy.
Here’s the thing about breeds and health issues: Munchkin cats are so NEW to the world, as a breed, that they’re not old enough for health issues that DO crop up in them to be recognized as a common trait of the “breed” yet.
Scottish fold cats were considered a “safe” breed and hailed as precious, and ethical, and Not Prone to Health Issues– until we discovered how badly damaged they are by osteochrondroplasia. (That is: abnormal developement of bone and cartilage structures.) It’s genetic. It’s a health issue. And, we later found out, it’s the very REASON their ears fold that way– the cartilage in their ears isn’t properly formed. Nor is the cartilage in the rest of their body. Osteochondroplasia is a very painful disease that ALL Scottish Folds are afflicted with to some degree, and it leads to joint degeneration and weakened joints, arthritis, lameness, often crippling the cat for life.
You can’t call munchkin breeding “safe” yet. Sure, they can run and play. But so can dachshund puppies, declawed kittens, and baby white/white chinchillas (the latter of which is always fatal).
Senior dachshunds are prone to spinal degeneration.
When those declawed kittens grow up, there’s a 60% chance of them developing arthritis, particularly around the hips.
And those baby white/white chinchillas won’t live to see their third month.
It’s even known that you can’t breed two Munchkin cats together, because most of the babies won’t survive. When the dominant Munchkin gene– let’s call it by its scientific name, pseudochondroplasia– is homozygous, the same gene inherited from both parents: the gene is lethal, and the affected fetus is resorbed into the mother long before it can be born.
Heterozygous genetics for pseudochondroplasia GENERALLY don’t come with any dangers to hormonal, nutritional, physical, mental, anatomical developement (**As far as we know, in our still yet limited understanding of genetics).
But there are still some concerning appearances of structural deformities associated with Munchkin breeding. Most notably:
– Pectus (the spine is dipped deeper than normal between the shoulders, which leaves a lot less room in the chest cavity, which results in the heart and lungs being pressed in on and constantly stressed.)
– Lordosis (the muscles along the spine are too short, which means the spine doesn’t stay in place where it’s supposed to, sinks into the body, and a lot of cats can’t live more than a few months with this condition.)
Pectus and lordosis are not exclusive to the munchkin mutation, but they occur more often in munchkin kittens than in other breeds.
(It’s no wonder many cat breed organizations actually refuse to recognize Munchkin cats as their own breed, because the “traits” that make a cat a “munchkin” [not JUST short legs] are also symptoms of many, MANY health issues ranging from nutritional deficiencies to viral infections and genetic illnesses. And these associations consider breeding the munchkin cats unethical.)
And as breeders reinforce this pseudochondroplasia gene, strengthen it, and change the way it manifests and interacts with other genes: they’re increasing the chance of these associated afflictions as well.
Any time an animal’s anatomy changes, you are changing the way they move, the way they bear weight, the way their body functions, propagating genes that nature considers deleterious, and a newly-discovered mutated gene can’t be considered “safe” until we’ve THOROUGHLY studied its interaction through far more generations than this mere 30 years we’ve had with breeding munchkins.
What’s more, cats HIDE their pain and coordination troubles. Do you have any idea how arthritic cats that are declawed become? Most people don’t notice it until they do a necropsy. Because declawing is thought to be so commonplace and so safe, that SURELY it doesn’t hurt the kitty and cause health problems! Except, it can cause everything from infection to
misplaced calcium growths to
arthritis to inability to use a litter box.
Statistics for munchkin cat health are still not a very big sample size, let alone anything conclusive.
Until genetics, study, and breeding of Munchkin cats develope much, much further, we can’t conclusively call them free of health issues.
And I, for one, cannot condone any animal that we know runs a steeper risk of health issues, and yet are continued to be bred For The Aesthetic.
(Oh, and p.s.: No, munchkin cats physically cannot jump as high as other cats. They struggle to jump straight up at all.)
Munchkins are less likely to quickly gain deleterious traits associated with the breeding for psuedochondroplasia, since the trait is fatal when homozygous – they’re constantly required to be outcrossing to maintain the desired trait (unlike white tigers, where the desired trait being homozygotic only leads to a tendency to promote inbreeding). This doesn’t mean they won’t have hereditary health issues accumulate in the breed, just that it’ll take longer to show up and definitely will be harder to identify.
The green fluorescent protein (GFP) is a protein that exhibits bright green fluorescence when exposed to light in the blue to ultraviolet range. Although many other marine organisms have similar green fluorescent proteins, GFP traditionally refers to the protein first isolated from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. Jellyfish-derived GFP has been engineered to produce a vast number of useful blue, cyan and yellow mutants, and fluorescent proteins from a variety of other species have also been identified, resulting in further expansion of the available color palette into the orange, red and far-red spectral regions. Together, these highly useful genetically encoded probes are broadly referred to as fluorescent proteins The FP gene can be introduced into organisms and maintained in their genome through breeding, injection with a viral vector, or cell transformation. Green fluorescent protein has transformed biomedical research. Using a gene that carries instructions to make GFP, scientists can attach harmless glow-in-the-dark tags to selected proteins, either in cells in lab dishes or inside living creatures, to track their activity. It’s like shining a flashlight on the inner workings of cells. These days, scientists can track how cancer cells spread, how HIV infections progress and even which male ends up fertilizing a female fruit fly’s egg. These and many other studies that offer insight into human health all benefit from a green, glowing protein first found in a sea creature.
Yakutian horses adapted to the extreme cold of eastern Siberia in less than 800 years, according to researchers.
The study team said the change happened almost overnight in evolutionary terms, covering only 100 or so generations. The process involved changes in the expression of a raft of genes, including some also selected in human Siberian groups and the extinct woolly mammoth.
The researchers, in a new scientific study, compared the complete genomes of nine living and two ancient Yakutian horses from Far-East Siberia with a large genome panel of 27 domesticated horses.
The analysis shows that the current population of Yakutian horses was founded after the migration of the Yakut people into the region in the 13-15th century AD. Yakutian horses thus developed their striking adaptations to the extremely cold climate of the region in less than eight centuries.
This represents one of the fastest examples of evolutionary adaptation yet seen within mammals.
The international team of researchers, whose findings have been published in the early edition of PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA), said horses have been essential to the survival and development of the Yakut people, who migrated into the Far-East Siberia, probably from Mongolia.
There, Yakut people developed an economy almost entirely based on horses. Horses were crucial for communication and keeping the population in contact within a territory slightly larger than Argentina, and with 40% of its surface area situated north of the Arctic Circle.
Horse meat and hides have also been revealed as crucial for surviving extremely cold winters, with temperatures occasionally dropping below -70 degrees Celsius.
Horses have been present in Yakutia for a long time, as 30,000 year-old Late Pleistocene fossils from the region show. Yet, the study team, led by the University of Copenhagen’s Dr Ludovic Orlando, showed that ancient horses of this region were not the ancestors of the present-day Yakutian horses.
The genome sequence obtained from the remains of a 5200 year-old horse from Yakutia appears within the diversity of a now-extinct population of wild horses that the team discovered last year in Late Pleistocene fossils from the Taymir peninsula, in Central Siberia.
This new finding extends by thousands of kilometres eastwards the geographical range of this divergent horse population, which became separated from the lineage leading to modern horses some 150,000 years ago. It also extends its presence up to 5200 years ago – a time when woolly mammoths also becameextinct.
“This population did not appear on any radar until we sequenced the genomes of some of its members,” said Dr Orlando, who is with the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, which is part of the University of Copenhagen.
“With 150,000 years of divergence with the lineage leading to modern horses, this makes the roots of this population as deep as the origins of our human species.”
Interestingly, the new genome analyses show that the horses Yakut people now ride, and probably rode throughout history, as shown by the genome of a horse that lived about 200 years ago, are not related with this now-extinct horse lineage, but rather with the domesticated horses from Mongolia.
“We know now that the extinct population of wild horses survived in Yakutia until 5200 years ago.
“Thus, it extended from the Taymir peninsula to Yakutia, and probably all across the entire Holarctic region. In Yakutia, it may have become extinct prior to the arrival of Yakut people and their horses. Judging from the genome data, modern Yakutian horses are no closer to the extinct population than is any other domesticated horse.”
The new genome analyses show that the founders of the modern Yakutian horse population probably entered the region with Yakut horse-riders in the 13-15th Century AD.
“This is truly amazing as it implies that all traits now seen in Yakutian horses are the product of very fast adaptive processes, taking place in about 800 years.
“This represents about a hundred generations for horses. That shows how fast evolution can go when selective pressures for survival are as strong as in the extreme environment of Yakutia.”
The team set out to identify the genes underlying such adaptations. Strikingly, they found that a large fraction of the selection signatures were not located within the coding region of genes, but within their upstream regulatory regions. It thus suggests that the adaptation of Yakutian horses to their environment took place through a massive reprogramming ofgene expression.
“The founder group of the current population was quite reduced in size,” he said.
“The genetic variation standing within gene bodies was, thus, probably limited in comparison to that present within regulatory regions. These regulatory variants probably offered as many possibilities to rapidly modify horse traits in a way that was compatible with their survival.”
Focusing on the genes and their regulatory regions showing evidence of selection, the team identified key biological functions involved in the adaptive process. These concern physical changes, hormonal responses involved in heat regulation and even the production of anti-freezing compounds.
The list of selective signatures also include genes, such as TGM3, which is involved in hair development and might be responsible for the extremely hairy winter coat of Yakutian horses.
Fellow researcher Dr Pablo Librado, who is also with the university, said: “In addition to unveiling their evolutionary origins, our approach helped narrow down the genetic basis of adaptations that are unique to Yakutian horses. In one word, their genetic makeup.
“We also found genes that were reported to have undergone selection in other Arctic populations, such as indigenous Siberian humans, and even the woolly mammoth. It provides a compelling example of evolutionary convergence, where unrelated groups exposed to similar environments end up independently developing similar adaptations.”
Colleague Dr Clio Der Sarkissian, who also took part in the study, said the work showed the power of ancient DNA. “We would have never been able to discover the existence of the now extinct ancient population of horses by analyzing the genome of modern horses.
“With ancient genomes, we can now understand the dynamics of past populations at unprecedented levels and track, through space and time, how these became adapted to changing environments.
“Applied to pre-industrial museum specimens, our approach can therefore help following how extant populations have been affected by ongoing climate changes and recent human activities. This can help develop tailor-made conservation programs, which will be ultimately essential for preserving endangered populations.”
The study group has already implemented such approaches for preserving the Przewalski’s horse, which represents the last truly wild horse living in the planet.
We need to get around to realizing that genetic modification isnt contamination, or carcinogenic chemicals, or sludge, or evil godless mutations. They aren’t horrifying and they’re grown natural just like everything else.
“i don’t buy anything with gmos,” said the woman walking her purebred pug
look don’t be against GMOs be against PATENTING GENES and PURPOSELY DESIGNING CROPS TO BE STERILE SO FARMERS HAVE TO KEEP BUYING SEEDS.
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Humans have been genetically modifying organisms since the dawn of human history. It’s called “domestication”.
Many of us are familiar with the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), but a research group is France has identified the genes for C-type lectins in this species most likely originated from parasitic wasps that are known to lay their eggs in the caterpillars of this species. These proteins are carbohydrate binding proteins with a large number of roles in cells.
Parasitic wasps are common in the insect world, with virtually all Lepidopteran species being targets for parasitism. It is believed that ~100 million years ago a wasp ancestor domesticated the bracovirus, and now these parasitic wasps employ it as a biological weapon against the caterpillars. The virus is produced in the wasp’s ovaries and acts as a vector for horizontal gene transfer (HGT). In the eukaryotic world, it is fairly rare for such an exchange of DNA between organisms.
The virus has long since lost its ability to generate a successful capsid, and as a result is reliant on the wasp’s ovaries for replication. The virus is injected into the host along with the wasp’s eggs where the domesticated virus promotes the growth of wasp progeny within the caterpillar by inhibiting its immune system. Each wasp lineage has its own set of virulence determinants encoded by the virus.
Integration of viral DNA may occur occasionally, if a caterpillar host manages to successfully defend itself against a parasitic attack or if the wasp lays its eggs in the wrong target. In both cases the caterpillar may go onto to develop into a moth or butterfly in possession of viral and wasp derived genes as seen in the monarch butterfly.
Figure showing the hypothesised process for HGT to occur between wasps and Lepidopteran species (Source)
Mewtwo is a Pokémon that was created by genetic manipulation. However, even though the scientific power of humans created this Pokémon’s body, they failed to endow Mewtwo with a compassionate heart.
Mewtwo is the product of decades of genetic engineering. Years of gene decoding, splicing, and cloning gave birth to the strongest and quite possibly the most tragic pokemon to date. What’s more, there are heavy implications that Mewtwo was not just cloned from Mew, but is part human as well.
DNA is the basic component for all genomes. Within the double stranded helix, every bit of information you can think of is present. What texture of hair, what colors you can see, if you have scales, resistance to certain diseases, and anything else you can’t think of that makes you, you is inside the DNA.
Cloning is relatively easy: genetic engineering, on the other hand, is not. The whole intent behind Mewtwo was to create the strongest pokemon possible. This is IV breeding to the extreme. To do this, scientists would have to decode the entire genome sequence of Mew, to determine what traits they wanted to keep, and what not. Keep the strength. Toss the cute. Funnel and focus the psychic ability. Dump the natural innocence.
Once you’ve managed to sequence the DNA and isolate the pieces you want, the next step is extracting it. This is most commonly done through a process called PCR, Polymerase Chain Reaction. This is an extremely specific process that usually involves 20-30 repeated temperature cycles. Because of this, PCR machines have been invented to automate the temperature of the sample in these cycles.
Essentially, the sample is heated quickly such that the DNA strand splits apart. This allows a specially engineered primer to enter in, and locate the target sequence. Think of the primer like a puzzle piece. It only fits one place in the DNA, where it will gladly connect. The primer, however, is just the starting point. Once it attaches, free nucleotides will come in and attach themselves to the primer, creating an extended exact copy of the desired gene sequence, at which point it will leave and the DNA strand will zip itself back together.
After that, the newly-created copies of the target gene sequences can be inserted into another organism. Or more commonly, embyros. The engineered embryo was implanted into Mew, and on February 6th, Mewtwo was born.
This method has been used to create glow in the dark rabbits, Jurassic Park style chicken egg dinosaurs, or the harsh and powerful Mewtwo.
PiraticOctopus 