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Transgenic Mustard Cleans Up Soils
Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers have genetically modified a common plant, the Indian mustard, to absorb more selenium, a toxic heavy metal found in soils polluted by irrigation wastewater. The transgenic plants were four times more efficient at swallowing selenium than natural ones in a contaminated area of California's Central Valley, according to articles from Nature and Wired News. These field tests are only experiments, but the researchers also want to add genes to other plants to remove different toxic materials from soils, such as mercury. What would happen if such transgenic plants filled with dangerous chemicals start to crossbreed with natural ones? Or if an insect eats these plants before being eaten itself in the natural food chain, leading to some selenium in our food? Read more and tell me what you think."
The plant takes selenium (which is bad for other plants,) out of the soil, and the plant can be used for feed, since animals need selenium in their diets.
Since this is a mustard plant, will we have Selenium-fortified mustard on our grocery shelves soon?
Um a plant filled with dangerous chemicals crossbreeding isn't the problem, but a plant with the GENES that make it more likely to suck up chemicals is a problem. You can also engineer the genes so that they can't breed, and that solves the problem, although it makes it more expensive to replunish the plants.
I'm personaly a bit nervous about GMO in the food supply, but I think this kind of thing, if properly controled, good do great things for the enviroment
sorry 'bout the mess...
Or if an insect eats these plants before being eaten itself in the natural food chain, leading to some selenium in our food?
Considering that it's an important nutrient, I don't exactly see this as a bad thing. Most people don't get enough of it in their diet.
Come on. If you were a self-respecting geek, you'd be embarassed to have wondered if a selenium-laden plant would be a danger if it bred.
The answer is NO. And I will add 'duh' to that, because you deserve it.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
For 1, Selenium isn't a metal. For 2, it's a necessary part of the diet of all known forms of life (it's a micronutrient). Seeing as you're not an expert on the subject, how about you STFU?
How we know is more important than what we know.
Sooo... Geneticly altered plant are good? Bad? No comment on Roland...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Read more and tell me what you think.
I think this article/posting is filled with anti-GMO FUD.
I think that's kind of sad for a site like /., which (at least in theory) should be a haven for people who take a positive aproach to life, instead of chicken-little ludites.
And I think that if you really didn't want to know what I think, you shouldn't have asked.
--MarkusQ
I didn't bother submitting this story when my Nature alert came in the other day...slashdotters don't do botany.
Since I PAY GNC to put selenium in my antioxidant cocktail, I want to know where I can get some seeds for this mustart to plant in my herb garden. Seriously? amounts, numbers, micrograms per KG of cooked leaves... some precise data is needed to determine whether we are talking about a poison or a nutritional supplement.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
From Wikipedia (no less)
:)
"It is discovered that selenium, an ingredient in some Head & Shoulders shampoos, is as poisonous to the alien life-forms as arsenic is to humans."
Just wanted to clear that up
"I don't think there's any time for lubrication"
"THERE'S ALWAYS TIME FOR LUBRICATION!"
Hmm. Maybe better to develop a plant to remove Roland Piquepaille blog advertisements from slashdot...
I am starting a web commenting service so people can see that the whole summary of some of these articles are false.
"Food of the Gods"?
Insert witty comment *here*. I'm fresh out of wit...
I can see how this could be useful and why, especially in dealing with areas of high-selenium concentrations. And am sure that if it comes into use it will some company , vitamin or otherwise, will find a use for it.
FYI Selenium is a " micromineral needed in the diet on a daily basis, but only in very small amounts (50 milligrams or less). The other microminerals that all humans must get from food are arsenic, boron, cobalt, copper, chromium, fluorine, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, silicon, vanadium, and zinc.
In the case of selenium, the amount needed from food is actually measured in micrograms, and ranges from 20-70 micrograms. (A microgram is one thousandth of a milligram, and in one ounce, there are about 30 million micrograms.)
While the nutritional value of all plant food depends on the soil in which it was grown, the selenium content of plants seems particularly sensitive to soil concentrations. For this reason, most of the early research on selenium focused on diseases in sheep, cattle, turkeys, and pigs which involved low soil concentrations of selenium and insufficient amounts of selenium in the forage plants eaten by these animals."
~As stated on the Worlds Best Foods website:& dbid=95
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient
How long until they can get plants that will suck up gold/platinum/silver or other precious metals?
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
What would happen if such transgenic plants filled with dangerous chemicals start to crossbreed with natural ones?
As if that happening would cause problems. The plants are genetically disposed toward absorbing the substance, not producing it.
It's not like I can feed my girlfriend a diet high in gold and expect our kids to take glittery craps.
Direct away from face when opening.
What if I ate 2 tons of the selenium plant and died?
What if I ate 2 tons of beas who ate the selenium plant and died?
What if I got stung by a bea who ate the selenium
plant and died from an acute allergy to beas?
What if I got hit by a car whose driver was a lab tech whose company developed the plant which absorbs selenium?
What if I ate two tons of dirt which contained so much selenium, that would otherwise be absorbed by genetically engineered planted, that I died?
What if I ate two tons of dirt? Eeww.
Ok, enough. There are so many irrelevant "what if" questions. The main questions are: What are the benefits of this plant and how do they compare to the risks of this plant _relative_ to the risk of exististing on this planet (including us, other organisms, and the planet itself). Most genetically engineered (and commercially viable) plants have so much benefit that their risks are wildly outweighed. Even with the "what if"'s.
My two cents.
Favorite
What would happen if such transgenic plants filled with dangerous chemicals start to crossbreed with natural ones?
Well of course we'd sue the natural plants for infringing the patents on this gene. Duh! Do we biotech IP lawyers have to explain everything to you guys?
HOWEVER, that only applies to the elemental form. Certain compounds containing Selenium are highly toxic, and it is my guess that this is what the genetic engineers were interested in.
To quote from WebElements:
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
They should have used some other plant which;
1. Doesn't have wild type relatives.
2. Is not a food crop.
After all, they're not trying to grow food, so it makes sense not to create plants which could interbreed with food crops if there's any chance that this modification could bring unsafe levels of selenium into people's diet. (yes, I know it's a micronutrient, but even more important nutrients, say Iron, are toxic if you get enough)
Then the bar for genetic modification would be much lower. True, genes can jump species barriers, but they're less likely to.
I've heard some other posters talk about Monsanto's so called 'terminator gene' and how it can prevent plants from breeding. I've always wondered if it was 100% effective, since the original purpose was to prevent farmers from reusing GM seeds next year.
It would only have to be 99% effective for that. But it'd have to be 100% effective to prevent a gene from spreading into the wild.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
One of the persistent worries about GM croops that have been introduced to the wild is whether or not they can "leak" their GM-ness. There wasn't much worry on this point when GM crops were introduced in North America but there is growing evidence that pollens produced by GM plants can fertilize non-GM crops and thus transfer their GM genes. Thus, whether we like it or not, releasing a plant with GM genes means that we are _always_ taking _some_ risk that the entire species will become "contaminated" by these GM genes. If all mustards were suddenly selenium sinks, we might find that table mustard had become too selenium rich for safe human consumption.
Then what would we put on our pretzels?
What would happen if such transgenic plants filled with dangerous chemicals start to crossbreed with natural ones?
I can't believe nobody mentioned the Day of the Triffids yet. I thought all Slashdotters were Sci-Fi geeks? I realise we're missing the strange meteor shower, but maybe these plants are the first step? The article doesn't mention anything about the roots, though...
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
Having read the article I would say it's a gas.....
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
Considering rotten GREEN putrid meat has been packed and even placed on sale in supermarkets, and GM grain is mixed with non gm grain in our foods (and US don't care) I will not be lookin favourably on mustard anymore.
Sorry Kramer, no Dijon
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
I'm not an expert in this field, but these experiments look quite dangerous to me in the long term, especially if they become widespread.
I think you're an alarmist that has no concept of how science, agriculture, or genetics works. Go protest something hippy!
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
I bought a new jar of mustard this week, I was looking forward to roast beef sandwiches, now I've got to go check it for heavy metals and radioactivity....
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
As seen in Nausicaa ... :)
Now we just need these engineered in a way to release excess poison as miasma. Oh, and dont forget to add giant mutant insects
But she doesn't quite weigh two tons.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I'm not sure concentrating the poison in something that might be processed as food is a good idea. Isn't this the reason that noone who knows better eats lobsters from around Boston?
"Vee do not vear the hello-my-name-ist badge!!" - The Real Mad Scientist
Point taken. I wouldn't trust some of them to count their own toes...which I'm sure they'll claim they have, being "persons" now and everything.
--MarkusQ