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Hidden Viral Gene Discovered In GMO Crops

Jeremiah Cornelius writes "Researchers with the European Food Safety Authority discovered variants of the Cauliflower mosaic virus 35S in the most widely harvested varieties of genetically-modified crops, including Monsanto's RoundupReady Soy and Maze. According to the researchers, Podevin and du Jardin, the particular 'Gene VI' is responsible for a number of possible consequences that could affect human health, including inhibition of RNA silencing and production of proteins with known toxicity. The EFSA is endorsing 'retrospective risk assessment' of CaMV promoter and its Gene VI sequences — in an attempt to give it a clean bill of health. It is unknown if the presence of the hidden viral genes were the result of laboratory contamination or a possible recombinant product of the resultant organism. There are serious implications for the production of GMO for foodstuffs, given either possibility."

2 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Anything that screws monsanto by ChromeAeonium · · Score: 1, Troll

    If there is any corp that can be rightly described as pure evil far beyond what is necessary to just make a profit

    They act like exagerated Saturday morning cartoon villains...you know, it's almost as if half the stories about them are completely made up by people trying to demonize the technology by giving it an evil corporate face then hitting the crops via guilt by association.

    The other half you hear (polluting & dumping ect.) is probably true though.

  2. Re:The danger with GMO is what we don't know by ChromeAeonium · · Score: 1, Troll

    Tight regulations so that only the 'bean counters and paper shufflers' can gather the funds to jump through the regulations...overly tight regulations are part of the problem.