Toxicity-Resistant Crops

Comments

• Questions on edibility shomas on 10/02/2008 at 12:34 AM

  Posts: 38 Avg Rating:

  It would seem reasonable to question the edibility of crops with high levels of aluminum. Is there an increased risk of dna damage in people or livestock. It might seem that if used with bio fuel crops, this new technology would make otherwise poor crop land productive. Could an alternative be to change the acidity of the soils to make them more alkaline, or is this solution too costly. Could the mutated gene "AtATR" be used to encourage other mutations in plants for scientific study with mutation rates modulated with soil acidity levels, possibly even during the plants life cycle. Each generation, select for desired characteristics. Rate this comment: (Reply)

  • Re: Questions on edibility zenzicube on 10/02/2008 at 7:17 PM

    Posts: 1 Avg Rating:

    I worked on this project and the possibilities are rather exciting.  We hadn't considered its utility for biofuel crop production, but that's certainly an interesting application!  As to the levels of aluminum in the crops, it depends on whether the crops themselves are bioaccumulators.  Most aren't, as Al bioaccumulators are also Al-tolerant plants.  Tea is one such accumulator, and people have been consuming it for thousands of years. Aluminum-rich soils can be treated with ground limestone to raise the pH and allow for crop growth, but this is expensive, labor intensive, and short-lived as Al-rich soils are often sandy and ions tend to leach out over time (hence the acidic pH). Rate this comment: (Reply)

    • 	soil ph conditioning crop. shomas on 10/04/2008 at 8:48 PM
      Posts: 38 Avg Rating:	Is it possible and would it be of any benefit to engineer a plant for conditioning a soils PH, making it more alkaline, and used every other year on soils other wise normally too acidic. Rate this comment: (Reply)

  • Re: Questions on edibility shomas on 10/02/2008 at 10:53 PM

    Posts: 38 Avg Rating:

    Foods genetically modified in a way that allows "more genetic damage" as stated in the article, may not be accepted by the general population as quickly as modified plants for bio fuel might be. I looked at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_pH and it says "Many nutrient cations such as zinc (Zn2+), aluminum (Al3+), iron (Fe2+), copper (Cu2+), cobalt (Co2+), and manganese (Mn2+) are soluble and available for uptake by plants below pH 5.0", and at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acidosis "Blood pH values compatible with life in mammals are limited to a pH range between 6.8 and 7.8. Changes in the pH of arterial blood (and therefore the extracellular fluid) outside this range result in irreversible cell damage". From that can I assume, Because humans have a ph of 7.35 to 7.45, they wouldn't normally have to worry about aluminum ions damaging their dna? Rate this comment: (Reply)

• 	Okay, props to the editor... Monsterboy on 10/02/2008 at 8:04 AM
  Posts: 62 Avg Rating:	...for the "aluminum foiled" caption. Rate this comment: (Reply)

• pandoras box phoenix on 10/02/2008 at 9:04 AM

  Posts: 129 Avg Rating:

  For someone, who, after having done all the major work that he needed to do in philosophy and metaphysics by the age of fourteen, and quite literally played the Sorcerers Apprentice for his fifteenth year, I know firsthand just how foolhardy and dangerous that the search for real esoteric knowledge can be. Although our recent attempts at genetic manipulation would seem to be an almost biological necessity in the face of fighting pandemic diseases and promoting hybrid plants, it is also, at least to my way of thinking, just a modern form of alchemy. Ancient texts on the subject, some of which are still in existence today, reveal that inexhautible and equally foolhardy desire to quite literally turn dross into gold. If todays scientific community published a modern online compendium of each experiment which has been undertaken so far to achieve that very same effect, I'm sure that it would be an interesting study in how human nature never quite changes regardless of its present circumstances. Rate this comment: (Reply)

• Any reason for concern here? flared0ne on 10/02/2008 at 1:13 PM

  Posts: 22 Avg Rating:

  It would seem that disabling a pathway which evolved to detect genetic damage (and respond by shutting down further replication using that damaged 'blueprint') might present some risk of unleashing tumorous growth, depending on the range of possible genetic damage involved... At least we supposedly aren't talking about anything which might affect changes to germplasm, i.e. allowing the alumina-content of the substrate to somehow have an impact on the SEEDS produced later by the plant. Rate this comment: (Reply)

  • 	Re: Any reason for concern here? shomas on 10/04/2008 at 8:33 PM
    Posts: 38 Avg Rating:	The article proposed this "To avoid DNA damage accumulating over generations of growing on aluminum-rich soils, farmers could obtain seeds from mutant plants grown on aluminum-free soil." On a side note, could it be possible to genetically engineer the plant to sense ph, When ph drop too low cells make an alkaline keeping the plants ph at a level to prevent dna damage? Rate this comment: (Reply)