Lecture 35: Science of New Dishes and New Organisms
the new gene. It usually takes hundreds of trials to get one that
successfully expresses the new gene. These modifi ed organisms
are generally unstable because in order to get the cell to accept
the foreign gene, the organism’s natural defenses have to be
disarmed. That means that when this organism is placed in nature,
it has an unusual ability to spontaneously mate with other kinds of
foreign genes, which results in all sorts of new creatures that are
created accidentally. This is especially dangerous with genetically modifi ed bacteria
because these extremely random mutants are often resistant to
antibiotics, and some scientists are speculating that the rise in
antibiotic-resistant strains of diseases is directly related to random
couplings of GMOs. Moreover, these kinds of mutations are very
different from selective breeding, which looked for similar kinds of
attributes but was never able to use genes from other species. The only possible problem with cross-species exchange of genetic
material is that we can often identify what a certain gene will
do—make eyes green, cause pest resistance, increase height—but
our understanding at this stage is still limited, and we don’t fully
understand all of the things any one gene does. With a new gene,
we never really know what secondary, unexpected characteristics
that organism may express. We do know, for example, that the pollen of genetically modifi ed
food can drift over into other non–genetically modifi ed fi elds and
spontaneously fertilize regular plants, so there are also combinations
of genes that we have no control over and can’t test for rigorously
in a lab—even apart from the fact that the farmer growing the
conventional crop may get all sorts of weird, unexpected hybrids. Moreover, because the modifi ed organisms are patented, if some
accidentally spill on the road and are growing in a farmer’s plot,
even if the farmer knows nothing about it, he or she can be sued by
the company that owns the patent. These patents began to be issued
in the 1980s so that certain companies had a virtual monopoly