• Question: What new ideas are currently being researched by genetic scientists?

    Asked by mrskwallace to Andy, Cathie, Jules, Les, Ricarda on 26 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Les Firbank

      Les Firbank answered on 26 Jun 2012:


      loads of stuff. Genetics is a really exciting area to work now. I’m particularly impressed with using GM to help control diseases of people; scientists are trying to make mosquitoess less likely to carry malaria in Africa, others are using GM bacteria and plants to make vaccines and drugs that are currently very expensive. I think this is so impressive….

    • Photo: Ricarda Steinbrecher

      Ricarda Steinbrecher answered on 28 Jun 2012:


      This question is wider than I can answer.

      I could answer it as “what commercial ideas are being pursued in plant genetic engineering by genetic scientists”. In so doing I would have to emphasise that many of these ideas are not new, but have been promised for 20 years or more.
      Then the answer would include: nutrient alterations & GM biofortification (eg beta-carotene rice and maize, high lysine maize); abiotic stress tolerance (ie tolerance to external stresses that are not due to living organisms such as pests, pathogens, herbivores – so this would be tolerance to stresses such as drought, salt, cold, flood); fast growth and altered lignin content in trees; but mostly commercial ideas continue with and expand on what there is already: plants that produce a wider range of insecticides (eg different Bt toxins) and plants that are tolerant to more or different herbicides (including glyphosate, glufosinate, 2,4-D, dicamba).

      “Commercial ideas proposed by animal GE genetic scientists” would include:
      Attacking/reducing disease vectors such as mosquitoes (eg dengue fever, malaria) as well as insect crop pests; biopharming, ie using mammals to secrete proteins into their milk; fish modification (for fast growth and cold tolerance as well as tolerance to warmer water, inducible sterility; eg for salmon and tilapia). And in relation to this it is important to mention that species that might be adapted to live in conditions previously hostile to them (ie: colder or warmer conditions) may now have the additional risk of becoming invasive species in new regions, posing a whole new set of problems and scenarios to us.

      But the range of issues and ideas being researched within basic genetic science is enormous. For whatever we don’t know (or perceive that we don’t know or understand) there will be a group trying to find out; wherever there is a hypothesis, there will be a team or a single researcher trying to prove or disprove it.
      Research questions for example include:
      – how to predict the effects of therapeutics and to derive medicines for infectious diseases that don’t go obsolete because of resistance
      – how to predict the effectiveness of long term drugs on inborne (eg inherited or new) diseases based on genotypes
      – epigenetics (absolutely fascinating field!!)
      – how did life evolve? what level of biodiversity is necessary for a sustainable ecosystem?
      – etc etc.

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