New way to help crops fight disease
Scientists have managed to transfer disease resistance from one plant family to another, offering broader protection from potentially costly and destructive pests.
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The research appeared in Nature Biotechnology – 15 March 2010
The team from the Sainsbury Laboratory, UK, is already extending its work to several crop plants, including potato, apple, cassava and banana — all of which suffer from damaging bacterial diseases, particularly in the developing world.
This is a broad spectrum disease-resistance that will be difficult from pathogens to develop resistance to, but it is still a transgenic technique. The crop is considered a GMO.
What is natural?
From experience, people have less concern about a GM crop if the foreign gene is from a plant. They still have concerns, but for a variety of reasons (scientific, social, ethical) the risks become more acceptable. For the most part, the acceptability aspect appears to be driven by degrees of ‘naturalness’. That is, a foreign gene from a plant is more natural than one from a bacterium, which is more natural or has a higher degree of acceptability than a gene from an animal going into a plant.
Rational or not, the concept of unnaturalness is always one of the key points of discussion in chats with members of the public about GM crops.
Any GM crop using the above technology will most likely be a number of years away from commercialization, assuming it makes it through all the technical and regulatory hoops. And no technology is going to be the sole answer to an agronomic or agricultural problem and this is not really disputed among any scientist working in the plant breeding field. It will always be one tool among many to help solve a particular problem for a particular region, or regions.
Is it acceptable?
This technology is no different, but I am curious to know, if it lives up to its promise, whether it will be acceptable or not?
Under what circumstances would such a technology become acceptable, if ever?