[DIYbio] [GRG] Debate over DIYBio Plant with Synthetic Firefly Genes

----- Forwarded message from "L. Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D." <scoles@grg.org> -----

Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 23:45:30 -0700
From: "L. Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D." <scoles@grg.org>
To: Gerontology Research Group <grg@lists.ucla.edu>
Subject: [GRG] Debate over DIYBio Plant with Synthetic Firefly Genes
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To Members and Friends of the Los Angeles Gerontology Research Group:
Debate over gene-modified plant called frivolous
application... -- Steve Coles

> "Debate over Glowing Plants Grows"
>
>
> A Kickstarter Project That Promises Donors Arabidopsis Seeds
> Transfected with Firefly Genes Is Causing a Stir"
> by
> Bob Grant
>
> []
>
> Arabidopsis thaliana, the plant that the Glowing Plant Project
> seeks to light up
> WIKIMEDIA, SUI-SETZ
>
> June 5, 2013; (The Scientist) -- The <http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/antonyevans/glowing-plants-natural-lighting-with-no-electricit>Glowing
> Plant Project, which has raised more than $450,000 from nearly
> 8,000 backers on the crowd-funding website
> <http://www.kickstarter.com>www.kickstarter.com, promises to send
> donors seeds, for laboratory workhorse Arabidopsis thanliana and
> roses, that are engineered to carry firefly genes that will cause
> the plants to emit a faint blue-green glow. But the project is
> sowing more than glowing plant seeds. It's reigniting a debate over
> responsible uses of synthetic biology and the release of
> genetically modified organisms into the environment.
>
> Objections to genetic modification typically emerge over
> the topic of <http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/35578/title/Opinion--Don-t-Fear-GM-Crops--Europe-/>GM
> crop plants or <http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/35789/title/GM-Salmon-and-Wild-Fish-Can-Reproduce/>livestock.
> But the Glowing Plant Project has raised concerns from anti-GM
> activists and industry watchdogs alike. The ETC Group, an
> environmental organization that opposes all GM organisms, has even
> tried to launch its own <http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/35670/title/Speaking-of-Science/>campaign
> to stop the Kickstarter project.
>
> "We are extremely concerned that the USDA is not planning
> to regulate the first-ever field release of an organism engineered
> through synthetic biology technologies. . . . We urge the USDA to
> put a halt to this risky, unregulated pursuit," the groups wrote in
> a <http://www.etcgroup.org/content/kickstopper-letter-usda-aphis>letter
> to the US Department of Agriculture in April.
>
> In fact, the Silicone Valley entrepreneurs behind the
> Glowing Plant Project have satisfied the USDA's existing
> regulations regarding the development of GM plants. The agency's
> Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), which regulates
> GM plants and tries to ensure that the plant pathogen
> Argobacterium­a commonly used transfection vehicle­will not escape
> once GM plants are released in the field. By only using
> Argobacterium in the early stages of development and using a gene
> gun­a technology that is not regulated by the USDA­to insert
> foreign genes into the seeds that will be sent to donors, the
> Glowing Plant Project team satisfied APHIS regulators that the
> plants pose no risk, reported <http://www.nature.com/news/glowing-plants-spark-debate-1.13131>Nature.
>
> The apparent lack of regulatory oversight concerns
> <http://www.wilsoncenter.org/staff/todd-kuiken-phd>Todd Kuiken, who
> studies the <http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/34443/title/DIYbio--Low-Risk--High-Potential/>ethical
> implications of DIY biology at the Washington, D.C., think tank,
> the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He told
> Nature that while the Glowing Plant Project does not seem
> especially risky, the regulatory precedents could prove more
> problematic with riskier projects in the future.
>
> The Glowing Plant Project team is also planning to engineer
> glowing plants so that they will be able to survive only if fed a
> nutritional supplement, reducing the chance that they will spread
> in the wild.
>
> Though the technology to engineer plants that will glow has
> existed for nearly 3 decades, some experts are questioning the
> approach taken by the Glowing Plant Project. Ohio State university
> ecologist <http://eeob.osu.edu/people/snow>Allison Snow told Nature
> that the public will be more accepting of GM plant applications if
> they accomplish goals like treating disease or producing better
> biofuels. "This is such a frivolous application," she said.
>
>
> Tags:
>
> <http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.list/tagNo/1054/tags/transgenic/>transgenic, <http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.list/tagNo/455/tags/GM-crops/>GM
> crops, <http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.list/tagNo/2833/tags/genetic-modification/>genetic
> modification, and <http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.list/tagNo/2390/tags/debate/>debate

L. Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Founder
Los Angeles Gerontology Research Group
URL: http://www.grg.org
E-mail: scoles@grg.org
E-mail: scoles@ucla.edu

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