How does gmo affect men

Furthermore, patterns of change in cancer incidence in the United States are generally similar to those in the United Kingdom and Europe, where diets contain much lower amounts of food derived from GE crops. The data do not support the assertion that cancer rates have increased because of consumption of products of GE crops. FINDING: There is significant disagreement among expert committees on the potential harm that could be caused by the use of glyphosate on GE crops and in other applications.

In determining the risk from glyphosate and formulations that include glyphosate, analyses must take into account both marginal exposure and potential harm.

It has been hypothesized that kidney disease may have increased because GE proteins reached the kidney. The committee examined epidemiological data to determine whether there was a correlation between the consumption of GE foods and the prevalence of chronic kidney disease CKD. The total prevalence of all stages of CKD in the United States increased 2 percent from about 12 percent in — to 14 percent in —, but the total prevalence has not increased significantly since then. The greatest percent increase is seen in Stage 3, and based on the study USRDS, , a large amount of the increase occurred in people with comorbidity of cardiovascular disease.

Prevalence of CKD increases substantially with age Coresh et al. Census Bureau, , as does the increase in diabetes and hypertension Coresh et al. FINDING: The available data on prevalence of chronic kidney disease in the United States show a 2 percent increase from to , but the increase does not appear to be attributable to consumption of GE foods.

Obesity in humans is a complex condition associated with several genetic and environmental factors—including geography, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, lack of exercise, availability of fresh fruits and vegetables, and less nutritional meals Thayer et al. Studies of various species examined body-weight gain when animals were fed a GE crop, a non-GE isogenic comparator, or a non-GE, nonisogenic control. The authors concluded that there were no biologically relevant differences in body-weight gain regardless of the length of the studies Rhee et al.

Human population studies have shown that obesity has become more prevalent in the United States for example, Fryar et al. An provided a graphic of the change in U.

As can be seen in the figure, the percentage of obese U. Because there is no increase in the slope after commercialization of GE crops, these data do not support the hypothesis that GE crops have increased obesity. These time-series data do not prove that there is no association, but if one is present, it is not strong.

Those statistics on obesity coincide with those on the incidence of type II diabetes in the United States Abraham et al. Although the gastrointestinal tract has evolved to digest dietary proteins in the stomach and small intestine effectively for absorption and use of amino acids, it is normal for some full proteins or their fragments to cross the gut barrier through a paracellular route between cells or damaged mucosa and for the immune system, which has a high presence at the interface of the gut wall and the internal circulation, to respond accordingly.

Detection methods are not specific to transgene-produced proteins but can find any dietary protein or fragment that is able to pass from the gastrointestinal tract into the bloodstream and tissues. The presence. For GE crops, a public concern has been that the immune system is compromised through ingested transgenic proteins. It was suggested to the committee in presentations and public comments that fragments of transgenes may have some special properties that would result in human diseases if they were absorbed into the body through.

The mechanism by which such genes or proteins would affect the body is not clear, although Smith hypothesized that consuming GE foods increased gut permeability.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that affects about 1 percent of the population of western countries. It is triggered in susceptible people by consumption of gluten-containing cereal grains Fasano et al.

Symptoms of celiac disease are the result of an immune reaction that causes marked gastrointestinal inflammation in persons susceptible to gliadin, a component of gluten protein found in wheat, rye Secale cereale , and barley Hordeum vulgare Green and Cellier, In addition to exposure to gluten, the etiology of celiac disease is multifactorial and includes genetic predisposition, microbial infection of the gastrointestinal tract, antibiotic exposure, and gastrointestinal erosion Riddle et al.

Diagnosis is based on detection of serum concentrations serotypes of IgA tissue transglutaminase and endomysial antibody IgA, the relief of symptoms upon gluten avoidance, and tissue biopsy. The genetic changes related to the serotyped IgAs are found in about 30 percent of the Caucasian population, but susceptibility to celiac disease is found in only 1 percent of this population Riddle et al.

The committee was able to find data on the incidence of celiac disease in the United Kingdom West et al. In the Minnesota and UK studies, there is a clear pattern of increase in celiac-disease incidence or at least its detection or the extent of self-reports that started before Catassi et al.

The increases are similar in magnitude to that found in U. The authors cautioned that most cases of celiac disease are undiagnosed. Some of the observed increase may be related to improvements in diagnostic criteria, greater awareness of the disease in physicians and patients, better blood tests, and increases in the number of biopsies.

However, recent observations point to an increase in incidence beyond those factors J. Murray, Mayo Clinic, personal communication, February 1, It should be noted that there has not been any commercial production of GE wheat, rye, or barley in the world.

The committee found no evidence that the introduction of GE foods affected the incidence or prevalence of celiac disease worldwide.

It appears to have increased similarly in the United Kingdom, where GE foods are not typically consumed and glyphosate use did not increase. The data are not robust, but they do not show a major difference in the rate of increase in incidence of celiac disease between the two countries.

Speakers and some members of the public suggested that the prevalence of food allergies has increased because of GE crops. The committee examined records on the prevalence of food allergies in the United States over time. As is clear from Figure and Jackson et al.

For a rough comparator, the committee examined data on hospital admissions for food allergies in the United Kingdom over time Figure UK citizens eat far less food derived from GE crops. The data Gupta et al. Autism is often described by such symptoms as difficulty in communicating, forming personal relationships, and using language and abstract concepts.

According to the American Psychiatric Association , autism spectrum disorder ASD encompasses the previous diagnoses of autism, Asperger syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified, and childhood disintegrative disorder.

The degree to which the increase in ASD prevalence since is due to improved diagnosis is also unclear. The distribution of first time diagnosis according to age and gender was the same. There is a higher prevalence in the United States, but it is difficult to evaluate whether it is because of differences in efforts in and approaches to diagnosis and in sociocultural factors that seem to influence prevalence.

FINDING: The similarity in patterns of increase in autism spectrum disorder in children in the United States, where GE foods are commonly eaten, and the United Kingdom, where GE foods are rarely eaten, does not support the hypothesis of a link between eating GE foods and prevalence of autism spectrum disorder. The committee heard from some members of the public and some invited speakers that ailments of gastrointestinal origin could be caused by GE crops or their associated technologies or by foods derived from GE crops.

The committee investigated the evidence available for that hypothesis. The committee received comments from the public that foods derived from GE crops could change the gut microbiota in an adverse way. Research on the human gut microbiota the community of microorganisms that live in the digestive tract is rapidly evolving with recent reports Dethlefsen and Relman, ; David et al.

Microbiota composition and state are now well recognized to be linked to noncommunicable chronic diseases and other health problems, so factors that cause either beneficial or adverse changes in the microbiota are of interest to researchers and clinicians. The effect of different dietary patterns for example, high-fat versus high-carbohydrate diets on the gut microbiota has been linked to metabolic syndrome Ley, ; Zhang et al. As discussed above, most proteins, including those in GE and conventionally bred crops, are at least partially digested in the stomach by the action of pepsin that is maintained by the acidic pH of the stomach in most people.

Further digestion and absorption are a function of the small intestine, where amino acids and dipeptides and tripeptides are absorbed. Therefore, an effect of a dietary protein on the microbiota, whether from GE or non-GE foods, is unlikely. However, there is some evidence that Bt proteins can be toxic to microorganisms Yudina et al. Buzoianu et al. In their study, day feeding of Bt maize variety MON and of isogenic non-GE maize diets led to no differences in cultured Enterobacteriaceae, Lactobacillus , and total anaerobes from the gut; 16S rRNA sequencing showed no differences in bacterial taxa, except the genus Holdemania with which no health effects are associated Buzoianu et al.

In the follow-up study in which intestinal content of sows and their offspring were examined with 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the only observed difference for major bacterial phyla was that Proteobacteria were less abundant in sows fed Bt maize before farrowing and in offspring at weaning compared with the controls Buzoainu et al. Fecal Firmicutes were more abundant in offspring fed GE maize. There were other inconsistent differences in mostly low-abundance microorganisms. On the basis of the overall results from their studies, the authors concluded that none of the changes seen in the animals was expected to have biologically relevant health effects on the animals.

Relatively few studies have examined the influence of plant secondary metabolites from any crop on the gut microbiota. Effects were considered minor. No studies have shown that there are perturbations of the gut microbiota of animals fed foods derived from GE crops that are of concern. However, the committee concluded that this topic has not been adequately explored.

It will be important to conduct research that leads to an understanding of whether GE foods or GE foods coupled with other chemicals have biologically relevant effects on the gut microbiota. FINDING: On the basis of available evidence, the committee determined that the small perturbations found in the gut microbiota of animals fed foods derived from GE crops are not expected to cause health problems.

A better understanding of this subject is likely as the methods for identifying and quantifying gut microorganisms mature. Since GE crops were commercialized, concern has been voiced by some scientists and some members of the public that foreign DNA introduced into plants through genetic-engineering technologies might, after ingestion, be transferred to the human gut microbiota and directly or indirectly that is, from bacteria into human somatic cells.

Although most of the concern regarding horizontal gene transfer has been focused on antibiotic-resistance genes used as markers of the transgenic event, other transgenes, such as those with Bt toxins, have also been of concern. A prerequisite for horizontal gene transfer is that the recombinant DNA must survive the adverse conditions of both food processing and passage through the gastrointestinal tract.

Netherwood et al. In their review on stability and degradation of. DNA from foods in the gastrointestinal tract, Rizzi et al. The authors concluded that some natural plant DNA fragments persist in the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract and in the bloodstream of animals and humans. For an event to be considered horizontal gene transfer, DNA must be in the form of a functional rather than fragmented gene, enter into bacterial or somatic cells, and be incorporated into the genome with an appropriate promoter, and it must not adversely affect the competitiveness of the cells; otherwise, the effect would be short-lived.

Plant DNA has not been demonstrated to be incorporated into animal cells; however, it has been shown to be transferred in prokaryotes bacteria. Indeed, molecular geneticists had to find genetic-engineering approaches for getting DNA to be taken into eukaryote cells and incorporated into a genome. There are no reproducible examples of horizontal gene transfer of recombinant plant DNA into the human gastrointestinal microbiota or into human somatic cells. Three independent reviews of the literature on the topic van den Eede et al.

FINDING: On the basis of its understanding of the process required for horizontal gene transfer from plants to animals and data on GE organisms, the committee concludes that horizontal gene transfer from GE crops or conventionally bred crops to humans does not pose a substantial health risk.

Conflicting reports exist regarding the question of intact transgenes and transgenic proteins from foods crossing the gut barrier. Lusk emphasized the need for negative controls in such studies. Placental transfer of foreign DNA into mice was found by Schubbert et al. Studies with dairy cows and goats did not find transgenes or GE proteins in milk, although chloroplast DNA fragments were detected in milk Phipps et al.

That makes it clear that there is no apparent potential for trangenes or transgenic proteins to be present in dairy products. However, these animals are ruminants, and their digestive systems are different from that of humans. Walsh et al. They found no evidence of the gene or protein in any organs or blood after days of feeding on Bt maize, but they did find them in the digestive contents of the stomach, cecum, and colon. Fragments of Cry1Ab transgene as well as other common maize gene fragments but not the intact Bt gene were found in blood, liver, spleen, and kidney of pigs raised on Bt maize Mazza et al.

FINDING: Experiments have found that Cry1Ab fragments but not intact Bt genes can pass into organs and that these fragments present concerns no different than other genes that are in commonly consumed non-GE foods and that pass into organs as fragments. Therefore, the committee finds that there should be no exposure to Bt transgenes or proteins from consuming dairy products.

There are now a number of examples of crops, either commercialized or in the pipeline toward commercialization, that have GE traits that could improve human health.

Improvement of human health can be the sole moti-. For example, the genetic engineering of rice to have higher beta-carotene has the specific goal of reducing vitamin A deficiency. GE maize that produces Bt toxins is engineered to decrease insect-pest damage, but a secondary effect could be a decrease in contamination of maize kernels by fungi that produce mycotoxins, such as fumonisins, that at high concentrations could impair human health.

Beyond the direct effects of the crops on improvement of human health, there is also a potential indirect benefit associated with a decline in the exposure of insecticide applicators and their families to some insecticides because some GE plants decrease the need for insecticidal control.

According to WHO, some million preschool children are vitamin A—deficient. Each year, ,—, vitamin A—deficient children become blind, and half of them die within 12 months of losing their sight.

Overall improvement of the diets of the children and their parents is a goal that has not been reached; measures that improve the nutritional quality of their food sources are desirable although not optimal, as a diverse, healthy diet would be. Crop breeders have used conventional breeding to improve the concentrations of beta-carotene in maize Gannon et al.

Saltzman et al. There is some loss of beta-carotene during storage and cooking, but bioavailability is still good Sanahuja et al. The most rigorous assessments of the effects of those high—beta-carotene varieties were conducted with orange-fleshed sweet potato high in beta-carotene in farming areas of Mozambique and Uganda.

In both countries, there was increased beta-carotene intake. In Uganda, there was a positive relationship between consumption of high—beta-carotene sweet potato and positive vitamin A status Hotz et al.

A more recent study in Mozambique found a decrease in diarrhea prevalence associated with consumption of the high—beta-carotene sweet potato Jones and DeBrauw, Accessed October 30, No reported experiments have tested any crop with high—beta-carotene for unintended effects.

There has been concern about the potential for too high a concentration of beta-carotene in crops because of the hypervitaminosis A syndrome that can be caused by direct intake of too much vitamin A, but that is not a problem when the source is beta-carotene Gannon et al. It is based on the understanding that rice possesses the entire machinery to synthesize beta-carotene in leaves but not in the grain.

The breakthrough in the development of Golden Rice was the finding that only two genes are required to synthesize beta-carotene in the endosperm of the rice grain Ye et al.

To raise the content to a point where it could alleviate vitamin A deficiency without consumption of very large amounts of rice, a second version of Golden Rice was produced by transforming the plant with the psy gene from maize.

Varieties that yield well, have good taste and cooking qualities, and cause no adverse health effects from unintended changes in the rice could have highly important health effects Demont and Stein, ; Birol et al. There have been claims that Golden Rice was ready for public release for well over a decade Hefferon, , but this is not the case. There is a publication on a field test of the first version of Golden Rice Datta et al.

In discussions with Dr. Villegas IRRI, personal communication, , it was clear that the project is progressing with a new lead transgenic event, GR2-E, because of difficulties with the previous lead event, GR2-R. The GR2-E event has been backcrossed into varieties that have been requested by several countries including the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Both Golden Rice varieties underwent preliminary assessment inside the greenhouse prior to planting in confined field tests.

If performance is good, the varieties will be moved to open field-testing on multiple locations. Once a food regulatory approval is received in one of the participating countries, IRRI will supply the rice with the GR2-E event to an independent third party to assess its efficacy at alleviating vitamin A deficiency. If Golden Rice is found to be safe and efficacious, a sustainable delivery program will ensure that Golden Rice is acceptable and accessible to those most in need.

Increasing concentrations of beta-carotene is only one goal of conventional crop breeding and genetic engineering. Projects for increasing iron and zinc in crops as different as wheat, pearl millet Pennisetum glaucum , and lentil Lens culinaris are at varied stages of development Saltzman et al. FINDING: Experimental results with non-GE crop varieties that have increased concentrations of micronutrients demonstrate that both GE and non-GE crops with these traits could have favorable effects on the health of millions of people, and projects aimed at providing these crops are at various stages of completion and testing.

Substantial efforts have been made to increase the oxidative stability of soybean oil, a major cooking oil all over the world, as a means of avoiding trans-fats generated through the hydrogenation process and enhancing omega-3 fatty acid content of the oil for use in both food and feed applications.

Soybean oil is composed principally of five fatty acids: palmitic acid , carbon number:double bond number , stearic acid , oleic acid , linoleic acid , and linolenic acid in approximate percentages of 10, 4, 18, 55, and High content of unsaturated fats creates a disadvantage in industrial processing because they are susceptible to oxidation and trans-fat generation during hydrogenation, whereas oils with a high percentage of oleic acid about 80 percent require less processing and offer another route to decrease concentrations.

High-oleic acid-containing soybean was produced by downregulating expression of the fatty acid desaturating enzymes FADA and -1B to decrease the concentration of trans-fats in soybean EFSA, In , high-oleic acid soybean was commercially available in North America and was produced on a small area in the United States for specialty-product contracts C. Hazel, DuPont Pioneer, personal communication, December 14, Canola Brassica napus , known in Europe as rapeseed, is the major oilseed crop in Canada.

Canola was developed through conventional breeding at the University of Manitoba, Canada, by Downey and Stefansson in the early s and had a good nutritional profile—percent oleic acid and percent polyunsaturated fatty acids—in addition to low erucic acid and a moderate concentration of saturated fatty acid 6 percent.

However, low yield and comparably poor agronomic traits have removed high-lauric acid canola from the commercial market. The long-term use of crops with altered oil content is uncertain. FINDING: Crops with altered oil composition might improve human health, but this will depend on the specific alterations, how the crops yield, and how the products of the crops are used.

Acrylamide is produced in starchy foods when they are cooked at high temperatures. Processing of potatoes for French fries and potato chips generates acrylamide. Toasting bread also produces acrylamide. That is viewed as a problem because the U.

National Toxicology Program Acrylamide is produced from a chemical reaction between asparagine and a reducing sugar, so decreasing the concentration of either is expected to decrease acrylamide.

A potato line was genetically engineered to have low amounts of free asparagine and in early tests had as little as 5 percent of the acrylamide compared with non-GE potatoes when cooked at high temperatures Rommens et al. The company also provided information to FDA. It should be noted that for many people reduced acrylamide in potatoes is expected to lower overall acrylamide intake substantially, but many foods contain acrylamide FDA, b , revised Therefore, how much low-acrylamide potato decreases total exposure depends on individual diets.

Furthermore, EPA has established limits for exposure to acrylamide, and current actual exposures are generally below the limits. Although the low-acrylamide potato is the only GE crop with a lower food-toxin concentration that has been deregulated in the United States, other GE crops with lower natural toxin concentrations are in the pipeline.

Langkilde et al. The study used Syrian golden hamsters instead of rats because the hamsters are very sensitive to the glycoalkaloids. There were some statistically significant differences, but they were considered not of biological relevance. At this point, the evidence is not sufficient to conclude that a low-glycoalkaloid potato would be healthier for humans. Highly toxic chemicals aflatoxins and fumonisins are produced by Fusarium and Aspergillis fungi on the kernels of maize Bowers et al.

Aflatoxins are considered by the U. Fumonisins cause a number of physiological disorders and are considered possibly carcinogenic to humans IARC, Several investigators have reported a substantial decrease in fumonisins in Bt maize compared with conventionally bred varieties Munkvold and Desjardins, ; Bowers et al.

However, there is no clear association between Bt maize and aflatoxin concentrations Wiatrak et al. Research continues on how to use genetic engineering to develop varieties of maize and peanut Arachis hypogaea that inhibit aflatoxin production, but a GE solution has so far been elusive Bhatnagar-Mathur et al.

A reduction in aflatoxin in both maize and peanut would have substantial health benefits in some developing countries Williams et al. FINDING: It is possible that GE crops that would result in improved health by lowering exposure of humans to plant-produced toxins in foods could be developed, but there is insufficient information to assess the possibility.

Chapter 4 presents data that demonstrate substantially lower use of insecticides in some Bt crops than in conventionally bred crops. There is a logical expectation that a decrease in the number of insecticide applications would lead to lower farm-worker exposure and therefore lower health burden, especially in countries where acute poisonings due to applicator exposure are common.

Racovita et al. All reported a decline in the number of insecticide applications to Bt versus non- Bt cotton. In a study in China by Huang et al. The frequency of Bt and non- Bt cotton farmers reporting poisonings were 5 percent and 22 percent, respectively in , 7 percent and 29 percent in , 8 percent and 12 percent in Kouser and Qaim found fewer overall insecticide treatments in a study conducted in India: 1.

In this study, the farmers who used Bt cotton reported 0. Bennett et al. Bt cotton was not yet widely available in the beginning of the experiment, but eventually some farmers adopted Bt cotton and decreased spraying.

The study looked at overall poisonings according to hospital records over time; there were 20 poisonings in the year before common availability of Bt cotton and four in a later year, when there was 60 percent adoption of Bt cotton. The findings of those and other studies for example, Huang et al. However, Racovita et al.

Another issue was that there may have been differences in risk—avoidance behavior between farmers who did and did not plant Bt cotton. Finally, the studies focused on farmers, not farm workers, who do not control farm operations. Farm-worker exposure to insecticides and herbicides is lower in the United States and some other developed countries than is the case for farm workers on resource-poor farms.

However, there is substantial exposure, and any effects seen in the United States would be of global concern. Prospective cohort studies of health are the high benchmark of epidemiology studies, and the Agricultural Health Study AHS funded by the U. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences used this approach to evaluate private and commercial applicators in Iowa and North Carolina.

The landmark study resulted in two peer-reviewed articles on glyphosate exposure and cancer incidence De Roos et al. De Roos et al. Mink et al. However, there is a need for more rigorous survey data addressing the shortcomings of existing studies. FINDING: A major government-sponsored prospective study of farm-worker health in the United States does not show any significant increases in cancer or other health problems that are due to use of glyphosate. At the time that the committee wrote its report, major commercialized GE crops had been engineered by using Agrobacterium tumefaciens mediated or gene gun-mediated transformation, both of which result in semirandom insertion of the transgene into the genome.

Variation in expression of the transgene was routinely observed because of the specific genomic characteristics of the insertion sites. Because of that variation, there was a need to screen large numbers of transgenic plants to identify the optimal transgenic individual. Regulations in the United States require approval of each transformation event regardless of whether the transgene itself was previously approved for release in that crop.

That is at least in part because of the potential for unintended effects of each insertion. Precision genome-editing technologies now permit insertion of single or multiple genes into one targeted location in the genome and thereby eliminate variation that is due to position effects see Chapter 7. Such precision is expected to decrease unintended effects of gene insertion, although it will not eliminate the effects of somaclonal variation discussed in Chapter 7. Consider, for example, the engineering of completely new metabolic pathways into a plant for nutritional enhancement.

The simplest example. A more complex example would be engineering of fish oils very long-chain unsaturated fatty acids to improve the health profile of plant oils; depending on the target species, this process has required introduction of at least of three and at most nine transgenes Abbadi et al.

If each of those transgenes is integrated into the genome on a different chromosome on the basis of separate insertion events, it will require a number of generations of crosses to put them all together in one plant. If, instead, all the transgenes could be targeted at the same site on a chromosome either simultaneously or one after another, they would not segregate from each other as they were moved into elite varieties.

From a food-safety perspective, engineering transgenes into a single target locus also ensures that expression of the whole pathway is preserved so that the correct end product accumulates. Emerging genetic-engineering technologies currently enable insertion of a few genes in one construct, but in the future that number may increase dramatically. In the future, the scale of genetic-engineering alterations may go much further than just manipulating oil profiles.

The committee heard from speakers about projects aimed at changing the entire photosynthetic pathway of the rice plant Weber, to create an entirely novel crop Zhu et al. The committee also heard from researchers interested in developing cereal crops with nitrogen fixation. Those projects are discussed further in Chapter 8. Although the precision of future genetic-engineering alterations should decrease unintended effects of the process of engineering, the complexity of the changes in a plant may leave it not substantially equivalent to its non-GE counterpart.

It is also important to note that crops that use RNA interference RNAi were coming on the market when the committee was writing its report. EPA convened a science advisory panel to evaluate hazards that might arise from use of this genetic-engineering approach.

When the committee was writing its report, deployment of dietary RNAi was a new technology. FINDING: The precision of emerging genetic-engineering technologies should decrease some sources of unintended changes in the plants, thus simplifying food-safety testing.

However, engineering involving major changes in metabolic pathways or insertion of multiple resistance genes will complicate the determination of food safety because changes in metabolic pathways are known to have unexpected effects on plant metabolites. The most far-ranging effects of emerging genetic-engineering technologies may be the diversity of crops that will be engineered and commercialized. Commercial GE crops at the time the committee conducted its review were mainly high-production commodity crops maize, soybean, and cotton engineered with trans-kingdom genes, but the applications of emerging genetic-engineering technologies are much broader: these technologies can be easily applied to any plant species that can be regenerated from tissue culture.

Furthermore, the emerging technologies described in Chapter 7 can focus on any gene in which an altered nucleotide sequence results in a desired trait. As a consequence, the committee expects a sizable increase in the number of food-producing crop species that are genetically altered. Examples of new target crops include forages grasses and legumes , beans, pulses, a wide array of vegetables, herbs, and spices, and plants grown for flavor compounds.

New traits will probably include fiber content either increased to add more fiber or decreased to improve digestibility , altered oil profiles, decreased concentrations of antinutrients, increased or more consistent concentrations of such phytochemicals as antioxidants for example, flavonoids and phytoestrogens for example, isoflavones or lignans , and increased mineral concentrations. Some of these are considered further in Chapter 8.

From a food-safety perspective, the increase in crops and traits presents a number of challenges. First is the need to develop better and more detailed baseline data on the general chemical composition and probably the transcriptomic profiles of currently marketed conventionally bred varieties of the crops see Chapter 7. Maize, rice, soybean, and other grains can be added to diets at up to 30 percent without adverse effects on animal health.

That is unlikely to be the case with new spices or some vegetables. It would be beneficial if new, publicly acceptable approaches for testing could be developed that do not require animal testing NRC, ; Liebsch et al.

Chapter 9. As acknowledged at the beginning of the chapter, understanding the health effects of any food, whether non-GE or GE, can be difficult. The properties of most plant secondary metabolites are not understood, and isolating the effects of diet on animals, including humans, is challenging. Although there are well-developed methods for assessing potential allergenicity of novel foods, these methods could miss some allergens.

However, the research that has been conducted in studies with animals and on chemical composition of GE foods reveals no differences that would implicate a higher risk to human health from eating GE foods than from eating their non-GE counterparts. Long-term epidemiological studies have not directly addressed GE food consumption, but available time-series epidemiological data do not show any disease or chronic conditions in populations that correlate with consumption of GE foods.

The committee could not find persuasive evidence of adverse health effects directly attributable to consumption of GE foods. New methods to measure food composition that involve transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics provide a broad, nontargeted assessment of thousands of plant RNAs, proteins, and compounds.

When the methods have been used, the differences found in comparisons of GE with non-GE plants have been small relative to the naturally occurring variation found in conventionally bred crop varieties.

Differences that are detected by using -omics methods do not on their own indicate a safety problem. There is some evidence that GE insect-resistant crops have had benefits to human health by reducing insecticide poisonings and decreasing exposure to fumonisins.

Several crops had been developed or were in development with GE traits designed to benefit human health; however, when the committee was writing its report, commercialized crops with health benefits. New crops developed with the use of emerging genetic-engineering technologies were in the process of being commercialized.

The precision associated with the technologies should decrease some sources of unintended changes that occur when plants are genetically engineered and thus simplify food-safety testing. Therefore, publicly funded research on novel approaches for testing future products of genetic engineering is needed so that accurate testing methods will be available when the new products are ready for commercialization.

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Critical Reviews in Toxicology — Belknap, J. Mitchell, L. Helms, and J. Type I and type II error rates for quantitative trait loci QTL mapping studies using recombinant inbred mouse strains. Behavior Genetics — Bennett, R. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Log in and interact with engaging content: show how they matter to you, share your experience First Name. Last Name. Allergenicity: the reason why the transfer of genes from commonly allergenic organisms to non-allergic organisms is discouraged unless it can be demonstrated that the protein product of the transferred gene is not allergenic.

According to the WHO, GM foods currently on the market have not been linked with allergic effects; Gene transfer: refers to the possible gene transfer from GM foods to bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract or body cells with the potential to affect human health negatively.

This is particularly worrying — though the WHO says the probability of transfer is low — if antibiotic resistance genes, used as markers when creating GMOs, were to be transferred.

As a result, there may be indirect effects on food safety and food security. According to the WHO, there were reported cases of GM crops approved for animal feed or industrial were found at low levels in products for human consumption.

Some countries have adopted policies to minimize this potential mix such as the separation of fields with GM and conventional crops. GMOs Have Increase The Use Of Herbicides One of the environmental concerns of GMOs is that GM crops constantly getting herbicide are likely not only to increase the severity of resistant weeds but they also push for greater use of herbicides with potentially negative consequences for surrounding ecosystems and environmental quality soil gets depleted, microorganisms get affected, if chemicals hit the water they can harm marine species.

Wildlife Gets Impacted By GM Crops Once GMOs are introduced in the environment they cannot be recalled, which is potentially dangerous regarding issues such as outcrossing which may originate mutant bugs or plants that may interfere with food chains and the natural functioning of ecosystems. GMOs and Climate Change Resilience Moreover, sustainable agriculture and biodiversity benefit most from crop diversity. Are GMOs Sustainable?

The Social Impact of GMOs Genetically modified crops are a serious threat to farmer sovereignty as a small number of companies hold the patent of seeds. Show how useful this article has been. Cancel reply Comment Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

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EuroChoices 6 , 46—53 Devlin, R. Extraordinary salmon growth. Nature , — link to article. Devos, Y. Ethics in the societal debate on genetically modified organisms: A re quest for sense and sensibility. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 21 , 29—61 doi Guerrero-Andrade, O. Expression of the Newcastle disease virus fusion protein in transgenic maize and immunological studies. Transgenic Research 15 , — doi Hiatt, A. Production of antibodies in transgenic plants. Nature , 76—79 link to article.

Hoban, T. Public attitudes towards agricultural biotechnology. ESA working papers nos. Jesse, H. Field deposition of Bt transgenic corn pollen: Lethal effects on the monarch butterfly. Oecologia , — Losey, J. Transgenic pollen harms monarch larvae.

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Nature Reviews Genetics 9 , — doi Human Genome Project information: Genetically modified foods and organisms, Restriction Enzymes. Genetic Mutation. Functions and Utility of Alu Jumping Genes. Transposons: The Jumping Genes. DNA Transcription. What is a Gene? Colinearity and Transcription Units. Copy Number Variation. Copy Number Variation and Genetic Disease. Copy Number Variation and Human Disease.

Tandem Repeats and Morphological Variation. Chemical Structure of RNA. Eukaryotic Genome Complexity. RNA Functions. Citation: Phillips, T. Nature Education 1 1 If you could save lives by producing vaccines in transgenic bananas, would you? In the debate over large-scale commercialization and use of GMOs, where should we draw the line? Aa Aa Aa. Current Use of Genetically Modified Organisms.

Figure 1. Potential GMO Applications. Unintended Economic Consequences. References and Recommended Reading.