The European Union is loosening its restrictions on certain gene-edited crops to take effect in two years. Really!

Good news, but too little, too late!

The excessive fear about genetic modifications in Europe is anachronistic and pathological!

"Last month, the European Parliament passed a law that will allow plants with genetic modifications that could occur naturally or through conventional breeding to bypass the EU’s onerous approval process for genetically modified organisms. The new regulatory process is expected to take effect in around two years."

"In a long-awaited step, the European Parliament yesterday passed a law that allows the expedited approval of many gene-edited crops without the rigorous review required for traditional transgenic varieties. ..."

Doomslayer: Progress Roundup - by Malcolm Cochran

New Law Lets EU More Quickly Greenlight Gene-Edited Crops

With new law, European Union can more quickly greenlight gene-edited crops

Scientists transfer obscure courtship behavior between species via mutation of a single gene

Amazing stuff!

"In a breakthrough study, scientists have transferred a courtship behavior from one species to another, triggering the recipient to perform this completely foreign act as if it was its own. While genes have been swapped between species to influence traits, a totally unknown behavior has never been genetically swapped into a different animal before. ..."

"Researchers in Japan have genetically transferred a unique courtship behavior from one fruit fly species to another. By turning on a single gene in insulin-producing neurons, the team successfully made a species of fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) perform a gift-giving ritual it had never done before. The study ...  represents the first example of manipulating a single gene to create new neural connections and transfer behavior between species.  ..."

From the editor's summary and abstract:

"Editor’s summary

In the fruit fly Drosophila subobscura, courtship behavior includes nuptial gift giving, in which the male feeds the female a regurgitated food gift. The same behavior is not observed in related species, including the common lab animal D. melanogaster.

Tanaka et al. studied the genetics of nuptial gift giving in male animals and showed that expression of the gene FruitlessM (FruM) in insulin-like peptide-producing cells (IPCs) was both necessary and sufficient for triggering this behavior in D. subobscura.

Overexpression of FruM in D. melanogaster IPCs induced neurite outgrowth in these cells and increased regurgitation behavior. These results unveil the genetic and neuronal basis of an evolutionary important species-specific behavior. ...

Abstract

In accepting a courting male, Drosophila subobscura females require nuptial gift giving in which a male gives regurgitated crop contents to her mouth to mouth. No similar behavior is found in D. melanogaster.

By clonal activation of neurons expressing the male-determinant FruM, we identified insulin-like peptide–producing cells (IPCs) and their putative postsynaptic targets, proboscis-innervating motoneurons, as those critical for gift giving.

We demonstrate that loss of FruM from D. subobscura IPCs abrogates neurite extension and gift giving, whereas FruM overexpression in their D. melanogaster counterparts induces overgrowth of neurites that harbor functional synapses, culminating in increased regurgitation.

We suggest that the acquisition of FruM expression by IPCs was a key event occurring in an ancestral D. subobscura that conferred a latent capability to perform nuptial gift giving."

Scientists transfer courtship behavior between species

First transfer of behavior between species through single gene manipulation (original press release)

Cross-species implementation of an innate courtship behavior by manipulation of the sex-determinant gene (no public access)

Scientists have successfully transferred gift-giving courtship behavior from Drosophila subobscura to D. melanogaster males. They genetically engineered insulin-producing neurons in D. melanogaster to produce FruM proteins, causing these cells to grow long neural projections and connect to the courtship center in the brain.

Pivot Bio is using microbial nitrogen to make agriculture more sustainable

Good news!

"nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas that harms the ozone layer" Really! It is measured in 0.03 ppm in the atmosphere according to Google search (CO2 is about 400 ppm).

"The Haber-Bosch process, which converts atmospheric nitrogen to make ammonia fertilizer, revolutionized agriculture and helped feed the world’s growing population, but it also created huge environmental problems. It is one of the most energy-intensive chemical processes in the world, responsible for 1-2 percent of global energy consumption. It also releases nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas that harms the ozone layer. Excess nitrogen also routinely runs off farms into waterways, harming marine life and polluting groundwater. ...

In place of synthetic fertilizer, ... company ... has engineered its microbes to grow on plant roots, where they feed on the root’s sugars and precisely deliver nitrogen in return. ... microbial colonies grow with the plant and produce more nitrogen at exactly the time the plant needs it, minimizing nitrogen runoff. ...

Farmers can replace up to 40 pounds per acre of traditional nitrogen with Pivot’s product, which amounts to about a quarter of the total nitrogen needed for a crop like corn.

Pivot’s products are already being used to grow corn, wheat, barley, oats, and other grains across millions of acres of American farmland ...

In 2023, Pivot started the N-Ovator program to connect companies with growers who practice sustainable farming using Pivot’s microbial nitrogen. Through the program, companies buy nitrogen credits and farmers can get paid by verifying their practices. ...

Pivot is currently selling to farmers across the U.S. and working with smallholder farmers in Kenya. It’s also hoping to gain approval for its microbial solution in Brazil and Canada, which it hopes will be its next markets. ..."

Pivot Bio is using microbial nitrogen to make agriculture more sustainable | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology "The nitrogen product developed by the company, which was co-founded by Professor Chris Voigt, is being used across millions of acres of American farmland."

Djibouti and other countries Unleash Genetically Modified Mosquitoes with Palki Sharma

Very recommendable! Who needs bloodsuckers? Why should they not be eradicated? For decades, most safety concerns about GMOs are hysterical, fearmongering, and overblown! Unfortunately, Palki presented an interview with some sun glass wearing weirdo repeating some of the myth about GMOs.

Using E. coli bacteria to detect deadly landmines safely

Good news! Amazing stuff if confirmed!

"Researchers in Israel have announced a breakthrough in safely detecting landmines – using bacteria.

They’ve developed tiny pellet-sized biosensors based on E. coli – better known as the cause intestinal infections.

The biosensors are dispersed over the target area, where they sniff out the chemical signature of buried explosives and become luminescent.

A drone then flies over, photographs them, and reveals the location of any landmine.... The planet is currently littered with an estimated 110 million landmines, many of them left over from wars that ended decades ago. ..."

Using E. coli bacteria to detect deadly landmines safely - ISRAEL21c

The European Union Is Finally Coming Around to Gene-Edited Seeds after 25 years of Luddite resistance

Good news! The EU has taken the so called precautionary principle to absurd levels! It has exploited the primitive fears of people!

There are still about a 1 billion people living on earth without sufficient food!

"In 2021, the European Union announced that it would be reviewing its 2001-era legislation governing genetically modified (GM) organisms ...

Two years following the EU’s 2021 announcement, the European Commission (the EU’s executive branch) is now proposing to loosen its restrictive GM rules in cases where gene-edited crops have been subject to no more than 20 specific gene modifications. A leaked draft of the proposed legislation suggests that under the new rules, EU countries would no longer be able to ban the cultivation of NGT crops. The decision is based on an extensive study that found, as an EU Vice-President put it, “there is sufficient evidence and scientific basis to initiate a targeted policy action on plants derived from certain new genomic techniques”—i.e., NGTs. ..."

The European Union Is Finally Coming Around to Gene-Edited Seeds For a quarter century, activists such as Vandana Shiva have opposed GM crops that can help feed the world. Now, more than ever, it’s time to reject their Luddite demands

China’s approval of gene-edited crops energizes researchers

Good news! Western countries are way too risk averse to a point to be self defeating! On the other hand totalitarian dictatorships like the Communist Party of China are too careless and risk seeking!

Humans have what it takes to accelerate natural evolution on much shorter time scales! What takes natural evolution perhaps millions of years can be done in months or years. All we have to fear is fear itself!

"... Since China’s agriculture ministry released preliminary guidelines on 24 January, researchers have been hurrying to submit applications for the use of their gene-edited crops. These include the development of wheat varieties resistant to a fungal disease called powdery mildew, which are described in a paper in Nature this week ...
China’s new rules are more conservative than those in the United States — which does not regulate gene-edited crops that incorporate small changes similar to those that could occur naturally — but are more lenient than the tough European Union stance of treating all gene-edited crops as genetically modified (GM) organisms. ...
Currently, it can take up to six years to get biosafety approval for a GM crop in China. But researchers say the new guidelines — which lay out the process for receiving a biosafety certificate for gene-edited crops — could reduce the approval time to one to two years. ..."

From the abstract:

"... Here we describe Tamlo-R32, a mutant with a 304-kilobase pair targeted deletion in the MLO-B1 locus of wheat that retains crop growth and yields while conferring robust powdery mildew resistance. We show that this deletion results in an altered local chromatin landscape, leading to the ectopic activation of Tonoplast monosaccharide transporter 3 (TaTMT3B), and that this activation alleviates growth and yield penalties associated with MLO disruption. Notably, the function of TMT3 is conserved in other plant species such as Arabidopsis thaliana. Moreover, precision genome editing facilitates the rapid introduction of this mlo resistance allele (Tamlo-R32) into elite wheat varieties. This work demonstrates the ability to stack genetic changes to rescue growth defects caused by recessive alleles, which is critical for developing high-yielding crop varieties with robust and durable disease resistance."

China’s approval of gene-edited crops energizes researchers Scientists say newly published guidelines will spur research into crops that have increased yields and greater resilience to climate change.

Genome-edited powdery mildew resistance in wheat without growth penalties (no public access)

First US Field Test of genetically modified Mosquitoes Begins in Florida

Good news!

Do we actually need these disease carrying bloodsuckers for anything at all? What are mosquitoes good for? What if we eradicated mosquitoes from this planet?

"... According to Oxitec, the modified mosquitoes are all male and carry a gene that makes female mosquitoes dependent on an antibiotic not available in the animals’ environment, thereby killing all of the male’s female offspring. ..."

First US Field Test of GM Mosquitoes Begins in Florida | The Scientist Magazine® After years of push back, the first batch of Oxitec’s engineered mosquitoes, designed to reduce population numbers, have been released in the Keys.

Plastic Munching Bacteria

Posted: 2/5/2017  Updated/revised: 5/23/2019, 12/9/2018

Update Of 5/23/2019

Another, recent article: These tiny microbes are munching away at plastic waste in the ocean

This article also stresses the destructive power of sunlight on plastic floating on body of water surface (emphasis added): “To conduct the study, researchers collected weathered plastic from two different beaches in Chania, Greece. The litter had already been exposed to the sun and undergone chemical changes that caused it to become more brittle, all of which needs to happen before the microbes start to munch on the plastic.”

Few articles about plastic actually mention this fact that exposure to sunlight already degrades plastic used for consumer products (e.g. polyethylene, polystyrene).

“The team immersed both [polyethylene, polystyrene] in saltwater with either naturally occurring ocean microbes or engineered microbes that were enhanced with carbon-eating microbe strains and could survive solely off of the carbon in plastic. Scientists then analyzed changes in the materials over a period of 5 months. Both types of plastic lost a significant amount of weight after being exposed to the natural and engineered microbes, scientists reported ...”

Update Of 12/9/2018

Meanwhile, more articles have been published about this subject:

1. Forscher entwickeln besseres Enzym gegen Plastikmüll – aus Versehen (German language; dated 4/17/2018)
2. Recycling hope for plastic-hungry enzyme (Dated 4/18/2018)

Both articles refer to a variant of a bacteria (Ideonella sakaiensis) that can break down PET plastic. Apparently, researchers were able to optimize the enzyme in the meantime. “The modified enzyme, known as PETase, can start breaking down the same material in just a few days.” (Source 2)

Plastics In The Cross Hairs Again

In case you had not noticed there is new environmental alarmism or hysteria going on about plastic contaminating oceans and ending up in the food chain. As usual the contamination claims are dramatically exaggerated. In past decades, many different attempts were made to malign plastics.

Trust In Human Ingenuity

I trust human ingenuity to handle such overblown concerns. Just read

Genetically Modified Bacteria Could Eat Away The World’s Massive Plastic Problem (dated 1/22/2017). The article is rather vague on specifics presumably to protect intellectual property rights. Here is the salient quote from the article (emphasis added): “Enter “Plasticure-BGU.” This invention would degrade the plastic and, as a byproduct of this process, will produce electricity by utilizing the energy released from PET’s bonds. …  using engineered enzymes and bacteria that could use plastic as a primary carbon source”

If I am not mistaken, humans also on the cusp of other solutions to the e.g. long recognized durability problem. I would bet humans soon will be capable of making plastic biodegradable, although previous attempts at that were not successful.

No To Statism

The usual recourse preferred by environmentalists to ban plastics outright should be rejected!

Europe Is In Love With Backwardedness

Monsanto Company Pulls Out

At least one company has the guts!

Today (5/31/2013), the highly educated Luddites of Europe were probably triumphant when Monsanto announced to leave the European market with its genetically modified crops (read here (German language), here).

European Navel Gazing & Risk Aversion

These European worry warts are aiding and abeting in slowing down a revolution in human progress like never seen before. Nobody would argue to put safeguards in place, but the European notion of precautionary principle (read here) and other dubious, environmental concerns are not much but academic superstition or sophistry.