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Are you engaging in hyperbole or is there a link you can provide where someone has spliced fish genes into a tomato intended for human consumption?
by shawn-butler 12y ago
Are you engaging in hyperbole or is there a link you can provide where someone has spliced fish genes into a tomato intended for human consumption?
- stolio 12y agoIt's a thing, though it didn't work. (Wiki links to more in depth sources): > An early tomato was developed that contained an antifreeze gene (afa3) from the winter flounder with the aim of increasing the tomato's tolerance to frost, which became an icon in the early years of the debate over genetically modified foods, especially in relation to the perceived ethical dilemma of combining genes from different species as the tomato gained the moniker fish tomato.[18] The antifreeze protein was found to inhibit ice recrystallization in the flounder blood, but had no effect when expressed in transgenic tobacco.[19] The resulting tomato was never commercialized, possibly because the transgenic plant did not perform well in its frost-tolerance or other agronomic characteristics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_tomato http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_tomato
- shawn-butler 12y agoThanks for info. Yes I would have been surprised if such a radical transfer would have been found not to actually harm the agronomic viability. Skeptical a promoter could even be found, but anything is possible. Helpful characteristics approaching commercial reality involve nothing of the kind such as the recent StAs1 and StAs2 Simplot potato or the AquAdvantage salmon opAFP-GHc2 construct.
- shanemhansen 12y agoTake it with a grain of salt, but this report of fish genes in tomatoes seems credible: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/dna/pop_genetic_gallery/ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/dna/pop_genetic_gallery/ Apparently fish tomatoes do exist, but have never been on the market.