Re:The transgenic petunia carnage of 2017
by unknown_apostle on Thursday June 08, 2017 @12:39PM
(#14515319)
In this matter of extreme complexity and nonlinearity, how can you ever tell the point where being paranoid is the right thing to do?
E.g. how can you know that transferring a gene from maize to petunias is still "sufficiently close" to the level of variation seen in ancient natural processes and evolution?
(Genuine question but also genuine worry about this.)
But genetic reshuffling, recombination, and horizontal gene transfer has been going on en masse in the microbiota we are surround by for billions of years. I think once we start considering introducing truly novel genes, we will have a case for greater caution and reserve. But so far, all projects are of the 'transfer this already existent gene to this other organism', and I think that is a less risky proposition overall.