Genetically Modifying Natural Microbes May be More Dangerous
Almost everything that has been said about the risks of introducing synthetic microorganisms happens to be true for naturally occurring microbes that undergo genetic engineering . Like synthetics , genetically modified ( GM ) microbes carry man-made DNA sequences that did not co-evolve with other microbes and higher organisms . As the released GM microbes travel to different ecosystems , their altered genetics can mutate , replicate , and be shared with other species . And just as with synthetics , the outcomes are unpredictable , unrecallable , and potentially permanent .
Other properties of GM microbes may make them even more dangerous than synthetics . First off , the process of genetic engineering can cause massive collateral damage throughout the genome . This was certainly true for traditional genetic engineering technologies used to create GM crops , such as soy and corn . To insert new DNA , technicians typically bombarded cells with millions of gene-coated particles shot from a gun or relied on specialized bacteria to infect the cells .
Today , GMO proponents claim that new geneediting techniques are precise and without side effect . Tragically that is not the case ( Davies , 2019 ; Teboul , 2020 ). Gene editing often introduces
It is impossible to comprehensively predict and evaluate the interactions of GM microbes with the environment .
random mutations to the genetic code both near and far from the intended change . The extent of these mutations can be significant . A recent article characterized them as “ chromosomal mayhem ” ( Ledford , 2020 ). The resulting damage to the genome is unpredictable and often causes the new organism to be more susceptible to further mutations ( Kosicki , 2018 ; Farris , 2020 ).
Gene editing , however , has made the process of creating GMOs vastly cheaper and more accessible . With just a primitive home lab , someone with little technical expertise can create new genetically engineered microbes for roughly the price of dining out .
GM microbes are more than just bacterial robots . They perform more functions than synthetic microbes , and their genomes are generally longer and more complex . Random mutations in their DNA sequences , therefore , carry more unknown