Of Marco Milioni
The research project, which takes genetic engineering to a new level, It aims to modify the DNA of plants grown directly in the field, through genetically modified viruses (Gm), transferred to crops by insects, and able, in turn, to engineer the genome of infected plants. GM viruses will be transmitted to crops by phytophagous insects (like aphids, grasshoppers, bedbugs), bred and infected with such viruses, during their feeding activities. Once in the plants, GM viruses modify the genome to make it capable of making the plant produce substances, or physiological responses, that help the plant itself cope with stress. This, according to the Department of Defense.
The Pentagon explained that the research program aims to develop a crop protection system capable of rapidly acting on the plant genome, to help them cope with extreme events, such as drought or pest attacks. In such eventualities, a population of modified insects can be released onto crops. Insects, inoculating the plants with the GM viruses with which they were infected, they allow viruses to modify their physiology to better adapt it to the specific stress to which the plants are subjected. According to the Department of Defense, Insects infected with GM viruses should not be able to survive more than two weeks after release, to prevent them from becoming a problem for the crops themselves, but it is not clear how this can be ensured.
The scientists point out that their complaint is not dictated by the fact that the program is financed by a military body (they therefore do not write as activists or pacifists), but by the fact that the program is based on a very simplified and erroneous understanding of the complex mechanisms that regulate the genetics and functioning of ecosystems (therefore a purely scientific evaluation). Scientists warn that the project could have dramatic effects on agriculture and therefore on society. They also criticize the choice to conduct the experiment on corn (other tests are being done on tomatoes), a crop grown throughout the Americas, and on which the lives of hundreds of millions of people depend, and they wonder why a different and irrelevant species was not chosen instead for the nutrition of the human population, such as tobacco.
The main program issues identified by the scientists and discussed in their article are as follows:
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Insects infected by GM viruses can contaminate all types of plants. The research program is based on the assumption that insects released into the field will transmit GM viruses only to crops that need help. Actually, the authors claim, there is no way to control the behavior of these insects once released into the environment, which plants will be infected by GM viruses and what effects such GM viruses will have on these plants. An alarmingly obvious consideration, which reminds us of Albert Einstein's warning, “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, but I still have doubts about the universe”. The fact that some important US universities participate in the program, tells us that perhaps "financing was more powerful than reason". However, as the authors point out, the project has its own reasonableness when it is interpreted as a program for military purposes, with the aim of destroying crops in possible enemy countries.
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We cannot know how long the insects will actually survive once released into the field, and what this may mean for agroecosystems. Despite the Department of Defense's reassurances about the short life of the released insects, it is not possible to be certain how long these insects will survive. The enormous number of specimens that should be released increases the probability that some of these could survive for long periods, perhaps moving long distances, as is the case for example with locusts.
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Once GM organisms are released into the environment, they could escape control. The authors point out that it is not possible to predict the consequences of releasing insects infected with GM viruses. In addition to the risk of infecting off-target plants (and maybe other crops), i virus Gm, once in the plants, they could be acquired from other insects, not modified, during their feeding activity. These insects would in turn become infected by GM viruses and would in turn be vectors of GM viruses. Through this mechanism of continuous contagion, GM viruses would remain indefinitely in insect populations and in the environment, with dangers of transmission to other types of organisms. This eventuality (which I think can be considered very probable, even certain) could trigger an uncontrolled process of spread of GM viruses both in crops and in spontaneous vegetation, putting the crops themselves and plant and animal biodiversity at risk, with unpredictable effects.
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Genetic modifications induced in crops can be transmitted to the germ line and therefore can permanently alter the seed genome. GM viruses that are transmitted from insects to plants can cause changes in the DNA of germ cells (in the sex chromosomes), causing the plant to produce seeds that are also modified. In this case the changes would be permanent, and the seeds unusable for reproduction (this would be a dramatic problem in the case of contamination of crops of companies that use part of their crops for subsequent sowing, a practice adopted by many farmers in the USA, but recently it has also spread to Italy for soya, as well as being a practice often used by organic farmers).
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There has been no public or scientific debate on how to regulate the use of such techniques. The authors point out that although the research program has been ongoing for two years, and that tests have already been conducted in a controlled environment (tight), no commission has yet been established to evaluate the necessary regulatory processes and the risks that this technology entails and that, On the contrary, the program is still unknown to most scientists and citizens.
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The military potential of the undertaking will give rise to a dangerous escalation that endangers the entire world. The authors speculate that the US Department of Defense may be moving in this direction as a reaction to information about weapons of this type being developed in other countries.. That is, to operate within the deterrence strategy, as was the case with the nuclear program during the Cold War. But, the authors conclude, this could also be a newly developed program made possible by recent research in the field of gene editing (known by the acronym Crispr), techniques that allow easy manipulation of the genome. In that case, it would be this program that would generate an arms race in other countries, endangering international agreements, effective from 1972, on banning biological weapons (Biological Weapons Convention).
There are also some issues that were not contemplated by the authors, but which I believe are worthy of attention.
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Let's imagine, for example, a treatment on thousands of hectares in a region affected by drought. In order to ensure that the majority of plants are infected with GM viruses, huge numbers of insects will have to be released. How these insects will be produced and at what costs is a question to reflect on to understand the real economic sustainability of the project (at the moment there seems to be no information on this matter).
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Insects infected with GM viruses, to transfer viruses to plants they will have to damage them. A damaged plant is itself weakened and is more exposed to attack by other parasites, such as bacteria and fungi. This is in fact one of the reasons why GM corn that produces the Bt toxin was created, that is, to prevent the corn from being attacked by the corn borer which therefore facilitates the attack of the fungi (especially those of the genre Fusarium, while it is not very effective for those of the genre Aspergillus which do not require the presence of damaged surfaces to infect plants).
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Insects are naturally carriers of bacteria and viruses, therefore uncontrolled viral/bacterial recombination processes could also occur with equally unpredictable and potentially dangerous effects.
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Species identified as vectors are preyed upon by large numbers of other insects and animals (for example aphids from ladybugs, larvae of syrphids and chrysopes, parasitic wasps, fork, grasshoppers are preyed upon by reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, other insects, mushrooms). What effects could GM viruses have?, programmed to act and modify DNA, once passed into these species it does not seem to have been the object of attention.
The project Insect Allies it is touted as a technique to help crops overcome environmental stresses. However, in light of these considerations, this technique could prove counterproductive, and end up further weakening crops and causing unpredictable problems. The effect would still be positive if the project is seen in light of its use for military purposes, in areas far from home (although once the changes have taken place they would be uncontrollable and therefore could represent a risk at a global level; the problems caused by invasive species should serve as a warning).
Nhe 1976, at the dawn of genetic engineering (born with the development of the recombinant DNA technique, a technique that allows you to assemble different parts of the genome), the biochemist Erwin Chargaff (1905-2002), one of the architects of the discovery of DNA (although unfortunately he was not awarded the Nobel) published on Science an article with a prophetic title On the dangers of genetic meddling (On the dangers of interfering with genetics). Chargaff criticized what he considered a dangerous bio-technological drift, which saw researchers competing in a race for experimentation without rules and without reasoning. In the article, Chargaff described the common practice of experimenting on bacteria as madness Escherichia coli, a tenant of our intestines. Chargaff wondered to what extent research had the right to put the lives of future generations at risk, and drew attention to the need for public debate, suggesting that this technology remained under state control.
The crucial question, Chargaff wrote, is that the genetic modifications induced in living systems are irreversible and their effects unpredictable. The alarm that Chargaff raised far away 1976 it is more relevant than ever. New genetic engineering techniquesthey allow increasingly rapid and economical manipulations, now within everyone's reach, we think they are for sale online, a few hundred euros, kits that allow you to manipulate the genome of microorganisms. The extensive cultivation of GMOs and the increasingly massive experimentation in the field (often kept secret) have already led to the spread of GM organisms in the environment. In the 2010 the discovery that in North Dakota made the news (Usa) GM rapeseed was found widely in the environment. Last June, in Canada, the presence of a variety of GM wheat resistant to herbicides was discovered by chance it is presumed to have escaped from Monsanto's experimental fields about ten years ago. In the 2016 a similar case occurred in Washington state, in the USA.
Projects likeInsect Allies Program they take risk to an extreme level. Before Erwin Chargaff's fears become reality, a deep reflection on our relationship with biotechnology is necessary. It is urgent to confront a bio-technological drift that cannot be left to improvisation and anarchy, and much less at the mercy of private interests and human stupidity.
