DIARY OF A BIOCHEM MAJOR

Thanks! Here’s the short version: I find nothing wrong with GMO foods and I fully support them as they can help feed an ever expanding world.

Long version: GMO plants are the most common type of GMO organism on the planet and the one that people think of when “GMO” pops up in a conversation. GMOs are frequently the target of fans of alternative medicine and other pseudoscience believers as they picture crazy scientists creating dangerous plants that will destroy the world/turn us into zombies/summon the Illuminati.

It reality its a lot more mundane. What happens is that scientists find a cool gene (say one that creates a protein that is toxic to destructive insects but not humans or one that increases the amount of vitamins present). Once the gene is isolated, scientists can take a virus, destroy its dangerous properties (such as the ability kill cells) then insert the new gene into the viral genome. Basically scientists can hijack a virus so that when it infects a cell, it only inserts the gene that they want. Hopefully the plant then takes up the new gene then starts to express the protein that the gene describes. After a ton (and I mean a ton, its usually a multi-year or even a decade long process) testing the new plant is certified and able to be sold.

GMO plants have helped to increase crop yields by making them more resistant to diseases and/herbicides. Scientists have even been able to increase the nutrition of rice by inserting genes that cause it express certain vitamins/other nutrients.