MEXICO: For many, the phrase genetically modified conjures up images of scientists creating frankenfoods with deleterious new properties or large agribusinesses trying to swindle farmers out of their hard earned pay. However, new research from scientists at Ghent University (UGent) and the International Potato Institute, suggests that nature has been genetically modifying plant species for far longer than molecular biologists.
While performing metagenomic analysis of the sweet potato genome for viral diseases, the UGent researchers made an interesting discovery of transfer DNA (T-DNA) that was homologous to Agrobacterium species. Upon further analysis the investigators eliminated the possibility that the genes were present due to contamination of samples, since two different T-DNA regions were present in the cultivated sweet potato genome and that these foreign genes were expressed at detectable levels in different tissues of the plant.
Additionally, the Agrobacterium genes were present in 291 sweet potato cultivars tested, as well as a few wild related species. Moreover, one of the T-DNAs was present in all cultivated sweet potato clones, but not in the crop’s closely related wild relatives, which would suggest that the T-DNA provided an advantageous trait that was selected for during domestication.
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