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Post by hortusbrambonii on Apr 16, 2014 10:09:07 GMT -5
I just read this: boingboing.net/2013/03/25/the-case-of-the-poison-potato.html and I wondered about a few things. Isn't solanin in poisonous amounts easily detected in potatoes (tastewise?) and do certain types of gentech increase the risk to frameshift-mutations, which might be a risk in a plant from a family known to produce some of Earth's more dangerous toxins. (The comeback of a toxin that's not encoded in the potato now) I also have my questions about the way this whole story is framed, but hey whatever... Anyone who knows more?
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Post by mjc on Apr 16, 2014 10:47:14 GMT -5
I should know...but I don't even know who to ask any more, considering that at the time the work was being done some of my relatives owned Wise Potato chips.
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Post by billw on Apr 16, 2014 11:43:42 GMT -5
As I understand it, at low levels, solanine adds desirable complexity to the flavor. By the time it becomes unpleasant, the level is very high. So, there is a region in between where they taste good but can make you sick if you eat too much. You would still have to eat a lot to get seriously ill, but nobody wants to market a potato that occasionally gives people gastrointestinal distress.
To know if gene insertion increases the risk of a particular outcome, we would need to know in what chromosome and region the insertion is made. It is pretty likely that it isn't even done in the chromosome that codes the toxin (just based on the number of chromosomes), but it is unlikely that we'll be provided this level of detail until a modification has been on the market for a while.
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