It’s just not so simple

Yet more evidence has now been provided that copying a protein from one organism into another is not always as simple as it might seem, and not the innocuous substitution that the biotech industry might claim.

Researchers found that a protein they copied from beans into peas took on altogether different characteristics immunologically, and unlike the original bean protein, the pea-produced bean protein caused allergic lung damage in mice. In the typically reserved and passive voice of the peer-reviewed research journal, they stated:

“Diversity in translational and post-translational modification pathways between species could potentially lead to discrete changes in the molecular architecture of the expressed protein and subsequent cellular function and antigenicity.”
(2005. Prescott, V.E., et al. Transgenic Expression of Bean-Amylase Inhibitor in Peas Results in Altered Structure and Immunogenicity. J. Agric. Food Chem., 53: 9023-9030.)

The protein in question was intended to function in peas as a natural pesticide directed against weevils, as it does in beans, but when produced by peas, the protein took on a 3-D shape different from that of the original. The researchers confirmed that the pea-produced bean protein’s amino acid sequence (the “building blocks” of protein) was identical to that of the bean’s original protein, but when it was produced by pea cells, sugars were attached to the molecule in a different pattern than those of the original pea protein.

Sugars are attached to proteins during post-translational glycosylation, performed by cellular machinery separately from the DNA sequence that codes for the protein’s amino acid sequence. As a consequence of this variant glycosylation, the pea-produced bean protein has a different shape than the original bean protein, and protein shape is exquisitely important to immune recognition.

What this means is that one cannot expect to predict the production of a given protein conformation based solely on its amino acid sequence, but it is that amino acid sequence that is the basis of all genetically modified organism (GMO) manipulations.

Glycosylation is not the only post-translational modification that proteins undergo in their production, but it is one that has already been observed to produce proteins that are sufficiently different as to confuse and confound the immune system, based as it is on recognition of surface shape and charge. There are other cellular processes that help proteins take on their final shapes as they are being produced, and it would be surprising if there are not similar divergences between species in these processes as well.

The short story is that we cannot expect GMOs to produce proteins as if they are dumb coding machines. We cannot assume that we can insert the code for a protein into the DNA of an organism and that the protein will be produced as we expect.

Furthermore, our regulatory system has not caught up with this reality. GMO foods are not required to be tested for immunological properties, and there are no particular tests that are recommended. This is not the first case of GMOs producing aberrant proteins that cause allergic responses, and will doubtless not be the last.

The larger question has to be: what about subtle differences that are caused but might be missed by whatever tests we have available? There are numerous immune system diseases that have unknown origins; is it possible that we could trigger these, or new, immune diseases through manipulation of the proteins produced by GMOs? How could we possibly assess such potential? Would we even recognize GMOs as the cause when we can’t identify the cause in many diseases that exist today?

This report demonstrates once again that such a phenomenon is possible, and as such, it’s a proverbial canary in a coal mine. The view of DNA coding for a string of amino acids that becomes a given protein has to be recognized as dangerously simplistic. Cells do not work like computers or assembly lines in a linear and predictable manner. And, even if the cells of one member of a species were to produce the protein product desired, that does not assure that all members of that species will do the same.

Slowly, evidence is coming to light that lends credence to my intuitive perception that life is vastly too complex to manipulate in such a clumsy manner and expect to be able to predict the outcome. Over eons of time, evolution has done this sort of tinkering for us, fine-tuning as it goes, leaving its vast number of failures to die in its wake. Yet we in our hubris believe that we know better, and can tinker away to our heart’s content, and can avoid the “mistakes” part of the equation, the failures, the deaths?

It seems to me that hubris is indeed the defining characteristic of our time, in biotech as in all other things. That doesn’t mean I have to buy in, and in the case of GMOs, buy in I won’t. I hope we don’t end up with an unstoppable conflagration of genetic pollution brought on by the agribusiness interests in their blind pursuit of profits, but that does seem to be where we’re headed at the moment. We ignore the canaries at our peril.

What was that about “protect and defend”?

This from Doug Thompson of Capital Hill Blue:

“GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the [Patriot Act] could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. ‘I don’t give a goddamn,’ Bush retorted. ‘I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.’

“ ‘Mr. President,’ one aide in the meeting said. ‘There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.’

“ ‘Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,’ Bush screamed back. ‘It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!’

“I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution ‘a goddamned piece of paper.’ ”

This is the face of American patriotism. We are on the verge of losing our country, if we haven’t already lost it, and the delusional power-drunks are in charge.

Banditocracy

12/6/2005 06:00 KGO-AM (quoting from memory):

“Great news on Wall Street this morning. Worker productivity is up by more than 4 percent, wage pressures are way down, and overall labor costs are reduced.”

Thus, workers are working even harder, producing more, and receiving ever less in compensation for their work and time. Ain’t America great? Where we can be proud of squeezing workers more and more and more each quarter, scuttling pension plans, reneging on promises of health care, watching as they scrabble ever downward on their race to the bottom? Why do I think Barbara Bush and her ilk would find this heartening, aside from the obvious monetary gains to Wall Street?

Only a brazenly heartless pig would greet the data above with glee. Anyone else understands what it means to the working man and woman, and to their children. It is 34 degrees Fahrenheit outside this morning in Oakland, and I wonder how many homeless people died last night, how many will die tonight. More good news for Wall Street, as utter desperation makes people willing to work for less and less. Ain’t America great, with the bandit class in power? So much more “efficient”!