Plant biotechnology has 3 main definitions according to the elements that are involved in the manipulation of the plants. Plant biotechnology has been used more than 6000 years for the improvement of yield or quality or to increase plants’ endurance against environmental risks and diseases. In a traditional old way, seeds are selected which will give rise to desired products. In 1944, plant breeder Norman Borlaug developed dwarf wheat which has more efficient seed that stores most of their resources. This work won Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 and these dwarf wheat varieties have increased crop yield that turned India and Pakistan from grain importers to grain exporters. Rice has also improved and these products are highly efficient and important for the world’s food supply. However, traditional breeding is not enough to satisfy the need because the selection depends on whole organism which requires natural reproduction within close species. Modern plant biotechnology enables us to work with the organisms in molecular level instead of organismal level. In 1970, scientists were able to move DNA from one organism to the unrelated organism which is dated as the beginning of the modern biotechnology. Genome mapping and marker-assisted breeding are developed to increase efficiency of crops.
Increase in global population comes with great challenges which include clothing and feeding without changing the environmental quality. Thus, scientist applied genetic engineering to develop better crops that has improved yield, higher efficiency and stress tolerance against environmental changes. Recently, scientists search for new functions which can plants carry out, like biosensing and production of important compounds. So, transgenic plant biotechnology has been developed which opened the way of scientists to manipulate the genome directly by isolation of DNA and application of insertion and multiplication. Besides all these, the genes from an unrelated species can be activated in the host genome which changes the molecular makeup. These tools are applied to plants and the products are called genetically modified (GM). This technology has been used more than 30 years with genetic engineering. First, in 1980, scientists used Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation to introduce heterologous DNA into plants. Now, almost all commercially grown crops are developed with these methods. The manipulation of the genome can be processed by introducing the new genes and regulatory elements, or by decreasing the endogenous gene expression. Insertion of the DNA construct into chromosomes has been effective to create herbicide tolerance and insect resistance. Addition to indirect introduction of DNA with Agrobacterium, direct adding can be done by particle bombardment. On the other hand, random gene insertion to make greater changes such as addition of new metabolic pathway wouldn’t be favorable. Plastid transformation and engineered nucleases can be used for the site-specific integration of multiple or stacked transgenes. Recently, genome editing technologies have been improved by the discovery of programmable nucleases which provides more precise DNA manipulations. Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs), transcription-activator like effector nucleases (TALENs) are the tools for genome editing but the newest tool is CRISPR-Cas9. CRISPR basically is a prokaryotic RNA mediated system aim to defense organism itself. This system has been modified for genome editing. The Cas9 enzyme follows the guide RNA which makes sure that the enzyme makes a cut in both strands at the specific location of the genome. Then DNA tries to repair itself and at this point, scientists use DNA repair machinery to introduce changes by removing, altering or adding new genes into genome. This new technology opened the way of plant scientist to create genetically modified crops much way easier. With transgenic plant biotechnology, there are some GM crops available commercially in US such as soybeans, potatoes, cotton, corn, canola, apples, etc. In addition, artificial chromosomes are also studied which can have a key role in the future of plant biotechnology.
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Transgenic biotechnology brings along ethical questions because of leading to agricultural, socio-economical and industrial changes. There are some theories of ethics that consider plant biotechnology, or more specifically “GMO” which consists of three general categories; consequentialism, autonomy/consent and virtue ethics. Consequentialism debate the question about GM crops which is ‘does genetic modification in agriculture cause good consequences?’. If we consider that it has good consequences, then we have a moral compulsion to use this technology to improve life standards, for example to save lands from agriculture or to feed increasing world population. However, if it has bad consequences like unintended effects of transgenesis that is harmful, we would have moral obligation to restrict this technology to use in agriculture. Although it seems easy to make decision, it is impossible to give absolute ethical judgment. Some genetically modified crops are more environmentally friendly and better for human health than non-GMO ones even though they are not accepted on ethical grounds. For example, how can we make ethical decision if the transgenic pollens disseminate but preserves a big amount of land? All human technologies can have good or bad consequences which depends on the usage. Scientific risk assessment is important to understand possible consequences of transgenesis. In addition, political views also affect ethical grounds because how we view the world influences our ethical judgment even if the genetically modified crops are good for environment and human health. For example, GMO in food can be seen as harmless from scientists, however, it can be still unacceptable from another point of view which shows that scientific risk assessment will not prevent the debate of consequentalism.
Autonomy/consent ethics discuss the self-determination in which the usage or consumption of GMO products depends on people and their own decision. This approach focuses on the question ‘should people know if they are consuming GM crops or non-GM crops?’. For example, farmer can decide to use GM seeds that is less harmful to his/her body because of the decrease in herbicide exposure while a person can prefer to consume non-GMO crops. Thus, there should be labels on the products that says ‘GMO’ or ‘non-GMO’ according to this ethical approach. These people and campaigns defend ‘right to know’ motto which states that people have moral rights to decide if they want to consume GM crops or not. However, some scientists think that the labels on the products is not okay to use because people have lack of knowledge about plant breeding, how the mechanism works and what are the possible consequences and they will be scared of the ‘GMO’ label. So, they think that this is a way to manipulate people for commercial or political reasons.
Another ethical approach is to pay attention to non-scientific concerns of the society and interact it to the scientific-based approach. Even it sounds a fare way to do, scientists can be dragged into political issues and allow politicians to interfere with the scientific tools. Virtue ethics discuss about the values which are ideal traits that generally defined by tradition or religion. People see the world with the idea of God or Nature which can affect their ideas about plant biotechnology. Some religious people believe that manipulation of the genome is like playing God and the nature created by God shouldn’t be managed, therefore, genetical modifications are wrong. However, some other religious people accept the change, evolution, and interference. They think that humankind is also a part of the nature and manipulation of genome is a gift from God to adapt environment. On the other hand, differently from the religious approach, some people also thing that biotechnology is bad because it is artificial, only the natural is good while some people think the opposite. The Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation states that usage of genetic material from plants, animals and other organisms should be legislated without abusing their dignity. Federal Ethics Commission prevents the unnecessary or arbitrary usage of organisms for biotechnology including plants. In addition, insertion of human or animal genes into plant genomes has become another ethical issue. These ethical questions will always be conflicting because science based ideas are not enough to accept plant biotechnology by genetic manipulation. Some people will see it as a threat to the nature or religion and some people will see it as a future of human life by creating new plants that are resistant to insects, with high yield and nutritious.
Plant biotechnology has always been a conflict issue and everyone has an idea about it even they have lack of knowledge. American Medical Association, World Health Organization, and most of the members of the American Association for Advancement of Science claim that genetically modified crops are generally harmless. On the other hand, a lot of people including doctors, nutritionists and some organizations such as Environmental Working Group are more suspicious and query GMO consumption. In my opinion, it is too soon to be sure about possible consequences of genetically modified crop consumption. Transgenic plant biotechnology is a young technology which the products have been consumed around 20 years. However, there is no doubt, we need plant biotechnology with this growing population and decreasing energy resources. Though, this technology doesn’t give us right to use it arbitrary for everything even it’s not necessary. Results and possible consequences of changing the plant genome should be focused. For now, there is no obvious harmful consequence of direct consumption of GMO products. The first genetic modification with Agrobacterium was the insertion of gene from bacteria that kills insects and plants could able to kill insects with fewer pesticides. Of course, this has created a good consequence for both farmers and consumers however, genetic engineering can also develop plants that can withstand higher doses of herbicides. Herbicides are chemicals that is used for weed control. It is the same as insect resistance in which they put herbicide tolerance gene into plants. These transgenic plants tolerate the herbicide which kills weeds. Although it sounds very useful for farmers, the chemical in herbicides called glyphosate is a human carcinogen which means any exposure to this chemical can cause cancer according to The International Agency for Research on Cancer. Thus, the excess accumulation of glyphosate in herbicide tolerance plants is an indirect harm of GMO foods. There are significant amounts of glyphosate in cereals or granola bars caused by herbicides, not the gene that is put. In addition, our ecosystem is also affected by genetically engineered plants. Excess usage of glyphosate cause a new generation of herbicide resistant weeds which creates a huge problem to farmers. Scientists’ respond to this problem was even worse. They engineered plants that can tolerate even more toxic herbicides such as 2,4-D which is also highly carcinogen and threat to the neighboring crops. Although this harmful consequence not reasoned by the direct consumption of GM crops, it is still a bad result. Thus, herbicide resistant crops shouldn’t be produced anymore and scientists should search for another way instead of giving rise to excess usage of chemicals. Plant biotechnology can be a life saving technology as well as being harmful. Biofortification aims to overcome nutritional deficiency by providing essential micro-nutrients like vitamins or minerals via genetic modifications. Especially in Africa and some regions of the Asia, people suffer from vitamin-A deficiency which causes blindness and death. Thus, ‘Golden Rice’ has been developed by enrichment of pro-vitamin A in rice. Humanitarian Golden Rice Project saved lives in Africa. In addition, plant biotechnology is used for production of highly efficient plants for biofuels to decrease dependence on fossil fuels. Although lignocellulosic biomass is a promising renewable resource, access to sugars embedded in the cell walls is a major barrier for ethanol production. So, scientists have increased the cellulosic ethanol yield from switchgrass more than 2 fold by using genetic engineering. The other problem of the world is the water availability which will be the biggest problem in the near future. For the agricultural purposes, we use 70% of the water resources. Thus, scientist have been working on drought tolerant plants for years. They have developed maize that is more tolerated to drought. In my opinion, plant biotechnology should be used for the most essential cases such as enrichment of nutrition in plants, higher yield in the same land, insect resistance or drought tolerance. However, development of sweeter strawberries or more colorful tomatoes is not necessary and for me, its arbitrary usage of genetic engineering. We have already interfered to the nature because of our growing population so, we should avoid unnecessary abusing of nature. Genetic engineering including plant biotechnology should be away from politics. Another point of view, people should be informed about GM crops and there should be labels on products. I don’t agree with the idea of ‘people shouldn’t know if they are eating GMO or not’. Society have rights to be informed and allow them to decide.
To conclude, plant biotechnology is the power of 21th century. It is one of the most important technologies to overcome growing world population by development of plants with higher yields, more nutritious, insect resistant, drought tolerance and highly efficient for ethanol production to use in biofuels. As we know that, all human technologies have good and bad consequences. Production of herbicide resistant plants is one of the harmful effects of GMO which can lead to increase in cancer. Therefore, transgenic crops should be developed very carefully, all consequences should be evaluated by keeping away from politics. We should never forget that plants are our ancient neighbors and they deserve our respect.
REFERENCES
- Genetic Improvements in Agriculture. (2013). The Plant Cell,23(5). 2013 American Society of Plant Biologists. doi:10.1105/tpc.111.tt0511
- Shiri, Y., Fakheri, B.A., Frouzandeh M. (2014). Plant Biotechnology and Ethical Issues. Online International Journal Available at www.cibtech.org/sp.ed/jls/2014/04/jls.htm 2014 Vol. 4 (S4), pp. 2957-2961/Shiri et al.
- Giannoulis, K., & Danalatos, N. (2014). Switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum L.) nutrients use efficiency and uptake characteristics, and biomass yield for solid biofuel production under Mediterranean conditions. Biomass and Bioenergy,68, 24-31. doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2014.05.030
- Ricroch, A. E., Guillaume-Hofnung, M., Kuntz, M. (2018). The ethical concerns about transgenic crops. Biochemical Journal (2018) 475 803–811. https://doi.org/10.1042/BCJ20170794
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