Transgenic Mustard Cleans Up Soils 66
Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers have genetically modified a common plant, the Indian mustard, to absorb more selenium, a toxic heavy metal found in soils polluted by irrigation wastewater. The transgenic plants were four times more efficient at swallowing selenium than natural ones in a contaminated area of California's Central Valley, according to articles from Nature and Wired News. These field tests are only experiments, but the researchers also want to add genes to other plants to remove different toxic materials from soils, such as mercury. What would happen if such transgenic plants filled with dangerous chemicals start to crossbreed with natural ones? Or if an insect eats these plants before being eaten itself in the natural food chain, leading to some selenium in our food? Read more and tell me what you think."
Re:Not an expert, got that right (Score:4, Informative)
I'll see your STFU and raise you an RTFA (to the original poster), from the Wired article, "He genetically enhanced the plant's ability to convert selenium into a nontoxic form"
Re:"Read more and tell me what you think." (Score:4, Informative)
Check this: Livestock require selenium as a cofactor for the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase. Supplementation of feeds with selenium has greatly reduced the incidence of deficiencies [1]. Furthermore, as other posters have pointed out, we _ourselves_ need it in our diets and clearly don't get enough. Mod the article -1 Troll.
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[1] http://www.engormix.com/e_articles.asp?AREA=GDL&N
Selenium in the human diet (Score:2, Informative)
I can see how this could be useful and why, especially in dealing with areas of high-selenium concentrations. And am sure that if it comes into use it will some company , vitamin or otherwise, will find a use for it.
FYI Selenium is a " micromineral needed in the diet on a daily basis, but only in very small amounts (50 milligrams or less). The other microminerals that all humans must get from food are arsenic, boron, cobalt, copper, chromium, fluorine, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, silicon, vanadium, and zinc.
In the case of selenium, the amount needed from food is actually measured in micrograms, and ranges from 20-70 micrograms. (A microgram is one thousandth of a milligram, and in one ounce, there are about 30 million micrograms.)
While the nutritional value of all plant food depends on the soil in which it was grown, the selenium content of plants seems particularly sensitive to soil concentrations. For this reason, most of the early research on selenium focused on diseases in sheep, cattle, turkeys, and pigs which involved low soil concentrations of selenium and insufficient amounts of selenium in the forage plants eaten by these animals."
~As stated on the Worlds Best Foods website:& dbid=95 [whfoods.com]
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient
Re:Sounds like a good thing to me... (Score:4, Informative)
Selenium is only good in small amounts. It's already very common in plant foods from most regions (depending on the selenium content of the soil), so added Selenium isn't usually needed.
If too much Selenium makes it into your food, via "Selenium-fortified mustard" or via the food chain, you'll get sick.
I'm curious if the Mustard plant takes in additional amounts of minerals other then Selenium, and if those levels are safe.
Selenium (Se) is hardly a "toxic heavy metal" (Score:5, Informative)
HOWEVER, that only applies to the elemental form. Certain compounds containing Selenium are highly toxic, and it is my guess that this is what the genetic engineers were interested in.
To quote from WebElements [webelements.com]: