Perfect-quality new-fruit-varieties coming, thanks to new tech: 'CRISPR/CAS9'

[LEOOEL]

Plethora of new, perfect fruit varieties, is coming, thanks to the recently discovered DNA easy editing technique: ‘CRISPR/CAS9.’

On my wish list:

‘Ox’ sapodilla currently has low fruit production of very large fruit. So, make it very productive using the CRISPR/CAS9 DNA editing technology.

‘Young’ mango is a perfect mango fruit, but with less than optimal sugar content. So, increase the sugar content to optimal.

‘Pakistani’ mulberry is the largest mulberry variety, but not large enough. So, double or triple the size!

‘Brewster’ lychee has excellent fruit quality, but produces fruit every 3-4 years. So, make it produce fruit every year.

Jackfruit is a giant awesome tasting fruit, but has that sticky sap that is a hassle to clean. So, remove the sap! And, while at it, remove the rag too.

Citrus is a legendary great fruit, but is susceptible to canker and greening. So, make it canker and greening proof!

Jaboticaba could use an increase in sugar content. So, increase the sugar content and make it the best tasting Jabo in the world!

And last but not least - 'Kampong' avocado fills the South Florida Avocado Void month of April, but only in alternating years. So, make sure it fills the S. FL Avocado Void consistently, year after year.

…

The Article is a bit 'scientifiqky' but it substantiates the above.

Article-1: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0734975014001931

The coming era is one where “editing DNA is as easy as editing a Microsoft Word document.” (*).

Edible/usable plants currently being improved (as mentioned in Article-1): Tomato, sweet-orange, rice, tobacco, soybean, maize (corn)…

Upcoming edible plants to be improved (...Article-1): wheat, barley…

“…It (CRISPR/CAS9) will allow the growing amount of genomic and systems biology data to be exploited more comprehensively, speeding up both gene discovery and trait development in many plant species…”

“…Given the large number of researchers working with CRISPR/Cas9 technology and the speed at which it has developed since the first reports of genome editing only 2 years ago, further advances in our understanding and control of the system are likely to come rapidly, potentially leading to the design of a new generation of genome editing tools…”


(*)   Article-2: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2015/09/08/why-theres-an-urgent-need-for-a-moratorium-on-gene-editing/

[BrianL]

In order to really edit stuff people will need to learn what different genes do as well as the things that control expression.  For instance maybe it will be better to control a timing genes instead of editing the genes producing the something, etc.  Would be nice to add some stuff to add cold hardiness though to some things.

[johnb51]

I wonder how the universe and life within it could have gotten to where it's at today over several billion years without the benefit of scientists being able to manipulate genes.  How fortunate we are to have this knowledge vs. the infinite intelligence of life!

[tanfenton]

The purpose of all life is to suit human "needs." 

N.

[shaneatwell]

Yes, very cool technology leooel

[greenman62]

personally, i dont think there has to be a "purpose" to life.
it just is...

i dont think it will be too long before we can trade files between each other
(yes, everyone)
do a bit of editing, and create anything we want.
Frankenstein will have nothing on what some warped minds can come up with.

"Printers" will be available  with the ability to drop a couple of tubes of raw material in,
and output life in a variety of forms. Your imagination will be the boundary.

If it sounds dangerous (viruses etc...) it absolutely is.
If you think the GOV can control it, you are wrong.
at some point, some freelance scientists, or even kids
will hack a machine and reproduce it.
In time, it will get easier and easier... (think calculators)

the article below is kids stuff compared
to what will be available to people in 20-30 years.

Do It Yourself DNA: Amateurs Trying Genetic Engineering At Home
 01/25/2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/25/do-it-yourself-dna-amateu_n_153489.html
------------------

Craig Venter creates synthetic life form
2010/may
Craig Venter and his team have built the genome of a bacterium from scratch
 and incorporated it into a cell to make what they call the world's first synthetic life form
The controversial feat, which has occupied 20 scientists for more than 10 years at an estimated cost of $40m, was described by one researcher as "a defining moment in biology".

Craig Venter, the pioneering US geneticist behind the experiment, said the achievement heralds the dawn of a new era in which new life is made to benefit humanity, starting with bacteria that churn out biofuels, soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and even manufacture vaccines.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-form

---------------

Easy DNA Editing Will Remake the World. Buckle Up.
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/crispr-dna-editing-2/

----------------------------

First Life with "Alien" DNA Created in Lab
By Ewen Callaway and Nature magazine | May 7, 2014
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-life-with-alien-dna-created-in-lab/

[stuartdaly88]

Wow absolutely terrifying and incredibly exciting at the same time!

[tanfenton]

greenman62,

I don't know that people's manipulating their environment in the manner described in the articles demonstrates anything more than that our own wants and desires--to create, to understand (our own purposes, even)--supersede the potential outcomes of the unknown and the infiniteness of experience and reward available in the everyday mundanity of existence. I don't see how technology applies to matters of love, for example. And if the star by which one's life is guided is so fixed, what value does synthetic life hold? And why isn't current experience an adequate expression of a wonder we are making every effort to transmute? (I'm sending these questions out into the ether not to you so particularly as I am to the void that will never answer. Don't take the philosophizing the wrong way.

N.

[greenman62]

i see it as a tool, like any other tool
im not sure what a hammer has to do with love ?
But, if the ether answers you, let me know what it says

[LEOOEL]

Easy DNA Editing Will Remake the World. Buckle Up.
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/crispr-dna-editing-2/

“The Genesis Engine;” by Amy Maxmen.

‘Wired Magazine’Article: http://www.wired.com/2015/07/crispr-dna-editing-2/

… “Using the three-year-old technique, researchers have already reversed mutations that cause blindness, stopped cancer cells from multiplying, and made cells impervious to the virus that causes AIDS. Agronomists have rendered wheat invulnerable to killer fungi like powdery mildew, hinting at engineered staple crops that can feed a population of 9 billion” …

… “It could at last allow genetics researchers to conjure … —designer babies” …

“Humankind’s ability to dial in genetic traits to suit our needs is nothing new. But Crispr (has) promised direct access to the source code of life.”

“Scientists have used it to render wheat invulnerable to killer fungi. Such crops could feed billions of people.”

The CAS9 protein that makes CRISPR work, comes from the ‘bug’ that “can cause ‘strep throat’ and ‘flesh-eating disease!!!”

 … “Today swarms of investors are racing to bring genetically engineered creations to market. The idea of Crispr slides almost frictionlessly into modern culture…”

[LEOOEL]

Comments with Reference to the ‘Fruit Fly’ and the avocado ‘Laurel Wilt’ invasion in South Florida, USA, and how the CRISPR/CAS9 technology could eradicate it:

“Crispr (CRISPR-CAS9) could spell the end of mosquitos – and malaria (by using CRISPR-CAS9 to introduce a ‘gene-drive’ in an organism). But what about the bats that rely on mosquitos for food? Unintended consequences is a dangerous game.” (*)

“If new genes that wipe out malaria also make mosquitoes go extinct, what will bats eat?” (*)

Right now, there is an ongoing invasion of the ‘fruit fly’ in Homestead – an area in S. Florida. Carlos, the avocado expert, resides in that area, where by the way, there is also an ongoing invasion on South Florida avocados by the ‘Laurel Wilt’ – a microscopic organism of the beetle family.

I’m really glad that with this new ‘CRISPR-CAS9’ technology, we may now have the tools that are needed to do away with the 'Fruit-Fly’ and avocado ‘Laurel-Wilt’ scurge/invasion.


(*)   http://www.wired.com/2015/07/crispr-dna-editing-2/

[darkcoolboo]

Yes, this new technology is the next frontier. I'm on aboard IF there is overwhelming evidence that it is safe for the environment. The possibilities are endless, but editing DNA for fruit just to increase sugars or size is a bit unnecessary.   With the citrus greening fiasco, I hope scientists get enough evidence to make a decision of whether we should use it and (possibly) save the industry or let it wither away. For staple food crops, the ever expanding population might need this for the future. Of course, if there is a more secure method that arises between now and then, then forget biotech.

[greenman62]

Yes, this new technology is the next frontier. I'm on aboard IF there is overwhelming evidence that it is safe for the environment.

editing DNA in any form is extremely dangerous.
there can be unforeseen problems arise with a huge potential for negative impact.

My understanding, is it is common practice, to allow companies
to do their own safety research, and basically take their word for it.

---------------------------

The GMO that Could Have Killed Nearly All Life on Earth

Meet Klebsiella Planticola, perfectly harmless and abundant in natural form, but after some tinkering by biotech scientists thinking their “invention” would save the world’s problems it very likely could have become the most deadly biological weapon known to man.  These little guys belong to a family of enterobacteria, most of them live in places like our guts in a healthy harmony, they live on the digestive systems of plants, the roots.

snip...
they were modifying one of the most common bacteria in the world and that if any at all escaped it would quickly multiply as bacteria tend to do (the genetically altered DNA can also spread to bacteria through horizontal transfer, as if it were a bacterial flu of sorts) and could travel very quickly as it could also survive in the digestive systems of many animals, potentially going completely worldwide in a very short period of time.
http://www.nationofchange.org/gmo-could-have-killed-nearly-all-life-earth-1364308786

-------------

But as Brian Stoffel explains in his helpful article on Taleb’s research, we can assume that each genetically engineered seed carries a risk—albeit a very tiny risk—that in the intricately interdependent web of nature, the GMO seed might somehow eventually lead to a catastrophic breakdown of the ecosystem we rely on for life. Let’s call it a 0.1% chance, just for the sake of illustration. All by itself, that risk seems totally acceptable. But with each new seed that’s developed, the risk gets greater and greater, and over time, we could hit “the ecocide barrier”:

http://www.anh-usa.org/gmoscould-destroy-life-on-the-planet/

-------------------------------
Is Monsanto’s Roundup Killing Our Soil?
Our most widely used herbicide is draining the life from the earth.
http://www.planetnatural.com/roundup-killing-soil/

===

Glyphosate used with GMO crops under attack for disrupting microbiome: Science or a gut feeling?

 The study looked at the effects of glyphosate on these pathogenic bacteria and also on several important friendly bacterial strains. It turns out that the Clostridium and Salmonella are fairly resistant to glyphosate, while several friendly strands are moderately to highly susceptible to glyphosate, meaning that they might be killed off.

 bacterial strains were tested in laboratory culture, and their susceptibility to glyphosate assessed individually, which is not how the intestinal microbiology environment works. In other words, the possibility of intestinal microbiota effects is theoretically possible, but the issue now requires future studies to be conducted in vivo–in the real life intestinal environment of animals similar to humans–and looking at the effects of glyphosate in terms of quantity of the agent.
http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/12/05/glyphosate-used-with-gmo-crops-under-attack-for-disrupting-microbiome-science-or-a-gut-feeling/

[goosteen]

Probably the Black Marble that kills us all!

He draws a metaphor of an urn with a bunch of marbles in it. Let’s say most of the marbles are white, a smaller number are red, and a tiny few are black. Each time humans invent something new, it’s like pulling a marble out of the urn. Most inventions are neutral or helpful to humanity—those are the white marbles. Some are harmful to humanity, like weapons of mass destruction, but they don’t cause an existential catastrophe—red marbles. If we were to ever invent something that drove us to extinction, that would be pulling out the rare black marble. We haven’t pulled out a black marble yet—you know that because you’re alive and reading this post. But Bostrom doesn’t think it’s impossible that we pull one out in the near future. If nuclear weapons, for example, were easy to make instead of extremely difficult and complex, terrorists would have bombed humanity back to the Stone Age a while ago. Nukes weren’t a black marble but they weren’t that far from it. ASI, Bostrom believes, is our strongest black marble candidate yet

[LEOOEL]

Yes, very cool technology leooel

Very cool indeed.

Article: http://singularityhub.com/2015/09/28/a-genomics-revolution-evolution-by-natural-selection-to-evolution-by-intelligent-direction/

"...Most importantly, unlike other gene-editing methods, it is cheap, quick, easy to use, and more accurate than previous methods, and as a result, CRISPR/Cas has swept through labs around the world as THE way to edit a genome.

With CRISPR, we will soon have the tools to eliminate diseases, create hardier plants, wipe out pathogens and much, much more..."

So, maybe some money should be saved, because it seems that we'll want to replace some/many of our fruit tree varieties when these perfect quality fruit trees, produced by this bio-technology, start coming our way; similar to how many people are now yearly replacing their smart phones and iPhones.

This wonderful and powerful technology couldn't have come at a moment too soon, as we all know of some wonderful fruit variety that could use a genetic improvement that would result in blissful fruit perfection.

[greenman62]

i doubt hardiness in mango for backyard growers will be a priority.
This is all still very new and in the research stage.
not to mention potential risks involved
and i have a feeling priority will go to producing food in 3rd world countries,
and then large commercial growers.
in 30 years it will be a different story, this technology will probably be available to private individuals
even if laws try to regulate it, im sure there will be a black market
im sure very pricey at first.

[darkcoolboo]

I agree, we shouldn't deny it or accept it outright, but we should give it time to prove itself.