domingo, 12 de janeiro de 2014

The incredible flat world of Monsanto – Reply

Some days ago (January 8, 2014) the anti-GMO activist Barbara H. Peterson published in Farm Wars a post suggesting that the recent paper from Stergachis and colleagues pointed to evidences that “DNA manipulation can create mutations due to ignorance of gene control mechanism”. She went further on, writing a virulent, non-science based libel against biotechnology.
I strongly suggest the download and reading of the paper from Stergachis and his colleagues (https://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6164/1367.full.pdf).
The original paper has no suggestions that "DNA manipulation can create mutations due to ignorance of gene control mechanism". The paper was dedicated to analyze promoters in natural genes, it does not speculate about mutations, but just on codon usage, and at the end of its discussion, it emphasizes the difficulty in broadening its conclusions to evolution. It has absolutely no mention about transgenesis. Moreover, promoters used in transgenesis have no similarity to those studied by the authors. Barbara Peters created the Armaggedon scenario by gluing different information and some rubbish, but has absolutely no scientific basis.
Barbara H. Peterson is retired from the California Department of Corrections, where she worked as a Correctional Officer at Folsom Prison. She has no training or expertise in molecular biology and I truly imagine how she would be able to read and understand the very dense paper from Stergachis and his colleagues. For a brief CV of Barbara, check http://www.opednews.com/author/author7335.html.
The fact is: there is a whole set of parrots, lacking even un ounce of criticism, that are just spreading the news, disgracing Stergachis and his team and falsely using Science authoritative papers to fuel a useless discussion. You may find the story copied and glued on dozens of sites in just a few days. Bad for the reader...

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