Science help

[Augustus]

I was wondering if anyone can help me with this. Probably not as I'm about to give a very bad description of what I'm looking for


I was reading an article a while back about genetic engineering written by a scientist of some ilk. In contrast to the common view that individual genes can be isolated and targeted, he was arguing that changing any single gene is likely to change the whole genome in unpredictable ways.

Unfortunately I lost the article and can't find it again.

Has anyone heard of something like this before and can they point me in the direction of any literature on it?

Thanks

 

[metis]

I was wondering if anyone can help me with this. Probably not as I'm about to give a very bad description of what I'm looking for


I was reading an article a while back about genetic engineering written by a scientist of some ilk. In contrast to the common view that individual genes can be isolated and targeted, he was arguing that changing any single gene is likely to change the whole genome in unpredictable ways.

Unfortunately I lost the article and can't find it again.

Has anyone heard of something like this before and can they point me in the direction of any literature on it?

Thanks

I'm in a bit of a hurry, but you might check out this as it also contains links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_engineering

 

[sun rise]

I found this http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_ocr_gateway/living_growing/newgenesrev2.shtml which notes that there can be side-effects and more specific possible issues are noted on the next page http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_ocr_gateway/living_growing/newgenesrev3.shtml

 

[sayak83]

I was wondering if anyone can help me with this. Probably not as I'm about to give a very bad description of what I'm looking for


I was reading an article a while back about genetic engineering written by a scientist of some ilk. In contrast to the common view that individual genes can be isolated and targeted, he was arguing that changing any single gene is likely to change the whole genome in unpredictable ways.

Unfortunately I lost the article and can't find it again.

Has anyone heard of something like this before and can they point me in the direction of any literature on it?

Thanks

Many genes have multiple functions. Probably he was saying that modifying a gene for one purpose could also affect other functions the gene has?

 

[jonathan180iq]

Like an electrical diagram, changing wiring and connections that you're not 100% familiar with can lead to unforeseen consequences. While most of the machine may still work, you still never know exactly what you've changed, or what mostly unused systems will become active/deactivated by fooling with the interconnected nature of those diagrams.

The studies on chickens for example, in which the researchers isolated and activated the genes that allowed the chicks to grow teeth like their ancestors, found that other negative genetic side effects occurred...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mutant-chicken-grows-alli/

There are still great insights into genetic studying and testing that can be gleaned. But I can't disagree with the premise of your article - whatever it was.

 

[Augustus]

Many genes have multiple functions. Probably he was saying that modifying a gene for one purpose could also affect other functions the gene has?

It was more arguing against the idea that you can make precise, targeted changes to one gene without affecting the whole system in unpredictable ways.

Sort of the idea that it cannot be viewed as something made up of many individual 'components' that can be modified independently of each other, but only as a single complex system with interrelatedness between each part

 

[Dan From Smithville]

I was wondering if anyone can help me with this. Probably not as I'm about to give a very bad description of what I'm looking for


I was reading an article a while back about genetic engineering written by a scientist of some ilk. In contrast to the common view that individual genes can be isolated and targeted, he was arguing that changing any single gene is likely to change the whole genome in unpredictable ways.

Unfortunately I lost the article and can't find it again.

Has anyone heard of something like this before and can they point me in the direction of any literature on it?

Thanks

I don't know the specific article you are referring to, but it is possible that changing even a single gene could have unintended and unpredictable consequences. That is true of new chemistry or any knew technology. A chemist somewhere might accidentally synthesize a new chemical that is the greatest mutagen ever known and it gets out and causes massive incidents of cancer. The chances of this happening are near zero, but not actually zero. The invention of the internal combustion engine lead to 35,000 automobile deaths annually, but no one thought about that at the time or could have predicted that or our transportation system.

Are you concerned about the unintended consequences of technology and potential risks or just looking for anything that is against biotechnology?