so are people here willing to accept genetically engineered plants?

K, I went back up and redread the article and yes, I did see the words "genetically engineered" but that doesn't tell me what exactly the author might be referring to.

Genetically engineered by doing what? Taking the transposons out of P. infestans? That seems a bit far fectched at this point. What else?

I can't necesssarily see working from the pathogen side of things to help solve the problem, but I can see working from the plant side in terms of IDing specific attachment sites, etc., such has been done with A. solani and Septoria as well as P. infestans such that chlorothalonil sprayed on plants can inhibit quite a bit of pathogen attachement by blocking those sites, for example.

But if it's going to be a back and forth battle as it is with the Root Knot Nematodes that mutate to overcome the "N" resistance/tolerance that has been bred into tomato plants, for instance, as opposed to the "N" tolerance that mutates in the plant to allow for Nematode infection, it's going to be a long battle.

It was years ago that I talked to a plant breeder from Petoseed who was working in FL and working primarily on tomato pollen clumping but also discussed the RKN situation.

(But now that the sequence is complete, he says, plant pathologists will be working flat out on new strategies for breeders based on how the blight operates and its potential weaknesses. "With all this knowledge about how the pathogen attacks the host on the biochemical level, I would hope that some clever plant pathologist would be able to genetically engineer resistance.")

And I take the last phrase to indicate breeders developing yet more varieties with LB tolerance in addition to the three genes already Ided as being involved with LB in tomatoes.

And I'm speaking to Randy Gardners Mountain Magic F1 right now which I think is the only variety that has all three. The good news is that to date I don't have LB , the bad news is that although I'm tiraling that variety, as you know, there's no good way for me to determine how LB tolerant it might be. And in addition I've had Freda spraying chlorothalonil.

Bejo Seeds will be making Mountain Magic F1 available for 2010 at several commercial places.

The bad news is that here it is almost the middle of Septemeber and I have had 7 grape tomatoes from Randy's Smarty F1, 6 fruits which resemble YPear but is much better tasting, from Medvaya Kaplya, a new one from Andrey in Belarus, and two cukes. Sigh.

What I'm trying to say, and probably not doing a good job of it, is that inserting tomato LB tolerant genes into tomatoes is not what I'd call genetic engineering, and same for potatoes. If my petunias turned out to be LB tolerant, ahem, then inserting that gene into tomatoes or potatoes I would call GMO or genetically engineered by modification with genes from a different taxonomic family. Tomatoes and potatoes both being in the Solanaceae family is not a problem for me re LB and genetics re conventional...

No.

Mulio, my education level on the topic is embryonic and I'd love some peer reviewed or otherwise geeky links that are pro GMO. I can dig around myself, but if you got the goods, do share.

The genetically engineered Roundup proof crops have given us super weeds, right? I guess that could be bunk, but it sounds like mother nature to me. I'm concerned about the crops we eat being drenched with round up, anyway.

How nice will it be when genetically engineered blight immune plants get the same response from nature -- super blight? Do we really want to fight mother nature? Or shall we just work with her, not against her. Keep things natural. We'll be better off.

If this post seems sophomoric and ignorant, I'm a fast study, and interested in getting up to speed. Just need some directions, thanks.

I do think pollen is an open source substance in a free world, btw. The fanciest attorneys big ag can buy probably cannot convince me otherwise. First they came for the pollen... ;)

I could just let the big brains discuss it, but wanted to add that I am not against all forms of GMO. There's surely some excellent applications.

I dont think just big brains should be discussing it. Everyone should be discussing and learning about it because it has already happened to our food in the USA and really consumers have not been given much say or notice as is required in other countries.

It's not just "superweeds". What interactions are there? How does a monochemical culture (RoundUp ready crops) effect a biomass or ecosystem? Can new protein sequences lead to allergic reactions or cross reactivity? Are corn cells that producing Bt really benign (there is some research out of other countries showing concern about Bt altering human instestinak flora)? There are ethical concerns about the way companies are using the technology.

There are concerns about inserting other DNA from the organism OR the even vector. The latter point worth noting even within species engineered or targeted crosses. The reality is they don't know. Profit potential is driving the decisions.

I would note also that the genes mentioned for late blight are horizontal in nature. Without trying to explain in detail what that really means, for the home gardener the take home point is this, unless you are growing ONLY that variety or ones with the same resistance, then you really arent getting much benefit. The non-resistant plants are increasing the disease pressure so much even the resistant plants wont hold up well.

The following link is a movie that looks at some of the ethical issues that have already occurred (I am only half way through watching it so cant comment on it fully).

Here is a link that might be useful: Movie: The Future of Food