2024-04-25 10:30:06
The reader will not be taken in by this book. François Parcy does not hide his support for deregulation of the use of new genomic techniques (new genomic techniques, NGT) in research for agriculture. The searcher in fact a lot to brag about these plant varieties that could be created using the Crispr genome modification technique. Whether to satisfy consumers who dream of fruits without pits (peaches, cherries, avocados, etc.); to respond to the challenge of soil impoverishment by cultivating perennial cereals rather than annuals which lead to plowing the same fields every year; or to limit the use of pesticides or fungicides by creating species resistant to pathogens (around twenty already exist on researchers’ shelves).
Research director of the CNRS at the Cellular & Plant Physiology Laboratory of the University of Grenoble-Alpes, the author takes the direct opposite of the associations which denounce these “new GMOs” as a threat to biodiversity and a dangerous poison for future generations. left in the hands of the big seed companies. Strong in his faith in the reasonable use of scientific progress, François Parcy sees on the contrary in this Crispr revolution one of the tools to respond to the challenges of the moment and tomorrow: global warming, loss of biodiversity, soil pollution, etc.
Let’s leave aside the crystal ball aspect of this remote duel. The rich and argued demonstration presented in this book, however, deserves attention. Because this specialist in flower fertilization, geneticist of plant development, begins… at the beginning. A welcome step to understand where we is today, what this sorcerer’s apprentice did over the millenniaA wise manthe transformations he brought to Mother Nature.
Spontaneous mutations
The invention of agriculture, which signaled the end of hunter-gatherers, was marked by the selection of plants offering an advantage to our species. Domestication carrying transmitted genetic modifications. Corn has thus become a “poodle”, totally unadapted to life in nature, with its unprotected seeds, offered on a beautiful cob to the first herbivore who comes along. Its ancestor, teosinte, carried on several stems a few seeds defended by a shell. Enough to protect them from greedy people and encourage their scattering on the ground by wind and rain before they germinate, ensuring the dissemination of the species.
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