Near future
Contact us
  • Home
  • Tech
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Architecture
  • energia
  • Transportation
  • Spazio
  • AI
  • concepts
  • Gadgets
  • Italy Next
  • H+
June 29 2022

Coronavirus / Russia-Ukraine

Near future

News to understand, anticipate, improve the future.

No Result
View All Result

News to understand, anticipate, improve the future.

Read in:  Chinese (Simplified)EnglishFrenchGermanItalianJapanesePortugueseRussianSpanish

Scientists combine human genes with potatoes to make them grow huge

Adding a gene that encodes human proteins makes potatoes 50% larger: sensational discovery or aberration? Posterity will judge.

Gianluca Ricciodi Gianluca Riccio
in Medicine
Share75Pin18Tweet47SendShare13ShareShare9
potatoes
1 September 2021
⚪ Reads in 2 minutes
A A

A team of scientists has discovered an unusual trick for growing larger, more abundant crops: inserting a human gene related to obesity and fat mass into plants.

The union of potatoes with the human gene that codes for a fat regulatory protein called FTO it alters the genetic code to rapidly mass produce proteins. The result? Potatoes (and crops) larger than 50%. The team says this work could help tackle world hunger without increasing the impact on the climate.

“It was a really bold and bizarre idea,” says Chuan He, a chemist at the University of Chicago and co-author of the study published in Nature Biotechnology . "To be honest, we also expected some catastrophic effects."

potatoes
Chuan He, University of Chicago, co-author of the study.

Invasive gene

Chuan He explains that potatoes do not have a protein comparable to FTO, and that growth is maintained and regulated by a wide variety of genes. So when FTO is added to potatoes there is no genetic system in place to keep it in check.

Maybe you are also interested

Barsha, the wheel that pumps 45.000 liters of water a day without electricity

Agrotopia, gigantic greenhouse on the roof: a model of the future?

Nitricity, obtaining nitrogen and fertilizer from the air thanks to solar energy

In Italy the first of the underwater farms in the world

Enter and there are no limits to its growth. It's a bomb.

Chuan He, University of Chicago

The surprise of the scientists, however, was positive. On the verge of suspicion, I mean. They expected dead potatoes, and instead ended up with much larger plants: they are allowed to hope, but now is the time to verify that there are no anomalies.

"Human" potatoes: this is only the beginning

For now, the research is too early to expect these genetically engineered potatoes to hit the shelves of our grocery stores soon. And, by the way, I wouldn't buy them. Either way, the team will conduct various security and replication studies to make sure their yield isn't just an aberration. For now they are encouraged by what they have found so far.

“We think this is a great strategy for designing our crops,” they say.

Let's see.

tags: AgricultureGMpotatoes
Previous post

Chronicles from a future where work is a choice, not an obligation

Next Post

Missions to Mars: Safe for humans, but for no more than four years.

COLLABORATE

To submit articles, disclose the results of a research or scientific discoveries write to the editorial staff

    archive

    Have a look here:

    Goodbye puncture? At least for bikes!
    Transportation

    Goodbye puncture? At least for bikes!

    For years and periodically, tubeless tires have been offered for all vehicles: their adoption is hard ...

    Read More
    Micromobility, Robotaxi, Smart City: 3 predictions for 2021

    Micromobility, Robotaxi, Smart City: 3 predictions for 2021

    cultured meat and cellular agriculture

    Incentives for cellular agriculture: prompt collection of signatures from European citizens

    In the sky, a satellite that monitors the health of the earth

    In the sky, a satellite that monitors the health of the earth

    adaptive clothes

    Adaptive clothes to regulate body temperature

    The daily tomorrow

    Futuroprossimo.it provides news on the future of technology, science and innovation: if there is something that is about to arrive, here it has already arrived. FuturoProssimo is part of the network ForwardTo, studies and skills for future scenarios.

    Subscribe to our newsletter

    Environment
    Architecture
    Artificial intelligence
    Gadgets
    concepts
    Design

    Staff
    Archives
    Advertising
    Privacy Policy

    Medicine
    Spazio
    Robotica
    Work
    Transportation
    energia

    To contact the FuturoProssimo editorial team, write to [email protected]

    Chinese Version
    Édition Française
    Deutsche Ausgabe
    Japanese version
    English Edition
    Edição Portuguesa
    Русское издание
    Spanish edition

    This work is distributed under license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
    © 2021 Futuroprossimo

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • Tech
    • Health
    • Environment
    • Architecture
    • energia
    • Transportation
    • Spazio
    • AI
    • concepts
    • Gadgets
    • Italy Next
    • H+