What are the differences between GMOs/Synthetic Monoculture and Classical Breeding/Sustainable P

GMO red pineapple by Bayer-Monsanto X Natural red pineapple by BOTANICA POP (Ananas comosus - Bromeliaceae), with anthocyanin (1)

What are the differences between GMOs / Synthetic Monoculture and Classical Breeding / Sustainable Production? #1- Genetic Origin Pedro Nahoum, botanist and CEO of BOTANICA POP Ltd. pedronahoum@gmail.com "Any scholar immersed in the details of an intricate problem will tell you that its richness cannot be abstracted as a dichotomy, a conflict between two opposing interpretations"

Stephen Jay Gould (2) Genetic origin Evolution, through geological time (thousands > millions > billions of years), created life's genetic diversity - without the man. Homo sapiens is a part of this natural diversity. After fire domain, our species started to modify the ecosystem and other species (3).

The main impact / problem have been the destroying of the genetic diversity of other animals, plants and microorganisms - in most of the cases up to a point that the species is extinct (or will be in a few years). With the size of human and

domestic animals populations now, and the power of the world economy and technological progress, the extinction rates / genetic erosion are worst than ever and accelerating.

When Charles Darwin developed his evolution theory (4), he observed for decades plants and animals under domestication by our species (5) (6) (7). He had no hurry.

Artificial / controlled sexual propagation in vivo of plants by our species created genetic diversity (agrobiodiversity), and our hands drove the selection of the more adapted (to our purposes). Darwin realized that more or less the same happens in the wildernesses, and called the "hands of the nature" (my expression) as "natural selection" (his expression). Now we know that other mechanisms, like the genetic drift and the founder effect, are very important - in natural and artificial succession of live generations.

When a specimen is born by a natural "seed" (using seed as a broad term for natural sexual production of new individuals through the junction of gametes, and natural recombinations and mutations), only the viable animals, plants and microorganisms survive. That is the same under wild sexual reproduction or sexual reproduction controlled by our hands in vivo (outside laboratories, in natural conditions).

In vivo, not in vitro.

Naturally, not with the biotechnology helping to creates new genetic specimens / cultivars through genetic transformation in labs.

As we are focusing in plant food production, it is important to remember that most of the natural and cultivated plants can be vegetatively propagated - this is a cloning method that happens in nature too. Some trees and herbs have vegetative / cloning natural growth to cover big areas. In commercial plant production, we can get a genotype (a genetic individual plant), and clone it in vivo or in vitro. No GMOs production is involved, but, as in nature also occurs, some genetic variation can appear through vegetative propagation, in vivo or in vitro. Many times this variation is naturally not good, but sometimes it is - this is not a human controlled thing - it is a human decision.

To select a genotype and, through genetic engineering, CRISP or other GMOs production methods, to promote an artificial recombination / or genes activation inside the original genotype - or worst, to bring one or more genes from other genotypes or other species is really "to play God".

And, as an evolutionary thinker, that do not believe that God exists (as most of the religions define Him), I don't believe that smart primates, starting to

discover / develop the in vitro technologies, could very fast (decades are very fast in geological time) to create new artificial genetic modified / unnatural plants, in a safe way, to cover giant areas around the world - with the main argument that these are the technologies that will save the future of the growing humanity from the threat of hunger - just because this is not through an evolutionary method.

In the next years it can be a good idea? Maybe (I personally think that it can be a good idea, if we separate genomic research from new commercial cultivars launch for a while - 5 years?).

But, for now, this synthetic organisms creation is just proposed by humans that (a) want fast money - with no historic / evolutionary background, (b) want to develop their careers - closing their eyes and their minds for the historic / evolutionary background that they have (or use to have), and (c) have no historic / evolutionary background.

Did you recognize big biotechnology / agrochemical corporations, academic researchers in genetic engineering / GMOs, and politicians?

Maybe just the money driven, inconsequential or uneducated ones. Or those who did not stop to think about it. Basic genomics research must continue.

Pedro Nahoum, botanist - CEO of BOTANICA POP Ltd. References (1) Bo-Wen Lin et al. (2017) Effects of anthocyanins on the prevention and treatment of cancer. British Journal of Pharmacology v. 174, n. 11, p. 1226– 1243 (2) GOULD, S. J. (1987) Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press (3) SULLIVAN, A. P. et al. (2017) Human behaviour as a long-term ecological driver of non-human evolution Nature Ecology & Evolution 1, Article number: 0065

(4) DARWIN, C. (1872) The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 6th edition. London: John Murray (5) DARWIN, C. (1859) In: Burkhardt, F.; Secord, J. A.; (Eds.) The Correspondence of Charles Darwin: Volume 18: 1870. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

(6) DARWIN, C. (1868). The variation of animals and plants under domestication Vol 2. London: John Murray (7) DARWIN, C. (1889) The effects of cross and self fertilization in the vegetable kingdown. London: John Murray _________________________________________________________________ This article was written in honor of Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002), evolutionary biologist and historian of science from Harvard University and American Museum of Natural History (New York). _________________________________________________________________ "What are the differences between GMOs / Synthetic Monoculture and Classical Breeding / Sustainable Production?" will be a series of ten small articles wrote to help who wants to get more informed about the food that we eat and the planet that the kids will live in the future!

(It must be shared, with copyright to Pedro Nahoum - BOTANICA POP Ltd.).