Naturally transgenic

In October 2016, The PNAS journal published the findings from a group of scientists. They collected 291 samples of sweet potatoes around the world and analyzed their DNA. In the DNA, they found the presence of one or more DNA sequences from the Agrobacterium bacteria.

The genes encoded in these sequences are expressed in sweet potatoes, and one sequence was found in all cultivated sweet potato samples but not in closely related wild plants.

The results suggested that the sweet potato may have naturally acquired transgenic DNA through an Agrobacterium infection thousands of years ago. But the traits thus acquired were selected during domestication.

Credits Jan F. Kreuze (International Potato Center).

Researchers from the universities of Peru, Belgium, China, and the United States, authors of the article entitled “The genome of the cultivated sweet potato contains T-DNA from Agrobacterium with expressed genes: An example of a naturally transgenic food crop,” said:

Our finding, that sweet potato is a naturally transgenic and a traditional and widely consumed crop, could affect the current mistrust about the safety of transgenic crops