Early Native American farmers drastically altered the genome of corn without the precise genetic engineering methods of today.
"'Changes being made today are probably much smaller than the ones that changed a wild grass with very hard seeds to one that is edible and useful for people,' said Nina Fedroff, a plant biologist at Penn State University, who wrote a perspective that accompanied the Science study. 'As far as a general hazard, (modern day genetic modifications) are much less hazardous than what people have done for most of the century.'
The changes scientists make using molecular biology are tiny, she said, compared with the modifications that dramatically changed the appearance and taste of corn 4,400 years ago. Scientists can manipulate a single gene, while selective breeding is much less precise."
It still behooves genetic engineers to be very careful, but most of the really big steps have already been taken.
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