Genetically modified products today, are widely used in the U.S., in order to produce a better food product that can withstand harsh environments and other factors such as insects. Proponents of GMOs, believe that these plants hold the solution to to help put a stop to overusing pesticides and herbicides, that are causing grave health conditions to us and problems to our environment. Farmers have been genetically modifying their crops for centuries through crop breeding, in order to encourage specific traits, like allowing a plant to bear more fruit. But today, there is the option of selecting specific genes from anything, not just from another plant, but also from organisms. Because of this new technology farmers today, are able to produce plants that have delayed fruit ripening , resistance against fungi and even increase crop yield. Though many people today, believe that GM plants are bad because the plants are created naturally through evolution and many believe it could cause health problems to humans and create super resistant bugs and weeds. Today there are two methods of identifying if a crop is a GM plant, one method is using an enzyme called immunosorbent assay, which identifies proteins. So this enzyme, basically identifies specific proteins produced by a GM plant (can only be used on fresh produce.). Another way to test for a GM plant, is using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which identifies sequences of DNA that have been inserted into a GM plant. In our lab, we are going to test our two foods that we brought in from home, to see if it is a GMO food/plant.
Procedure:
Day One: First we weighed out .5-2 g of certified non-GMO food and our food that we brought in, and put it into a mortar. After, we added 5 ml of distilled water to every gram of food and then grinded it with a pestle for two minutes. Then we pipeted 50 ul of the mixture into a screwcap tube containing 500 ul of InstaGene. After this we placed our test food tubes into a 95 degree Celcius water bath for 5 minutes, then placed the tubes into a refrigerator, until the next day.
Day Two: On day two we numbered our PCR tubes 1-6, corresponding to the tubes content. The even numbered tubes got the red master mix (20 ul of master mix to each tube.), and the odd numbered tubes got the green master mix. Then we placed the tubes into an ice bath and put in master mix according to each tube, and then we placed them into a thermal cycler.
Day Three: On day three we used electrophoresis (which we placed each test tube mixture into a specific well), and then after this we were able to determine if our test foods we brought in were GMOs.
Results: I predicted that our test food, which was an orange, wouldn't be a GMO because it was grown in one of our backyards, but we found out that it was actually a GMO. Our results showed that both of our test foods tested positive as a GMO product. Our lab could have possibly flawed though because when we were inserting our mixtures into the wells in the agrose gel, one of the mixtures in a well sort of spilled out alittle.
