Turns out Gaia is a genetic engineer;
Until recently, it was thought that plant breeding programs selected the superior forms (termed alleles in genetic parlance) of existing genes. Breeders selected for the form or allele of the gene that, for example, encoded a more efficient protein, expressed the gene at a higher (or lower) level, etc. Selection by the breeder was not at the gene level but rather at a level easily observed by the breeder. This could be greater yield, enhanced disease or insect resistance, sweeter fruit, larger berry, earlier maturity, etc. Then it was thought that all members of a particular plant family (corn, soybean, wheat, blue berry, orange, etc.) contained the same genes; they simply differed in the forms of those genes existing in a particular family.
It turns out that this is all wrong.
[…]
…pieces of DNA that naturally move around in the genome and insert at random into the genome- actually pick up pieces of old genes and put these pieces together to make brand new genes. This is not a rare event. For example in corn a particular transposable element termed a Helitron has synthesized (estimated conservatively) ~11,000 new coding regions. Since the total number of genes in corn is around 40,000 the number of coding regions coming from Helitrons is quite significant.
Note that these newly evolved chimeric genes-arising naturally from transposable elements — bear striking similarities to chimeric genes synthesized by scientists and inserted into plant genomes. The major difference is that the chimeric genes arising in nature via transposable elements occur unsuspectingly. We don’t know when they arise or where, we don’t know what the final product is. We don’t spend millions of dollars monitoring them for safety and hence we don’t know whether they might encode an allergenic protein or otherwise be dangerous. But because eating our typical food plants has a long history of being safe we don’t worry about it.
Related.
