FDA Approved GMO Pink Pineapple

[terracore]

Being pink it could have more antioxidants, heck it might even cure cancer. Sign me up.

[Orchidlandowner]

I think l will start a grove .looking for tops

[ironyak]

For those thinking of growing them, they've engineered the pineapple's ethylene production to minimize the chance of natural flowering. From the patent:
https://www.google.com/patents/US20130326768
"Flower initiation in pineapple can occur naturally primarily due to cool temperatures and short days. Natural flowering of pineapple plants is a major industry problem. To achieve the controlled flowering trait, we have altered expression of genes involved in ethylene biosynthesis."
So you might need to provide a source of ethylene (although this could be as simple as a rotting apple in a bag?).

Originally posted by terracore - Being pink it could have more antioxidants
Part of the goal - again from the patent:
"In plants, carotenoids are essential components of the photosynthetic apparatus and are responsible for the red, orange, and yellow color of many flowers and fruit. ... Carotenoids may contribute fundamentally to human health and in recent years there has been considerable interest in dietary carotenoids with respect to their potential in alleviating age-related diseases in humans."

(And I'll just ignore the whole selective breeding is the same as genetic engineering part of the NBC article, becuase yeah, you can't patent a selectively bred organism)

[terracore]

It was modified for "decreased ethylene biosynthesis". Does that mean it requires less ethylene?

Commercial pineapple crops are already induced to flower through ethylene, it would be financially advantageous to have a crop that requires less.

As a commercial pineapple grower explained to me, they achieve full size plants in half the time due to use of fertilizers, then they induce flowering with ethylene and effectively get a pineapple crop in half the time it would normally take.

[bystander]

quote:

---

Originally posted by kalakoa

patented like other GMO products. You can't freely grow it from a crown

Right. I'll just add it to the List Of Daily Felonies.

---

It may not be a felony but Monsanto has sued farmers for growing their GMO seeds from saved seeds. I think it would the same as growing the pineapple crowns.

http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/pages/...seeds.aspx

[terracore]

quote:

---

Originally posted by bystander

quote:

---

Originally posted by kalakoa

patented like other GMO products. You can't freely grow it from a crown

Right. I'll just add it to the List Of Daily Felonies.

---

It may not be a felony but Monsanto has sued farmers for growing their GMO seeds from saved seeds. I think it would the same as growing the pineapple crowns.

http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/pages/...seeds.aspx

---

That's why there is skid marks in front of road kill, but not in front of lawyers.

[ironyak]

Originally posted by terracore - It was modified for "decreased ethylene biosynthesis". Does that mean it requires less ethylene?

No, it means that the pineapples are less able to produce ethylene and trigger their own flowering. It helps make sure they all develop on the induced timeline you mentioned, and will make them less likely to propagate outside the factory. Somewhere between a "lysine contingency" and "terminator gene" level of control

Edit: typo, reduce spacing?

[alaskyn66]

Assuming it would grow and fruit without to much fuss.. if you were growing for yourself.. I don't think it would matter.

Start selling it.. and you might get a visit from federal Marshalls.. or the pineapple police.

Dole has a patent on their dole-14 pineapple ..how many hybrids of those are growing around.

[Midnight Rambler]

quote:

---

Originally posted by ironyak

(And I'll just ignore the whole selective breeding is the same as genetic engineering part of the NBC article, becuase yeah, you can't patent a selectively bred organism)

---

Actually you can. Most non-GMO hybrid corn is patented, as are many other crop varieties. Plants patented under that system have an exemption that allows the seed to be saved and planted on your own farm, but not collected and sold (hybrid corn is usually sterile anyway).

http://cls.casa.colostate.edu/transgenic...atent.html

Regarding ethylene - you want to stop pineapples from flowering, because pollinated flowers produce seeds which are undesirable (the fruits grow up and ripen regardless). That's why it's forbidden to bring hummingbirds into Hawaii at all (except for males destined for zoos), because they're the pollinators. This variety would be a little redundant here, but on the mainland where there are wild hummingbirds, it would give better fruit.