Science Re-engineering Potatoes To Remove Their All-Natural Toxins

Hackaday Article

Family Solanum (nightshade) is generally associated with toxins, and for good reasons, as most of the plants in this family are poisonous. This includes some of everyone’s favorite staple vegetables: potatoes, tomatoes and eggplant, with especially potatoes responsible for many poisonings each year. In the case of harvested potatoes, the chemical responsible (steroidal glycoalkaloids, or SGA) is produced when the potato begins to sprout. Now a team of researchers at the University of California have found a way to silence the production of the responsible protein: GAME15.

The research was published in Science, following earlier research by the Max Planck Institute. The researchers deleted the gene responsible for GAME15 in Solanum nigrum (black nightshade) to confirm that the thus modified plants produced no SGA. In the case of black nightshade there is not a real need to modify them as – like with tomatoes – the very tasty black berries they produce are free of SGA, and you should not eat the SGA-filled and very bitter green berries anyway, but it makes for a good test subject.

Ultimately the main benefits of this research appear to be in enriching our general understanding of these self-toxicity mechanisms of plants, and in making safer potatoes that can be stored without worries about them suddenly becoming toxic to eat.

Top image: Different potato varieties. (Credit: Scott Bauer, USDA ARS)

Mmm, no more deadly potatoes. WHAT HAS SCIENCE WROUGHT

 

[pikachudidnothingwrong]

Nice and all bu.. Why not use the effort and resources to do something more useful... Like make them require less water to grow, expand the range of temps and weather they can grow in etc.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

I didn't know potatoes could be toxic, good to know, but don't fuck with the food supply, faggots.

 

[Chunky Salsa]

Seems kind of pointless, are potatoes turning green in storage a big issue for shipping? Does it cost a lot to keep them in a state where they don't turn green?

From a research POV; this isn't interesting. They have have isolated a gene of interest sure, but they seem to already know what it does and how to turn it off. So this isn't particularly novel. If they turn off the gene in question, it may end up like corn where you see a corresponding increase in the production of other metabolites. You could end up - I suppose - with more nutritious, or just bigger potatoes because the plant isn't expending so much energy producing these compounds. Okay, I've talked myself into finding this interesting again lol.

 

[Smashed & Slamed]

This man would rather reengineer potatoes to eat them raw instead of boiling/frying/baking them.

 

[kcbbq]

I didn't know potatoes could be toxic, good to know, but don't fuck with the food supply, faggots.

Potatos (and every other nightshade we eat, like tomatoes and eggplant) in no way match wild ones because they're all as poisonous as any other nightshade. This is no different that the many centuries of selective breeding that's been done to give us the mutants we already eat. The only difference is this is faster and more reliable.

 

[Grub]

So wouldn't removing the toxin from nightshade plants also make them vulnerable to the pests that those toxins evolved to prevent? Wouldn't this mean that now even more chemicals and pesticides would need to be added during growing to compensate for the lack of the plant's own natural defenses making these more expensive to grow and arguably more toxic to humans? Also, this kind of shit usually comes with patents and terminator seeds and nasty shit you want to keep far away from your crops.

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

Is this why my mother becomes obsessed with potatoes growing eyes in the cellar?

 

[Chunky Salsa]

So wouldn't removing the toxin from nightshade plants also make them vulnerable to the pests that those toxins evolved to prevent? Wouldn't this mean that now even more chemicals and pesticides would need to be added during growing to compensate for the lack of the plant's own natural defenses making these more expensive to grow and arguably more toxic to humans? Also, this kind of shit usually comes with patents and terminator seeds and nasty shit you want to keep far away from your crops.

They are removing the toxin from the tuber part, but not the above ground part, which will theoretically give it the benefits, but not the downsides of the tuber being toxic. In theory.

 

[John Furrman]

Nice and all bu.. Why not use the effort and resources to do something more useful... Like make them require less water to grow, expand the range of temps and weather they can grow in etc.

Those have existed for thousands of years in South America, a domesticated species for any condition. The issue, historically is that Europeans glommed onto a handful of species like fools and starve to death because their only preferred species is blighted.

 

[Grub]

They are removing the toxin from the tuber part, but not the above ground part, which will theoretically give it the benefits, but not the downsides of the tuber being toxic. In theory.

Don't the tubers only become toxic once the above ground part starts growing out of the tuber?

 

[kcbbq]

Those have existed for thousands of years in South America, a domesticated species for any condition. The issue, historically is that Europeans glommed onto a handful of species like fools and starve to death because their only preferred species is blighted.

That's also why France (and most of Europe) doesn't have native wine grapes anymore. They have American grape plants with native vines spliced on. European grapes can't survive the diseases in European soil anymore, they all die.

 

[Soycast Guy]

I didn’t even know potatoes had “toxins” and I’ve been eating them for years. I’m not eating your GMO goyslop.

 

[kcbbq]

I didn’t even know potatoes had “toxins” and I’ve been eating them for years. I’m not eating your GMO goyslop.

They were pretty deadly before the Incas spent centuries selectively breeding safe ones. Some you can't eat at all, some have to be cooked certain ways to not be poison. Some have to be turned into what is the same thing as instant potatoes to be edible. Some are extra wonky shaped so you can prove your wifely skills to your new husband by getting them peeled and cooked.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Don't the tubers only become toxic once the above ground part starts growing out of the tuber?

Yeah I was under the impression that for a spud to get toxic it's mushy and growing and gross and nothing you'd want to eat anyways

 

[Apustajan apustaja]

now even more chemicals and pesticides would need to be added

This sounds like an opportunity to sell said chemicals and pesticides. Might buy Monsanto tomorrow.

 

[kcbbq]

Yeah I was under the impression that for a spud to get toxic it's mushy and growing and gross and nothing you'd want to eat anyways

Depends on the potato. Nightshades all contain some amount of a nasty toxin or multiple, it's solanine in potatoes, its nicotine in tobacco, capsaicin in chilis, etc. Selective breeding has made some varieties edible. In the case of chilis selective breeding has made weaker peppers as well as ones far stronger than anything nature could come up with.

Tomatos have two, solanine, like potatoes, plus tomatine.

 

[Grub]

Yeah I was under the impression that for a spud to get toxic it's mushy and growing and gross and nothing you'd want to eat anyways

Considering potatoes are one of the most commonly eaten vegetables in the world, I'm sure if it were an actual issue, you'd probably hear more about potato poisonings apart from the basically absolutely none that you hear about.

 

[tehpope]

don't make me tap the sign

Bill Gates and his ilk need stop playing god.

 

[The Lawgiver]

Isn't the whole point with the "toxins" in potatoes tthat there's not enough in them to cause any significant poisoning unless you eat a shitload of them in one sitting? Like how bananas have shit int hem that can cause your retinas to detatch in high enough concentrations?

 

[kcbbq]

Isn't the whole point with the "toxins" in potatoes tthat there's not enough in them to cause any significant poisoning unless you eat a shitload of them in one sitting? Like how bananas jave shit int hem that can cause your retinas to detatch in high enough concentrations?

For the types of potatoes most of the world will ever see, yes.

If you're one of those weirdos who wants to have an authentic visit to South America, not necessarily. Parts of South America are worse than Japan for their need to eat poisonous foods that need to be cooked juuuuust right to not make you horribly sick or dead.