It was the title of a song by Simon and Garfunkel back in the day. I thought of it today when I read an item about how CRISPR is being used to modify our foods – animal and vegetable alike. CRISPR, I’m sure you have read, is a technology that was derived from bacterial defense mechanisms – that is, biological mechanisms that bacteria use to defend themselves against viruses. Without getting too deep into the biochemical weeds, the bacterial CRISPR arsenal has been repurposed by scientists to help them edit cellular DNA – adding new genes to a cell; replacing damaged genes; and silencing genes deemed to be undesirable. CRISPR places some tools of evolution in human hands.
Let’s be honest, humans have been messing with evolution for millennia. We called it agriculture and animal husbandry – the selective breeding of strains of plants and lineages of livestock. Nobody ever blew a gasket over that. Now, humans can use CRISPR to alter genomes with surgical precision and without having to wait dozens of plant or animal generations to achieve the desired result.
You may know that the central dogma of modern neurophysiology is that an array of neurotransmitters governs the responses of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Early in the development of the development of this thesis were the neurotransmitters Acetylcholine, Epinephrine and Norepinephrine. These neurotransmitters were found to govern muscle contraction, salivation, perspiration, digestion, urination, pupillary dilation, heart rate, blood pressure and a host of other biological responses. Soon, Dopamine, the so-called pleasure chemical, was added to the neurotransmitter pantheon. Then Serotonin – an important player in mood disorders such as depression. Gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) appears to play a role in stress and anxiety. More recently, Oxytocin, a hormone secreted from the anterior pituitary has been dubbed the cuddle hormone.
My CRISPR article today covered a number of CRISPR-edited edibles – corn and rice whose yields have been improved through targeted genetic edits, tomatoes that are richer in GABA than their progenitors were; cattle that are more heat-resistant; and so forth.
I pondered the GABA-enriched tomatoes. What if we could add genes that would enable tomatoes to produce Oxytocin? Would the fruit that has been called the love apple provide its consumer with the desire to cuddle? Could we ship large quantities of the CRISPR-modified fruit to belligerent nations as an approach to subduing their hostilities?
It’s all speculation on my part, of course, but it is inevitable that new technologies bring unintended consequences. You know, that tomato in my fridge sure looks cute.