A world renowned expert on lectins lost his job when he warned the world about the dangers of Genetically Modified Foods:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arpad_Pusztai
Arpad found that rats fed on genetically modified potatoes had unusual changes to their gut tissue when compared with rats fed on non modified potatoes. The potatoes were altered by inserting a gene taken from snowdrop plants, that caused the potatoes to express a certain characteristic.
Anyone care to guess as to the nature of this gene expression?
Yep, the modification caused the potatoes to express the snowdrop lectin.
Are you scared yet? No? Ok, consider this:
Many lectins are powerful allergens, and prohevein, the principal allergen of rubber latex, is one. It has been engineered into transgenic tomatoes for its fungistatic properties, so we should expect an outbreak of tomato allergy in the near future among latex sensitive individuals.
How about now?
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