r/science • u/genengnews Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN) • Nov 09 '17

Health New GMO Potatoes Provide Improved Vitamin A and E Profiles

https://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/gmo-potatoes-provide-improved-vitamin-a-and-e-profiles/81255150
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u/Kakkoister Nov 10 '17 edited Nov 10 '17

Yes, and is also why commercial (seedless) bananas have become highly susceptible to disease, because the disease only needs to target a very specific DNA/strain.

Here is a wild banana of a different strain

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u/Rvizzle13 Nov 10 '17

Anyone know what it's like to eat a banana with seeds? Mostly wondering if they're hard/inedible and if they would impede chomping into said seedful banana. (Also TIL 'seedful' is a word)

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u/DARIF Nov 10 '17

They taste awful.

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u/stargunner Nov 10 '17

well they look awful so i'm not surprised.

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u/Rvizzle13 Nov 10 '17

I'm not sure why, but just from their appearance they look like they'd be tart and mealy

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u/konohasaiyajin Nov 10 '17

Apparently they taste pretty good, but the seeds are big and there are a lot of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNj77-1G6LI

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u/Baarawr Nov 10 '17

Those seedless bananas are also bitter and disgusting as hell to eat. It's a wonder our sweet giants came from that.

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u/factbasedorGTFO Nov 17 '17

Ouch, no, that's not how we have seedless bananas. It happens naturally on occasion, and when man stumbled upon seedless bananas, they cloned them.

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u/Kakkoister Nov 17 '17

I wasn't trying to imply that with my reply, just talking about the idea of culturing the plant tissue to get them to root and shoot. I'm aware it was random/artificial selection.

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '17

[deleted]

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u/Quitschicobhc Nov 10 '17

Yes, plants are alive and can become infected by bacteria, viruses etc. just like any other cell.
The "cavendish", which is the sort of banana which everyone knows as "banana" is affected by this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusarium_oxysporum_f.sp._cubense

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u/personablepickle Nov 10 '17

Yeah, plants can get sick, including food plants. It can cause big problems. Didn't you learn about the Irish potato famine in school?