>So, they have been making transgenic Honeybees for years now using RR
Remembee (Retrotransposition-Ready Remembee). "
Thank you Dean for the heads up on the newest alarmist rumor that appears
to be brewing. Here's what I don't understand: why is it that when
someone conjures up a hypothesis about something that is going to be the
End of the World as We Know It, why don't they simply check the facts
first, rather than blasting it all over the internet and creating fear and
confusion?
I could have told them that the sequences used in Remebee were carefully
chosen and vetted by the FDA (which, believe it or not, contains excellent
and cautious scientists who are very picky about approving novel genetic
technology). The developers of Remebee understand about
retrotransposition, and aren't about to go about messing with the bee
genome.
Just to confirm that I had it right, I asked the developer, Nitzan Paldi
for comment. Following is an excerpt from his reply:
"Wow, conspiracy theories galore!
"One of the things I’m not sure you tasted when in Israel is “shakshuka”,
which is a mix of crushed tomatoes, onions, peppers and eggs [it's
delicious, by the way!]. The idiomatic phrase, “shakshuka” refers to
someone taking lots of ingredients and mixing them together pretty much
arbitrarily without any idea what will come out at the end. This is the
ultimate shakshuka, and actually quite frankly a load a baloney.
" If I could only refer to you the FDA biotechnology section submission
documentation, you would see what level of scrutiny we went through to
insure things like no >20 b.p. homology, no ribosome entry sites or
retrotransposition elements that could possibly bring about reverse
integration into the honeybee genome."
Dean, I also received indirectly (again I don't know why--I'm pretty easy
to contact) a longer criticism of my working with Remebee. An excerpt:
"Let me remind the both of you that Maori et al's original discovery was
for the integration of IAPV fragments into the Honeybee genome, AND for the
silencing of IAPV by the RNAi pathway... Please see if Randy has any clue
as to what he is actually doing. I'm not convinced that he has been made
aware of this."
All the above alarmist had to do was to ask anyone involved before
splashing this sort of fear-generating stuff all over the web.
Since the alarmist cited Dr. Eyal Maori as the discoverer of the
retrotransposition effect with which he is concerned, the List may wish to
know Dr. Maori's opinion. His response to the suggestion that the
application of Remebee could bring about such retrotransposition was a very
hearty laugh!
I find the alarmist's concerns to be a bit odd, since the sort of viral
retrotransposition with which he is concerned is a completely natural
process that has been going on throughout the evolution of bees, humans,
and viruses. It is part of the natural process of viral immunity, as well
as a main driver of evolution via the transfer of genes from one organism
to another (yes, we are all transgenic).
Please understand that the use of Remebee will not cause, nor add to, the
above natural process.
Beeologics recently collected the final data on a large-scale trial of
Remebee on about 10,000 hives. The beekeepers involved participated in the
trial, and are free to share their data and comments--there is no
nondisclosure.
I myself carefully ran my own trial, being completely blinded, and graded
all 200 colonies personally at start, mid, and end point. In order to
avoid any possible bias, I remained blinded as to treatment/control
colonies until AFTER I had completed my own independent and thorough
analyses of the data. I will be publishing the results. The application
of Remebee was clearly beneficial to colony spring buildup.
Dean, would you be so kind as to forward this reply to any other list that
is discussing this subject?
--
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com
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