J.R. Simplot Company’s genetically engineered Innate potato has been given the green light for commercial planting in the United States by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The spud’s DNA has been altered so that less of the suspected carcinogen acrylamide is produced during the frying process required for production of french fries and potato chips.
Ranked as one of the world’s largest producers of frozen french fries, Boise, Idaho, USA-headquartered Simplot supplies major fast food chains and foodservice operators around the world. Field trials of the potato were conducted from 2009-11 in eight states – Idaho, Washington, North Dakota, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska and Wisconsin.
Simplot applied for approval of the Innate potato in 2013, pointing out that its technologies allow researchers to isolate genetic elements from any plant genome, rearrange them, or link them together in desired permutations, and introduce them back into the genome. Inserting an extra copy of a gene into the potato activates a self-defense mechanism which silences the genes related to expression of black spot bruise, asparagine, and reduces sugars in potatoes.
The inserted genes come from cultivated potatoes or wild potatoes (a group of related plant species that are sexually-compatible with potatoes). No foreign genes, antibiotic resistance markers, or vector backbone sequences are incorporated into the plant genome, according to Haven Baker, Simplot’s vice president of plant sciences.
“We transformed five different varieties, including three popular varieties – Ranger Russet, Russet Burbank, and Atlantic – and two proprietary chipping varieties,” explained Baker. “These varieties each involved transformation for two traits – the genes related to expression of black spot bruise and asparagine, and the genes related to reducing sugars in tubers – for a total of 10 events, which were done separately.”
It remains to be seen if quick service restaurant chains and other food companies will accept the Innate potato. Simplot, having invested a good deal of time and money developing the tuber, is hopeful that the resulting neutralization of the acrylamide danger during high-heat frying will win the confidence industrial buyers and consumers alike. It emphasizes that the potato does not contain genes from other species, which is the case with other genetically modified crops.
