scholarly journals Expert and public perceptions of gene-edited crops: attitude changes in relation to scientific knowledge

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoko Kato-Nitta ◽  
Tadahiko Maeda ◽  
Yusuke Inagaki ◽  
Masashi Tachikawa
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Genetic Modification ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Gene Editing ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Conventional Breeding ◽  
Value Perceptions ◽  
Lay Public

Abstract This study empirically examined expert and public attitudes toward applying gene editing to agricultural crops compared with attitudes toward other genetic modification and conventional breeding technologies. Regulations regarding the application of gene editing on food are being debated around the world. New policy measures often face issues of public acceptance and consensus formation; however, reliable quantitative evidence of public perception toward such emerging breeding technologies is scarce. To fill this gap, two web-based surveys were conducted in Japan from December 2016 to February 2017. Participants (N = 3197) were categorised into three groups based on the domain-specific scientific knowledge levels (molecular biology experts, experts in other fields, and lay public). Statistical analysis revealed group differences in risk, benefit, and value perceptions of different technologies. Molecular biology experts had higher benefit and value perceptions, as well as lower risk perceptions regarding new technologies (gene editing and genetic modification). Although the lay public tended to have more favourable attitudes toward gene editing than toward genetic modification, such differences were much smaller than the differences between conventional breeding and genetic modification. The experts in other fields showed some characteristics that are similar to the experts in molecular biology in value perceptions, while showing some characteristics that are similar to the lay public in risk perceptions. The further statistical analyses of lay attitudes revealed the influence of science literacy on attitudinal change toward crops grown with new breeding technologies in benefit perceptions but not in risk or value perceptions. Such results promoted understanding on distinguishing conditions where deficit model explanation types are valid and conditions where they are not.

scholarly journals All Plant Breeding Technologies Are Equal, but Some Are More Equal Than Others: The Case of GM and Mutagenesis

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Batalha ◽  
Francesco Foroni ◽  
Brian Joseph Jones
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Genetic Modification ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Gene Editing ◽  
Consumer Attitudes ◽  
Food Items ◽  
Gm Foods ◽  
Genetic Development ◽  
Sexual Crosses

A pervasive opposition to genetically modified (GM) foods has developed from the notion that they pose a risk to human and environmental health. Other techniques for the genetic modification of plants, such as sexual crossing and mutagenesis breeding, have mostly remained unchallenged. This research aims to investigate public perception of plant breeding technologies. Specifically, sexual crossing, mutagenesis, transgenics (GM) and gene editing. It was expected that attitudes and intentions would be most positive and the perception of risk lowest for plant genetic modification through sexual crosses. Scores on these variables were expected to be similar between mutagenesis, GM and gene editing. It was also expected that attitudes, intentions and risk perception would change (becoming more positive) once participants learned about foods developed through these technologies. Participants reported their attitudes, intentions and risk perception at two points in time. At Time 2, they were presented with pictures of food items developed through sexual crossing, GM and mutagenesis. The results showed that mutagenesis stood out as the most negatively perceived technology, whereas genetic development via sexual crosses was generally perceived as positive. The results highlight the importance of messaging, framing in consumer attitudes.

The New Genetics

2019 ◽  
pp. 157-187
Author(s):  
Gordon Conway ◽  
Ousmane Badiane ◽  
Katrin Glatzel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tissue Culture ◽  
Nitrogen Fixation ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Dairy Cattle ◽  
Marker Assisted Selection ◽  
Gene Editing ◽  
Recombinant Dna ◽  
Conventional Breeding ◽  
Breeding Techniques

This chapter turns to genetic intensification, which consists of developing crop and livestock crosses that contain genes capable of producing improved yields on a sustainable basis. These crosses often show increased vigor, such that they tend to outperform both parents, although for reasons that are not fully clear. Today, hybrids and crosses are the basis for most improved crop and livestock breeds, including wheat, rice, maize, and dairy cattle. Nevertheless, as has been long recognized, conventional breeding techniques have practical limitations. The application of modern cellular and molecular biology is pursued through four practical techniques: marker-assisted selection, cell and tissue culture, recombinant DNA, and gene editing. The chapter examines the extent to which these interventions contribute to sustainable intensification: improving nutrition, increasing resilience to pests, diseases, and climate change, and improving nitrogen fixation.

scholarly journals Application of CRISPR/Cas9 technology in wild apple (Malus sieverii) for paired sites gene editing

Plant Methods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Ping Zhou ◽  
Tohir A. Bozorov ◽  
Daoyuan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Abiotic Stress ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Genetic Improvement ◽  
Gene Editing ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Tianshan Mountains ◽  
Biotic And Abiotic Stress ◽  
Guide Rna ◽  
Cas9 Protein ◽  
Albino Phenotype

Abstract Background Xinjiang wild apple is an important tree of the Tianshan Mountains, and in recent years, it has undergone destruction by many biotic and abiotic stress and human activities. It is necessary to use new technologies to research its genomic function and molecular improvement. The clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein (Cas) system has been successfully applied to genetic improvement in many crops, but its editing capability varies depending on the different combinations of the synthetic guide RNA (sgRNA) and Cas9 protein expression devices. Results In this study, we used 2 systems of vectors with paired sgRNAs targeting to MsPDS. As expected, we successfully induced the albino phenotype of calli and buds in both systems. Conclusions We conclude that CRISPR/Cas9 is a powerful system for editing the wild apple genome and expands the range of plants available for gene editing.

Extreme events, risk perception, communication, and adaptation in the context of climate change: the case of an Andean community in Peru

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredy S. Monge-Rodríguez ◽  
Andy Alvarado- Yepez
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Extreme Events ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Perception Of Risk ◽  
Severe Storms ◽  
Local Risk ◽  
Adaptive Behaviours

<p><strong>Abstract:</strong></p><p><em>Introduction and theoretical background: </em>The increase in extreme events as a result of climate change has serious consequences for the world (Bevacqua, Yu, & Zhang, 2018; Clark et al., 1998), with higher impacts on Andean communities, which are more vulnerable to its effects due to the scarce resources they have to cope with its effects. The study on local risk perception, as a strategy that allows people to be more aware of the hazard and therefore be more willing to deal with the eventuality of the hazard (Lopez and Marvan, 2018). Our study analyses experience with extreme events: severe storms, avalanches, droughts and floods. Furthermore, we analyze how experiences with extreme weather can be related to risk perception, communication, and adaptive behaviours.</p><p><em>Methods:</em> After a thorough pilot. We selected two interviewers, from the same community. To comply with COVID-19 health protocols, the questionnaire was implemented online. All questions were presented in a closed format. The total number of participants (N=200) belonged to the Phinaya community located at the bottom of the Quelccaya glacier (5650 mamsl). All gave their consent to participate voluntarily in the study.</p><p><em>Results:</em> 86% indicated having experienced drought or water shortage in the last 5 years between 1 and more than 3 times, 14% did not. Then 59% indicated that they had experienced storms between 1 and more than 3 times in the last 5 years, 41% indicated that they had not experienced any. Regarding floods, 21.5% indicated that they had experienced them, while 78.5% had not. 34.9 % indicated that they had experienced avalanches. 97.5% said they were very concerned about climate change. 82% received information on storms, 90% received information on droughts, 82% received information on floods, 51% received information on avalanches. There is a relationship between people who have had experiences with severe storms and those who have experienced landslides and avalanches. Regarding the perception of risk, we found differences between men and women. No clear relationship was identified between risk perception and extreme events. It is observed that communications about droughts influenced negatively on risk perception, the other extreme events did not show significant relations. Finally, with respect to adaptation behaviours, we found a positive relationship between experiences with storms, and perceptions of risk of climate change, greater perception of risk, greater willingness to develop adaptive behaviours.</p><p><em>Conclusions: </em>Most people have been exposed to more than one type of extreme events such as droughts and storms. This study contributes to a better understanding of the relationships between public perception of climate change in Andean communities and corroborates the important role of communication and adaptive behaviors in the context of risk perceptions.</p>

Introduction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Hess
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Industrial Pollution ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Regulatory Agencies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Concerns

Many of the political problems of the day—climate change, industrial pollution, nanomaterials, new technologies of surveillance, and the products of molecular biology—involve complex scientific and technological issues that can provoke sharp divisions in public opinion. Often environmentalists and other advocates of change call for policies that address public concerns with new and existing technologies, and often industrial corporations reply that such concerns are unwarranted and that their technologies are safe and broadly beneficial. Legislatures, regulatory agencies, executive offices, the courts, and voters find themselves caught in the middle, and sometimes they also become divided over how best to develop and to regulate industry....

A Redesigned Planet?

2020 ◽  
pp. 234-296
Author(s):  
John Parrington
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cell ◽  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Medical Research ◽  
Genome Editing ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Biological Weapons ◽  
New Development ◽  
Whole Number

Given the speed of change in the development of new technologies mentioned in this book such as genome editing, optogenetics, stem cell organoids, and synthetic biology, it is hard to predict exactly how radically these technologies are likely to transform our lives in coming decades. What is clear is that as exciting as the new biotechnologies are in terms of their impact on medical research, medicine, and agriculture, they also raise a whole number of socio-political and ethical issues. These include concerns about whether monkeys engineered to have genetic similarities to humans might lead to a ‘Planet of the Apes’ scenario, and fears about ‘designer babies’ being produced in the future to have greater beauty, intelligence or sporting skill. Although one potentially positive new development is the rise of a ‘biohacker’ movement which seeks to make molecular biology more accessible to ordinary people, there are also fears that in the wrong hands genome editing might be used to create new types of biological weapons for terrorist organisations. While such fears should not be dismissed as just an overreaction, to some extent they rest on an underestimation of the complexity of the Iink between the human genome and looks, intelligence, and sporting ability, or of the difficulties involved in creating a deadly virus that is worse than naturally occurring ones. Ultimately, the best way to ensure that new technologies are used for human benefit, not harm, is to take part in an informed debate and use public lobbying to argue for them to be developed safely, ethically, and responsibly.

Myth-Historical CRISPR Edits

2021 ◽  
pp. 107-157
Author(s):  
José G. Perillán
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Nobel Prize ◽  
Gene Editing ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
International Regime ◽  
Ethical Guidelines

History is not always written by the victors. Competing histories often become ssbattlegrounds for those who want to declare themselves victors. Emerging from the frontiers of molecular biology, today’s caustic patent dispute over gene-editing technology is being waged partly through published myth-histories. The revolutionary gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 has quickly become a vehicle for patent and priority controversies to determine who cashes in on billions of dollars in licensing fees, a Nobel Prize, and scientific immortality. This chapter examines competing myth-histories in the context of larger socioeconomic forces, as well as the lack of an international regime of ethical guidelines for this work. Careful study is necessary to grasp the background and impact of these narratives.

Public Perception—A Newspaper Medium Perspective

2011 ◽  
pp. 101-135
Author(s):  
Jing Gao
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Manufacturing Industries ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Interpretive Study ◽  
Integration Problems

This chapter will present evidence to show that there is an absence of informed, broad, media discussion on e-commerce initiatives in Australia. As pointed out by several authors (e.g., Gittins, 1995), the newspaper medium is one of the main vehicles through which advisers and policy makers seek to influence society. Thus this medium takes on the role of a public forum on national issues. However, it was found that newspapers in Australia have failed in their role of preparing manufacturing industries for the impact of new technologies. In this interpretive study, major Australian newspapers were examined for public discussions about e-commerce in manufacturing industries. The political-legal, economic, social, and technological (PEST) framework was used as a lens to subdivide issues, problems, and opportunities identified in the academic e-commerce literature. This lens was then used to examine 103 newspaper articles identified using the keywords Australian manufacturing and e-commerce in what was believed to be all the major Australian newspapers. It was found that some articles merely report vendors’ promises of potential cost savings while overlooking the need for investment in technology, training, and maintenance costs, while other discussions focused on “users as victims” issues such as security and privacy. In-depth issues such as reliability, communication protocols, bandwidth availability, and integration problems were overlooked. In particular, the problem of business strategies was ignored.

The Public Perception of Science and Technology in a Periphery Society: A Critical Analysis from a Quantitative Perspective

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Silvio Vaccarezza
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
The Public ◽  
Different Dimensions ◽  
Level Of Understanding

In this article a series of variables referred to the general public's valuations of science and technology are analysed. These valuations refer to different dimensions of science and technology—as a utility of scientific knowledge, their legitimacy, their bond with the cultural matrix of everyday life. The analysis is based on information from a survey carried out in a great urban conglomerate of a little scientific developing country, Argentina. We see that valuation variables discriminate the public according to their positive or negative responses about science, but that there is no evident association between them. We consider one variable in particular dividing the public into those who are ‘trustful’ and those who are ‘cautious’ regarding the advances of science, and we see how it is related to other significations of valuation. The pre-eminence of positions of ambivalence or contradiction in the population's perception regarding this topic is discussed. A factor analysis is presented that comprises these variables and that presents a set of ‘valuation orientations’ towards science as a result. Finally, it is interesting to see how education and the level of understanding of scientific knowledge affect the public's valuation, which questions the basic supposition of the tradition of public understanding studies.

Scientific Uncertainty in Health and Risk Messaging

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Zehr
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Scientific Uncertainty ◽  
Public Science ◽  
The Public ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
New Research ◽  
Societal Problems

Expressions of scientific uncertainty are normal features of scientific articles and professional presentations. Journal articles typically include research questions at the beginning, probabilistic accounts of findings in the middle, and new research questions at the end. These uncertainty claims are used to construct clear boundaries between uncertain and certain scientific knowledge. Interesting questions emerge, however, when scientific uncertainty is communicated in occasions for public science (e.g., newspaper accounts of science, scientific expertise in political deliberations, science in stakeholder claims directed to the public, and so forth). Scientific uncertainty is especially important in the communication of environmental and health risks where public action is expected despite uncertain knowledge. Public science contexts are made more complex by the presence of multiple actors such as citizen-scientists, journalists, stakeholders, social movement actors, politicians, and so on who perform important functions in the communication and interpretation of scientific information and bring in diverse norms and values. A past assumption among researchers was that scientists would deemphasize or ignore uncertainties in these situations to better match their claims with a public perception of science as an objective, truth-building institution. However, more recent research indicates variability in the likelihood that scientists communicate uncertainties and in the public reception and use of uncertainty claims. Many scientists still believe that scientific uncertainty will be misunderstood by the public and misused by interest groups involved with an issue, while others recognize a need to clearly translate what is known and not known. Much social science analysis of scientific uncertainty in public science views it as a socially constructed phenomenon, where it depends less upon a particular state of scientific research (what scientists are certain and uncertain of) and more upon contextual factors, the actors involved, and the meanings attached to scientific claims. Scientific uncertainty is often emergent in public science, both in the sense that the boundary between what is certain and uncertain can be managed and manipulated by powerful actors and in the sense that as scientific knowledge confronts diverse public norms, values, local knowledges, and interests new areas of uncertainty emerge. Scientific uncertainty may emerge as a consequence of social conflict rather than being its cause. In public science scientific uncertainty can be interpreted as a normal state of affairs and, in the long run, may not be that detrimental to solving societal problems if it opens up new avenues and pathways for thinking about solutions. Of course, the presence of scientific uncertainty can also be used to legitimate inaction.

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