Safe history of small RNA molecules in existing foods

The Pundit has been recently following through on homework relating to the book, Genetic Roulette by Jeffrey Smith (mentioned in an earlier post) . It's a rather annoying task the Pundit's set himself, because Jeffrey's book is riddled with scientific howlers and biased presentation of evidence. It's obvious that Smith just doesn't understand many of the scientific articles that he does quote, or more likely, has never read many of them. But more of that, at a more auspicious time. For the moment lets consider one of Smith's typically bizarre obsessions--that transgenic RNA is dangerous.

In the Genetic Roulette book Smith worries that RNA molecules from transgenic crops will do us great harm.

It turns out we get plenty of unusual RNA in our diet, and some of it is pretty amazing stuff: it's human.

Yes that's it. RNA in our food is just like some RNA inside our own bodies. Read on:

 

Endogenous Small RNAs in Grain: Semi-Quantification and Sequence Homology to Human and Animal Genes Ivashuta, S.I., Petrick, J.S., Heisel, S.E., Zhang, Y., Guo, L., Reynolds, T.L., Rice, J.F.,Allen, E., Roberts, J.K., Food and Chemical Toxicology (2008), doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2008.11.025

 

Summary:Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) are effector molecules of RNA interference (RNAi), a highly conserved RNA-based gene suppression mechanism in plants, mammals and other eukaryotes. Endogenous RNAi-based gene suppression has been harnessed naturally and through conventional breeding to achieve desired plant phenotypes. The present study demonstrates that endogenous small RNAs, such as siRNAs and miRNAs, are abundant in soybean seeds, corn kernels, and rice grain, plant tissues that are traditionally used for food and
feed. Numerous endogenous plant small RNAs were found to have perfect complementarity to human genes as well as those of other mammals. The abundance of endogenous small RNA molecules in grain from safely consumed food and feed crops such as soybean, corn, and rice and the homology of a number of these dietary small RNAs to human and animal genomes and transcriptomes establishes a history of safe consumption for dietary small RNAs.