GM cassava study retracted over 'missing' data

"its nutritional content — especially in protein and micronutrients — is low"

Dr. Hindhede during a blockade during the first world war proved a human being needs only one gram of protein intake for every ten pounds of body weight. The World Health Organisation says we need 3.5 grams per ten pounds body weight. Dr. Hindhede found a vegetarian need not worry about protein because they will get what little protein they need from the food they eat. A 'high protein cassava' is not required.

The concept of "publish or perish" shouldnt be overemphasized in critical research such as GMO. Cassava is a starchy root crop with high productivity and photosynthetic potential. Also there are wide genetic diversity among cultivated germplasm and in related wild species , indicating the importance of taping through conventional breeding programs this naturally oocuring genetic diversity in improving the cassava crop.

M. A. El-Sharkawy, Retired senior scientist, CIAT, Cali, colombia

Congrates for Dr Carrrington, His courage , honesty and faithfullness to his scientific mission and his noble principles are highly appreciated by scientific community. As Rodomiro Ortiz said, Wild species and indigenous cultivars must have been exploited before running after molecular transformation to transfer bacteria and virus genes!! see a lot of information on wild cassava as resource of protein in www.geneconserve.pro.br and in publication of this researcher.

Wild Manihot species as a safety source of protein should have been exploited befoe looking to another unsafety aource in virus or bacteria and trying to transfer it by molecular means. So many successful work has been done on this subject by this author and his associates at the Universidade de Brasilia, through very low expensive projects supported by the Brazilian National Council of Research Development- CNPq, Brasilia and the Canadian International Research Development Center - IDRC. Not obly rich in Protein hybrids were obtained, but essential amino acids which do not occur in common cassava were reached. See for example this article published some five years ago in Genetics and Moleculkar Research :Amino acid profile in cassava and its interspecific hybrid by
Nagib M.A. Nassar1 and M.V. Sousa2
1Departamento de Genética e Morfologia, 2Departamento de Biologia Celular,
Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brasil
Corresponding author: Nagib M.A. Nassar
E-mail: nagnassa@rudah.com.br
Genet. Mol. Res. 6 (2): 292-297 (2007)
The first publication on transferring high protein content from the wild was in 1982 (thirty years ago) by Nassar and Dorea in Turrialba as follows: Protein content of cassava cultivars and its hybrid with wild Manihot species
NMA Nassar, JG Dorea - Turrialba, 1982. The case of Wild Cassava rich in protein was documented in several publications in the decade 1970 by Nassar and co workers. For example publication in the leading Suisse Journal Experientia in 1977 as follows : NASSAR, NM A. and COSTA, C. 1977. Tuber formation and protein content in some wild
Manihot species native of Central Brazil. Experientia (Basel) 33: I304- I305

In my MSc thesis, analysing protein content in cassava interspecific hybrids and their progenies developed by my supervisor Prof Nagib Nassar, Universidade de Brasilia, I could detect and select progenies which have protein content as high as 6,00 percent. Their essential amino acids profile revealed to be rich in amino acids normally absent in common cassava, such as arginin, methionin and tryptophane. In the meantime they showed very low HCN content which exclude any possibility of atribution to Nitrogen due to hydrocyanic acid hydrolysis. These results are expecting for publication at Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, Springer. This fact support what was said above that exploitation of the wild is necessary before looking for sources of protein in bacteria and virus genes.