Talk:Eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome

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[edit] Genetic engineering

First, the specific bacterial culture used to synthesise this tryptophan had recently been genetically engineered to greatly increase tryptophan production.

Can somebody explain why is this considered part of the "improper preparation" of the culture? This sentences simply doesn't make sense in its current context. Genetic engineering is an essential part of the preparation of bacterial lines for the production of a biochemical, and is done for thousands of commercial and medical products. Hoes does the author propose the bacteria were going to produce a commercially viable quantity of the product otherwise? Joe D (t) 20:27, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

• Good question and I agree that much of the history section of this article is misleading. The whole EMS episode is greatly confusing and to this date, a definitive explanation of what caused the outbreak has not been found. One theory is that a minor impurity in the production of tryptophan caused the disease and furthermore some of the proposed impurities where dimeric in structure (formed by a chemical reaction between two molecules of tryptophan). It is conceivable that higher concentrations of tryptophan produced in the bioreactor could have resulted in significantly higher production of tryptophan impurities, particularly dimeric impurities. In short, it is unlikely that genetically engineered cells would have directly lead to the impurities, but rather the impurities may have arisen from higher concentrations of tryptophan produced during the fermentation. But again, this has never been proven and therefore criticism of the GM industry over this incident is in my view is unwarranted. Also as stated in the article, the disease may have been caused by consumption of excessive quantities of tryptophan made possible by a cheap and plentiful supply. If this is true, the dietary supplement industry would certainly be to blame and the FDA would be fully justified in banning the sale of tryptophan supplements. Boghog2 21:59, 7 October 2007 (UTC)