The following essay synthesizes reports that Javier and Julie separately produced for the class Weird Science (ENG 1773ID). In their shared concern for explaining the benefits of green farming, Javier and Julie offer complementary perspectives on the environmental ramifications of promoting sustainable agriculture in New York City.

Javier

The quality of New York residents’ diets depends on low costs. Fresh and healthy food must be affordable to be accessible. But New York’s high cost of living, including energy, obstructs low-income households’ access to healthy food. According to Libman et al., households in the city are concerned about getting food because of the barrier of low income (2016). In addition, Rozner (2022) points out that at least two dozen neighborhoods suffer from unequal access to healthy food. Such problems require a change in social practices, which might then change the biological characteristics of the people. Indeed, such changes spark changes in the very structure of people’s DNA. Because jumping genes, sometimes called “junk DNA,” can copy and insert themselves in another part of the genomic sequence, they have the potential to cause an evolution in DNA structure  (Wilcox 2022).  In seeking practical solutions to New York City’s economic problems, this review of the relationship between food, cost of living, and so-called “jumping genes” suggests that environmental changes—specifically, “green” social practices— could transform these fundamental characteristics for the better.

Julie

A range of factors—mutagens, light cycles, humidity, oxygen levels, temperature, diet—can drive gene expression, which then impacts phenotype. In genetics, the phenotype of an individual results from the interaction of its genotype with the environment. In this process, jumping genes, also called alu transposons, play a key role in genomic reorganization. Transposons are a class of genetic elements that can “jump” to different locations within a genome.  Divided into retrotransposons and DNA transposons, or class 1 and class 2, jumping genes can cause DNA inversions or deletions. When transposition generates the same sequence in two copies within the same orientation, the duplicated DNA can be deleted through recombination. However, opposite orientations exist in the two copies, and the DNA between them is inverted through recombination. While this DNA disrupts recombination in heterozygotic cross-over within inverted regions, it also increases it elsewhere in the genome. In this way, jumping genes can mobilize substrates and non-transposon DNA.

Jumping genes, activated under various stress conditions, can enhance organisms’ resilience to the challenges of any given environment. Research has shown that jumping genes propagate through their stress-responsive elements, owing to the epigenetic nature of stress-induced change. In other words, epigenetics can change in the organisms caused by how the behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way our genes work.  As a result, genomic fluidity can permit the plasticity of phenotypic and stress adaptation (Dumoulin, 2021, p. 75). In other words, stress-activated jumping genes provide raw materials that, in turn, generate new genes. Moreover, through their insertion within DNA’s regulatory regions, or exons, these genes can convert the functionality of these regions, (Gebrie, 2023, p. 5). This creates stress-induced genomic networks that only act on specific genes. As a result, transposons can cause the development of beneficial traits within an organism.

To take one example, many plant genomes rely on jumping genes to spark new genetic variations within the species (Fambrini, et al., 2020, p. 7). Due to the overlapping mechanisms of epigenetic and genetic regulation, jumping genes carry components that exhibit a high diversity of distribution and lineage, producing significant genomic variation in plants. Indeed, Oliver, McComb, and Greene (2013) point out the significance of transposable elements in the evolution and diversity of angiosperms (flowering plants). Noting transposons’ crucial role in shaping the genomes of plants, Oliver et al show that these genes activate the development of new traits. As the authors observe, “plant adaptation and survival . . . can generate new characteristics vital for the organism’s success” (p. 40).

Epigenetics can change in the organisms caused by how the behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way our genes work. 

Javier

Present throughout human evolution, jumping genes have us to adapt to the environment through constant changes in DNA structure. As Christie explains, genes that “jump” contain code that mutation and natural selection then “domesticated” as part of the genome. Today, a large percentage of all organisms on earth consist of jumping genes to some extent; according to Wilcox’s graphical data, 54% of the genome in humans was generated by “transposable” elements. According to Piacentini L et al. (2014), changes in the environment, such as weather, can lay stress on the activity of the transposons, which then creates new genetic variations. While noting that jumping genes do not depend on such environmental changes, their work suggests that, over time, repeated changes in a social or environmental system can lead to more stress on transposons. This, in turn, can then lead to more mutations.

How might environmental changes—specifically, “green” social practices—transform the DNA of New Yorkers? One answer involves  “green” rooftops in New York’s buildings and urban areas. A 2014 NYC Parks article explains this practice by describing the green rooftops of Staten Island, one of the boroughs of New York City. To grow vegetation, these rooftops are divided into a base, a waterproof layer, a layer that obstructs the roots growing further, a drainage layer, and a final layer of soil where food or plants can grow. These rooftops house a large variety of plants that do not require a great space to grow, for example, mushrooms, tomatoes, and peppers.

Through growing fresh vegetables in an urban environment, not to mention reducing the cost of importing food, green rooftops can transform and change the biological characteristics, more specifically the health conditions of people by changing their environment.

(Green) rooftops house a large variety of plants that do not require a great space to grow, for example, mushrooms, tomatoes, and peppers.

Green rooftops can have many benefits. Flowers and herbs decorating the space might encourage florists in their trade, creating economic opportunity for the community. According to Frazer (2022), green rooftops also absorb rainwater, thereby reducing stress on sewage drainage systems. Additionally, because cities can be as much as 22 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than suburban and rural areas, green rooftops also reduce the temperature in hotter weather, adding an insulation layer to increase the efficiency of cooling from the buildings because of the soil system created. More plants on the top of buildings would also clean the air through photosynthesis. Reducing the energy cost of importing food, such rooftops allow for more spending on improving product quality and expanding the availability of healthy food in areas that need it. Moreover, if practical solutions to food inequality enjoy acceptance from the whole community, this might open the door to changes in other areas, like energy consumption.

Even more radically, though, green rooftops could provoke an evolution in DNA structure. For example, since extreme heat and humidity prevent the body from cooling and cleaning properly, green rooftops might lead the body’s organs to a better state, as well as a better way of disposing of waste through sweat. Furthermore, changes in skin DNA might make it more resistant to infections, generated by a decrease in heat and humidity.

Julie

As Sonnino (2014) explains, urban farming is a social practice that can generate new genetic characteristics. Promoting food security in urban areas by reducing food miles, increasing access to fresh produce, and promoting sustainable food systems, such farms produce positive environmental changes that could lead to a more resilient urban community. As a result, urban farming can help produce new traits and genetic diversity important for sustaining the survival of the next generation of human beings.

Indeed, urban farming allows microbes to interact with the jumping genes of plants in powerful ways, thus influencing their activity and mobility. Indeed, such farms not only foster intra-microbial interactions, critical for the successful maintenance and establishment of a microbial population, but also encourage plant-microbe interactions, including parasitism, mutualism, commensalism, and competition. The more common interactions are mutualism or commensalism, where each or both of the species benefit, respectively, from the relationship. Take, for example, the way bacteria can distribute nutrients and give antibiotics to the roots of plants. Elsewhere, microbes do not eat the waste in nature, rather recycle it. Decomposition processes release chemicals such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and carbon, which can be utilized in building new animals and plants, which are crucial for human survival. In such an environment, microbes become more capable of promoting the insertion or mobilization of jumping genes in particular parts of a sequence because the plants are also connected to the environment.

In light of the above, urban farming can help produce new traits and genetic diversity important for the survival and adaptation of human beings. Urban farmers have therefore been developing diverse ways to improve crops so that they can better suit their needs. Genetic makeup changes in the plants facilitate these improvements. For example, farmers in Europe are working to increase the precision and pace of breeding crops, along with genetics understanding and the escalation of the capacity to assess the molecular level of the genomes (Singer et al. 2021, p. 77). There has been a rapid and widespread uptake of techniques in molecular breeding such as genome editing and transgenic editing in the past few years, and this is modified to have positive characteristics that are interesting to include. To be sure, as farmers in Europe may have the possibility of unanticipated mutations, and therefore unintended risks, has caused considerable trepidation, especially in light of—off-target mutations arising from new biotechnological breeding techniques. Nonetheless, the impending crisis in food security requires the implementation of a wide range of breeding tools to meet the growing demand, provide environmental benefits, increase nutrition, and withstand pressures related to climate change. (Singer et al. 2021, p. 77). In that light, genomic and transgenic editing employs various biotechnological and conventional breeding approaches that food security crisis makes these risks worth taking because is the best to ensure healthy nutrition in the population and have a beneficial impact in the long term, also to compare when these risks weren’t implemented before and decide if they could bring something new to the practice.

Different benefits result from the interaction of crops and microorganisms. Beneficial jumping genes and microorganisms can lead to DNA sequences that move from one location on the genome to another. Diseases of crops and hence compete or colonize with the pathogens for nutrients. They exert antagonism or sites of interaction through the development of hyperparasitism, antimicrobial compounds, or attaching to the pathogen cells directly. They can also induce host plant resistance or interfere with pathogen signals (Cesa-Luna et al. 2020, p. 148). Notably, there are various strain examples capable of covering a single mechanism. Conversely, a combination of diverse mechanisms may also converge within the same strains. Plant-pathogenic bacteria against antibiotics and fungi are shared among bacterial pesticides. Urban farming allows for a controlled environment that can be monitored and adjusted to prevent the growth and spread of harmful bacteria. This includes monitoring temperature, humidity, and air quality to ensure optimal conditions for plant growth while minimizing the potential for bacteria. Reducing the need for pesticides, which can be a source of harmful bacteria.  Overall, the urban farming model provides a way to grow fresh produce in a controlled and monitored environment that minimizes the potential for harmful bacteria to grow and spread.

Javier

How much time is required for green rooftops to activate jumping genes? Usually, a new structure of DNA sequence is produced over several generations. Leslie A. Pray (2008) explains that genes that jump through the DNA structure can acquire a new transposon gene, or alu insertion on the DNA, once for every estimated 200 births. However, radical stressors can cause the jumping genes to activate and create a new structure in the DNA. For example, New York City’s average high temperatures in spring, summer, and fall might drop to a lower average. If this new average temperature stabilized for a long enough time, the environmental stress would cause jumping genes to copy a segment of the DNA into another strand, creating a new DNA structure. Since urban farming can help to lower the city’s average temperature, the population has incentive to practice new social activities that might produce this environmental change.

Julie

The photos visible on the Brooklyn Grange’s website help us visualize what might be possible if the rooftop garden model were adapted on a broader scale. To look at them is to appreciate how the Grange utilizes organic waste to provide better nutrients to green areas, while ensuring that water is not wasted in rainy seasons; such practices are not necessarily typical at farms that rely on organic compost. In promoting food security via a reduction in food miles, increasing access to fresh produce, and building sustainable food systems, farms like the Brooklyn Grange may impact stress-induced changes in jumping gene activities. Such changes may, in turn, lead to interactions between plants and microorganisms that positively shape genetic variation. It will be good for New York City to have more green areas, not just because such areas provide a beautiful landscape, but also because they provide a better environment for the people who enjoy them.

Works Cited

Dawkins, R. (2006). The Selfish Gene, 30th Anniversary Edition, Oxford University Press.

Frazer, K. (2022, August 12). "Green roofs in New York City." The Nature Conservancy. Retrieved November 29, 2023, from https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/new-york/stories-in-new-york/green-roofs-new-york-city/

Libman, K., Beatty, L., Fiedler, M., Abbott, Green, D., & Weiss, L. (2016). "Food and Nutrition: Hard Truths About Eating Healthy." The New York Academy of Medecine, 4. https://media.nyam.org/filer_public/cb/46/cb469439-6d28-4a74-ac07-c98aab837cf7/cityvoicesnutritionfinal7-16.pdf

NYC Parks. (2014). "NYC Parks Green Roofs: A living laboratory for innovative green roof design." NYC Parks’ Five Borough Citywide Operations and Technical Services Division. https://www.nycgovparks.org/pagefiles/84/NYC-Parks-Green-Roof.pdf

Piacentini, L., Fanti, L., Specchia, V., Bozzetti, M. P., Berloco, M., Palumbo, G., & Pimpinelli, S. (2014). "Transposons, environmental changes, and heritable induced phenotypic variability." Chromosoma, 123(4), 345–354. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00412-014-0464-y

Pray, L. (2008). "Functions and utility of Alu jumping genes." Nature Education, 1(1), 93. https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/functions-and-utility-of-alu-jumping-genes-56

Rozner, L. (2022, June 14). “'Food Deserts' remain big problem in more than 2 dozen New York City neighborhoods." CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/food-insecurity-remains-big-problem-in-more-than-2-dozen-neighborhoods-in-new-york-city/

Sonnino, R. (2014). "The new geography of food security: Exploring the potential of urban food strategies." The Geographical Journal, 182(2), 190-200.

Wilcox, C. (2022, January 17). "Adapting with a little help from jumping genes." The Scientist Magazine. Retrieved November 29, 2023, from https://www.the-scientist.com/features/adapting-with-a-little-help-from-jumping-genes-69566