Gene Mapper by Taiyo Fujii Read Free Book Online Page B

time of the Lockout than even Kurokawa and I did. He also handled the terminology correctly from the point of view of managing a data search. Progress in synthetic biology had changed the meaning of “GMO” since the period Yagodo was describing, but he used the term correctly, the way it was used at the time. This sort of contextual awareness would be critical for the salvaging work I had in mind.
    “Rice genome.” Yagodo’s avatar tapped his nails rhythmically on the table. He was probably using a keyboard. “Here’s something. The Oryza genome was decoded in 2004. It was a big MAFF project.”
    A caption popped up below the dog’s muzzle.
    MAFF: MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE,
FORESTRY AND FISHERIES
    PRECURSOR TO MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCTION
    Another extinct period term used naturally. This was no run-of-the-mill salvager. I thought Yagodo might turn out to be a real “jackpot.”
    “But I don’t think this will help much,” he continued. “There are too many varieties. It would take a full day just to search for thirty or forty matches.”
    “Hold on. All I need is a match to Oryza sativa japonica .”
    “You don’t get it, do you? Well, I guess it’s no surprise. You’re young.”
    The dog gave me a sidelong look and batted his eyelashes. Yagodo was probably grinning at my lack of background, but for some reason it didn’t bother me at all.
    “You would have to search through rice cultivars on the books of agricultural research stations, farmer’s coops, organizations like that. We’re talking several thousand.”
    “Were there really that many? But maybe that’s good. There should be collateral data from the allergen and toxic isomer reports.”
    The dog shook his head. The beads on his bandanna tinkled.
    “We’re talking twenty years ago, Mamoru. Registered cultivars were tested carefully, but farmers all over Japan were doing their own cross-breeding, cultivating mutated versions, you name it. And the kind of really detailed testing you’re thinking about—testing that covers the whole genome—wasn’t required until distilled crops came along.”
    “So they weren’t monitoring for mutations?”
    “Probably they were. On a sample basis, sure. But the approach was totally different from the designed—whoops, I guess it’s still ‘distilled’ in Japanese—the distilled crops you’re used to dealing with. Check digits to kill off mutated seedlings? Full scratch design, to define nutritional yield to the microgram? Not with legacy crops.”
    So Yagodo not only had a handle on genetic engineering in the old GMO era, but he checked out with today’s tools. Up to the fourth generation of distilled crops, genetic engineers used natural plant DNA as a scaffold to hang new characteristics on. Full scratch design—synthetic biology—only kicked in with the fifth generation. Yagodo knew this, otherwise he couldn’t have corrected his own slip. I still didn’t know how he stacked up as a salvager, but in terms of genetic engineering and crop science, it didn’t look like I’d have to teach him much.
    “I just picked up something interesting from the Internet. Take a look.”
    The dog pushed a document across the table. It was something I hadn’t seen in a long time—an electronic document formatted for hard copy output, with page numbers at the bottom. A “PDF” file.
    “That’s a summary of agricultural testing standards, 2012, salvaged from MAFF’s old website.”
    “What, you mean now? Mr. Yagodo, you did what?”
    I was so astonished I lost control of my tongue. My avatar repaired my broken sentence, but it probably couldn’t hide my startled surprise.
    “Salvaged it. You can access the current version on TrueNet, of course.”
    I flicked through the numbered pages. They looked like scans of an internal ministry document.
    “Since 2022, all go.jp documents have been digitally watermarked to prevent tampering. You don’t see the watermark, do you?”
    “You’re