Genetically Modified Crops Escape Into The Wild
August 07 2010
New research conducted by the University of Arkensas found that genetically modified plants were growing in the wild, away from enclosed areas.
Not only did these plants have one transplanted gene, but two of them had two different genes, and these multiple transgenic strains have not yet been released, proving that they are reproducing and establishing entirely new strains
Speaking as a human geneticist, my understanding of blasting something with new genes is that they are inherently unstable, and different areas of the genome, other that the one where the new genes are expected to go to, are, to my knowledge, not investigated to establish 100% safety
Apart from the general unknown nightmare that could result from changing the genetic makeup of plants (this is how we ended up with MRSA in bacteria remember - resistant to antibiotics), this means that the modificaton to specific plants can be transferred to other plants. What if we dont want them to be resistant to herbicedes for example - we could have fields of weeds and nowhere to grow crops.
Food for thought?
For moreinformation on the research paper click here
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