GMO Research
Abstract: The development of crops genetically engineered for pathogen resistance has raised concerns that crop-to-wild gene flow could release wild or weedy relatives from regulation by the pathogens targeted by the transgenes that confer resistance. Investigation of these risks has also raised questions about the impact of gene flow from conventional crops into wild plant …
Abstract: Virus-resistant transgenic squash are grown throughout the United States and much of Mexico and it is likely that the virus-resistant transgene (VRT) has been introduced to wild populations repeatedly. The evolutionary fate of any resistance gene in wild populations and its environmental impacts depend upon trade-offs between the costs and benefits of the resistance …
Abstract: Diseases caused by plant viruses result in significant yield losses in crops worldwide (Thresh 1980). Since most plant viruses are transmitted to crops by insect vectors, strategies for virus control may target either the virus itself or its insect vector. Many of the most common management strategies rely on vector control because natural genetic …
Abstract: Genetic resistance to clinical mousepox (ectromelia virus) varies among inbred laboratory mice and is characterized by an effective natural killer (NK) response and the early onset of a strong CD8(+) cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response in resistant mice. We have investigated the influence of virus-expressed mouse interleukin-4 (IL-4) on the cell-mediated response during infection. It …
Text: One of the communication tools of the EC-funded Biosafenet project is a series of six Biosafenet Seminars that will be held 2007–2009. Their purpose is to convene small groups of scientists to consider emerging issues related to the potential impact of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The first Seminar was organized by the ICGEB at …
Abstract: Gene flow from genetically modified (GM) chili pepper (Capsicum annuumL.), containing the CMVP0-CP (cucumber mosaic virus pathotype 0 – coat protein) gene to a non-GM control variety ‘P915’ and two commercial F1hybrids, ‘Manidda’ and ‘Taesan’, was assessed over two growing seasons in the field. Seeds were collected from non-GM chili peppers at a range …
Abstract: Soil properties, microbial communities, and enzyme activities were studied in soil planted with transgenic or nontransgenic papaya under field conditions. The transgenic papaya contained a replicase (RP) mutant gene of the papaya ringspot virus (PRSV), which conferred resistance to the virus, the neomycin phosphotransferase II (NPT II) marker gene, which conferred Km resistance, and …
Abstract: The Biotechnology and Food Safety Report issued jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO), is the result of an Expert Consultation held in Rome, in October 1996. The Consultation was the latest, possibly the most significant, attempt to reach international agreement on the safety of genetically engineered (GE) …
Text: Biotechnology is big business.1 As such, the use of biotechnology to engineer plants, and the regulation of the resulting food crops, involves economic and trade issues, as well as science and health issues.2 Through modern biotechnology, selected individual genes are transferred from one organism into another, sometimes between nonrelated species, using recombinant DNA (rDNA) …
Introduction Plant transformation has become an essential tool for plant molecular biologists and, almost simultaneously, transgenic plants have become a major focus of many plant breeding programs. The first transgenic cultivar arrived on the market approximately 15 years ago, and some countries have since commercially approved or deregulated (e.g. the United States) various commodity crops …
Abstract: According to the 1996 WHO Report, the world is heading for a major crisis in public health as outbreaks of new and re-emerging infectious diseases are striking at increasing frequencies within the past 10 to 15 years. The current strains of pathogens are moreover, resistant to known treatments; some strains being resistant to all …
To the editor: As field ecologists involved in risk assessment research on Bacillus thuringiensis toxin (Bt)-maize in Europe for several years now, we are very pleased that the publication last January of an article by Romeis et al. (Nat. Biotechnol. 24, 63–71, 2006) and an earlier paper by Firbank et al. Nat. Biotechnol. (23, 1475–1476, …
Abstract: Larvicidal proteins encoded by cry genes from Bacillus thuringiensis were released in root exudates from transgenic B. thuringiensis corn, rice, and potato but not from B. thuringiensis canola, cotton, and tobacco. Nonsterile soil and sterile hydroponic solution in which B. thuringiensis corn, rice, or potato had been grown were immunologically positive for the presence …
Abstract: Antibiotic resistance rates have increased in both clinical and environmental bacteria over the past several decades. While the causes underlying these trends have been investigated in a clinical setting, little work has been done to estimate the contribution of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) derived from non-traditional sources like transgenic (GM) crops. The cultivation and …
