GMO Research
Abstract: When field tests of transgenic plants are precluded by practical containment concerns, manipulative experiments can detect potential consequences of crop-wild gene flow. Using topical sprays of bacterial Bacillus thuringiensislarvicide (Bt) and larval additions, we measured fitness effects of reduced herbivory on Brassica rapa (wild mustard) and Raphanus sativus (wild radish). These species represent different …
Abstract: Hybridization allows transgenes and other crop alleles to spread to wild/weedy populations of related taxa. Researchers have debated whether such alleles will persist because low hybrid fitness and linkage to domestication traits could severely impede introgression. To examine variation in the fates of three unlinked crop alleles, we monitored four experimental, self‐seeding, hybrid populations …
Abstract: The occurence of spontaneous hybridization between Brassica napus (oilseed rape) and Raphanus raphanistrum (wild radish) was investigated under different density conditions in cages and open‐field experiments. Hybrids with wild radish as the seed parent were identified by screening for herbicide resistance belonging to rape. Small seed size and intermediate morphology were used to screen …
Abstract: Risk assessments of new insect-resistant crops will need to estimate the potential for increased weediness of wild crop relatives as a consequence of gene flow. When field experiments are precluded by containment concerns, simulation experiments can identify hazards or measure expected differences between GMOs and parental plants. To measure plant fitness consequences of wild …
Abstract: The frequency of gene flow from Brassica napus L. (canola) to four wild relatives, Brassica rapa L., Raphanus raphanistrum L., Sinapis arvensis L. and Erucastrum gallicum (Willd.) O.E. Schulz, was assessed in greenhouse and/or field experiments, and actual rates measured in commercial fields in Canada. Various marker systems were used to detect hybrid individuals: …
Abstract: Weed species are known to evolve rapidly with their associated crops. A better understanding of the mechanisms and rates of weed evolution could aid in limiting or at least anticipating this process. Spontaneous hybridization between crops and related weed species can transfer crop genes coding for fitness‐enhancing traits to wild populations, but little is …
Keywords: weeds, crop protection, BCPC Citation: Darmency, H., Fleury, A., and Lefol, E. (1995). Effect of transgenic release on weed biodiversity: oilseed rape and wild radish. Proceedings – Brighton Crop Protection Conference – Weeds, 2, 433-438.
Abstract: The transfer of engineered genes (transgenes) from crops to natural populations will depend first on mating between the crop and related weeds and then upon the relative fitness of the weed—crop hybrid. While weed—crop hybridization is known to occur readily under agricultural conditions, almost nothing is known of the fitness of the hybrids produced. …
Abstract: Studies were conducted to investigate the crossability of the cultivated Brassica species, Brassica napus (oilseed rape), B. rapa (turnip rape), and B. juncea (brown and oriental mustard), with two related cruciferous weeds that are abundant in certain regions of Canada, Erucastrum gallicum (dog mustard) and Raphanus raphanistrum ssp. raphanistrum (wild radish). Seed was produced …
Abstract: Engineered genes in transgenic crops may escape into the ambient environment via crop‐weed hybridization However, natural crop‐weed muting rates (gene flow) are largely unknown. We measured mating between wild and cultivated radishes in an experiment that simulated natural stands around seed multiplication plots. We used a genetic marker to identify, crop‐weed muting events. Although …
Text: It is hard to ignore the ongoing, often emotional, public discussion of the impacts of the products of crop biotechnology. At one extreme of the hype is self-rightoeus panic, and at the other is smug optimism. While the controversy plays out in the press, dozens of scientific workshops, symposia, and other meetings have been …
