Can we use experiments and models in predicting the invasiveness of genetically engineered organisms?

Journal or Publishing Institution: Ecology

Study: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2265771?uid=3739256&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21102832361383

Author(s): Kareiva, P., Parker, I.M. and Pascual, M.

Article Type: Journal Publication

Record ID: 1205

Text: To some, genetically engineered organisms (GEOs) are frightening – alien creations that typify the arrogance of science embodied by the well-known Frankenstein story (Kareiva and Stark, 1994). In fact, however, the vast majority of GEOs that have been produced so far are quite mundane – typically representing minor modifications of well-studied “domesticated species,” no more threatening than this year’s new corn variety. But this does not mean that GEOs are unequivocally without environmental risks. If a GEO is to be released into the environment, several questions about its invasiveness need to be addressed (Tiedje et al., 1989; Mooney and Bernardi, 1990; Rissler and Mellon, 1993; Parker and Kareiva, 1996). For example, an improved plan variety or microbe with stress-resistance traits (such as cold tolerance or pathogen resistance) could in theory gain enough of an advantage to spread far beyond its intended habitat. The challenge is to ask whether “what could in theory happen” is likely to happen, given what we know about ecological invasions. The question is at the core of the United States regulatory policy regarding GEOs; beofre any GEO is approved for commercial field use, which means unregulated release into the environment, either the Environmental Protection Agency (in the case of microbes) or the Department of Agriculture (n the case of plants) must determine that the new organism is not a threat to natural ecosystems. The problem then is straightforward – handed a new organism, ecologists must quantify its invasiveness…

Keywords: plants, Pseudomonas syringae, crops, genetic engineering, invasion, invasions, plant ecology, simulation models, spread, weeds, bacterium, genetic manipulation, Pseudomonas, Pseudomonadaceae, Pseudomonadales, Gammaproteobacteria, Proteobacteria, Bacteria, prokaryotes, eukaryotes, Transgenic plants, Ecological modeling, Pseudomonas, Ecological engineering, Canola, Ecological genetics, Agroecology, Biological invasions

Citation: Kareiva, P., Parker, I.M. and Pascual, M., 1996. Can we use experiments and models in predicting the invasiveness of genetically engineered organisms? Ecology, 77(6), pp.1670-1675.