Hunt for mystery GM wheat hots up

Journal or Publishing Institution: Nature

Study: http://www.nature.com/news/hunt-for-mystery-gm-wheat-hots-up-1.13392

Author(s): Ledford, H.

Article Type: Report

Record ID: 1381

Abstract: Investigators hope to track origins of the transgenic crop.

Text:

It has been nearly three months since an Oregon farmer discovered unapproved transgenic wheat in a commercial wheat field, triggering bans on imports of US wheat into Japan and South Korea. The harvest season has now begun, and with the contamination proving to be an isolated event, imports into South Korea have resumed.

But as an army of combines marches across the wheat fields of eastern Oregon, the mystery of the transgenic intruders is fresh in the minds of investigators at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), who are trying to trace the plants’ provenance to a particular research plot. Those close to the investigation say that the identity of the variety in question could emerge in the coming weeks, providing a much-needed breakthrough in this agricultural whodunnit. It could point to the cause of the release, which some have suggested could be activist sabotage. “We may never know who actually released it,” says James Moyer, director of the Agricultural Research Center at Washington State University in Pullman. “But if they know the genotype of those plants, they will be able to narrow it down quite a bit.”

Within a month of the discovery in May, USDA scientists had traced the origin of the plants to a line of herbicide-resistant ‘Roundup Ready’ wheat called MON71800, developed by the agricultural company Monsanto, based in St Louis, Missouri. Monsanto killed the project in 2005 over farmers’ worries that overseas customers would not buy US wheat if it contained transgenic varieties. No GM wheat has yet been approved to be grown commercially in the United States. The company says that all seed from the field trials — conducted on more than 400 hectares in 16 states (see ‘Sifting for GM wheat’) — was accounted for and either secured or destroyed…

Keywords: GM Wheat, Transgenic Crops, Roundup Ready, Monsanto, Glyphosate, Herbicide-Resistance

Citation: Ledford, H., 2013. Hunt for mystery GM wheat hots up. Nature, 499, pp. 262–263.