Roadside Invader – Engineered Canola

Genetically engineered canola resistant to two common herbicides has been found growing widely along roadsides in North Dakota, one of the first instances of a biotech crop establishing itself in the wild.

This might not even be a problem at all, although critics of biotech crops might conceivably point to it as an example of how hard it is to stop the spread of “gene pollution.’’ If this is a problem, it’s because a canola plant growing outside of a canola field – on a road or in a field of wheat, for example – could be considered a weed.

And if it’s resistant to a widely used herbicide, it would remove one option for killing it, although other herbicides could do the job. “If there’s a problem in North Dakota, it’s that these crop plants are becoming weeds,’’ said Cynthia L. Sagers, an associate professor of biology at the University of Arkansas who led the study.

The results are to be presented on Friday in Pittsburgh at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America.
Meredith G. Schafer, a graduate student at the University of Arkansas, and colleagues traversed 3,000 miles of interstate, state and county roads in North Dakota, stopping every five miles and taking a sample of one canola plant if any were growing.

Of the 604 plants collected, 80 percent were genetically engineered, Dr. Sagers said. Some were Roundup Ready crops, meaning they had a bacterial gene conferring resistance to the herbicide Roundup, known generically as glyphosate. Others were Liberty Link crops, with a gene conferring resistance to glufosinate.

Two plants were found to have genes conferring resistance to both herbicides, suggesting that the crops resistant to each herbicide had mated. The abstract summary of the work, submitted before the sampling was completed, is here.

The canola plants apparently start growing when seeds blow off of fields or fall out of trucks carrying the crops to market.

The finding is not surprising. These genetically engineered canola plants have been found growing along roads in Canada, where canola is widely grown, and in Japan, which imports the crop.

This is apparently the first time anybody looked for it in the United States, where canola is grown mainly in North Dakota and Minnesota, though cultivation is now spreading to some other states.

Scientists have also previously reported that genetically engineered grass established itself in the wild in Oregon.

Monsanto, the developer of Roundup-resistant canola, said the results were neither surprising nor worrisome.

Canola was found on roadsides in canola-growing regions even before genetically engineered crops were developed, Tom Nickson, the environmental policy leader at Monsanto, said in a statement. “Because about 90 percent of the U.S. and Canadian canola crop is biotech, it is reasonable to expect a survey of roadside canola to show similar levels of biotech plants.’’

Roadside canola can be taken care of by mowing or other herbicides. The fact that the plant might be resistant to an herbicide does not give it any advantage over other plants or weeds unless that particular herbicide is sprayed.

Yet Dr. Sagers said it seemed that in some areas the researchers sampled, Roundup had been sprayed, leaving only the herbicide-resistant canola standing.

Dale Thorenson, a former North Dakota farmer who is now assistant director of the United States Canola Association, said there are many weeds, such as leafy spurge, that are not genetically engineered but are far more problematic for farmers than stray canola plants.

Unlike canola, genetically modified corn and soybeans have not established themselves in the wild, even though they are grown on vastly more acres than canola.

“They are super-domesticated and they just don’t really like to go wild,’’ said Norman Ellstrand, a professor of genetics at the University of California, Riverside, who studies gene flow in plants.

Fonte – Geen Blog / New York Times 06 de agosto de 2010

Imagem – Giau Ngo