|
Press Release 26 Jan. 2001
UK Top Research Centre Admits GM Failure
Scientists in UK’s top GM crop research institute, the John Innes
Centre, are finally admitting to the public that GM crops are no good. It
amounts to pronouncing the death sentence on GMOs. Mae-Wan Ho, Angela
Ryan and Joe Cummins report.
The John Innes Centre (JIC) is UK’s leading plant research
institute, publicly funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council (BBSRC) to the tune of more than £10m in grants
every year. It also houses the Sainsbury Laboratory and has research
alliances with Zeneca and Dupont.
Not surprisingly, JIC has some of the most pro-GM scientists who have
been staunchly defending GM crops from critics like ourselves, even as
they have been pointing out the same problems in scientific papers
published in specialist journals. For years, we have been drawing
attention to the instability of GM constructs and GM lines. This raises
serious safety concerns over the possibility that the GM genes could
spread out of control to unrelated species, with the potential to create
new bacteria and viruses by recombination. More recently, we have also
argued that the promoter from cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV 35S
promoter), which is in practically all GM crops already commercialised or
undergoing field trials, will make GM constructs and GM lines extra
unstable, and hence greatly exacerbating the problems of horizontal gene
transfer and recombination.
Two items are noteworthy in the latest annual report from JIC, the first
reveals that GM barley lines became unstable and variable in later
generations of field trials. The researchers concluded, "The results
show that transgenic lines need to be examined over a number of
generations under field conditions to obtain the necessary data on
transgenic stability and agronomic performance", and also call for "detailed
molecular and genetic analysis" Both of these ISIS have demanded for
years along with other scientists.
The second item concerns the CaMV 35S promoter. When ISIS pointed out
the dangers of this promoter in the scientific journals, we were reviled
and attacked. Our fiercest critic was leader of a research group in the
JIC that had discovered that the promoter has a ‘recombination
hotspot’, a breaking point that makes it much more likely to
recombine. Now, two years later, the same group admits the need to avoid
recombination hotspots such as that in the CaMV 35S promoter as well as
the ‘origin of replication’ in the plasmid serving as vector for
the GM construct, which is also often integrated ‘accidentally’
into GM crops.
The authors of the second report also suggest the development of ‘clean
DNA’ technology as a possible solution to the problem. But that
amounts to pronouncing the death sentence for all GMOs. All GM crops
currently on the market or under review contain the CaMV 35S promoter and
many, also the plasmid backbone, including the origin of replication.
Quotes from JIC Annual Report 2000
On page 28, analysis of transgenic barley in a small-scale field trial
admits genetic instability
- "Data from the 1998 trial showed that transgenic barley lines
performed as well as non-transformed control plants and controls from
tissue culture-derived parents for several agronomic traits, including
yield. For other traits, a significant difference was seen between
transgenic and control lines. The transgenic lines were significantly
shorter and also slightly later flowering […]. When we examined the
next generation of the same transgenic line in the field during 1999,
there was evidence that the transgenic plants were more variable
compared to the controls than those in the 1998 field trial. This could
be because somaclonal variation, resulting from the tissue culture and
transformation procedures, and was more obvious in later generations.
These results show that transgenic lines need to be examined over a
number of generations under field conditions to obtain the necessary
data on transgene stability and agronomic performance. Further field
trials […] combined with detailed molecular and genetic analysis
will allow us to increase our understanding of the transformation
process so that we are better able to assess the long term effects of
genetic modification." (italics ours)
On page 29, admission that problems of GM and CaMV 35S promoter have
been understated in the past:
- "Analysis of junctions between genomic and transforming DNA, and
between individual plasmid molecules at integration sites, demonstrates
the predominance of microhomology-mediated illegitimate recombination
events involving regions with secondary structure. One such region
occurs in the CaMV 35S promoter, widely used to drive transgene
expression in plants. The plasmid backbone provides other such regions,
including the origin of replication [...]. The influence of
transgene rearrangements on expression and silencing has been
understated in the past, but our research may allow improved
construct design to discourage rearrangements and improve
transgene-expression stability."
Contacts:
Ms. Angela Ryan: 44-20-8441-6481; mobile: 44-07833-114525 e-mail:
i-sis@dircon.co.uk
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho: 44-20-7272-5636; e-mail:
m.w.ho@i-sis.org.uk
Prof. Joe Cummins: 1-519-681-5477; e-mail:
jcummins@julian.uwo.ca
| |
|
