BioSafety, Volume 2, Paper 3 (BY96003), August 29th
1996.
Online Journal, URL - http://www.bdt.org/bioline/by
Transgene flow and persistence may be monitored by using in
vivo markers such as GFP
C. Neal Stewart, Jr.
Code Number: BY96003
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ABSTRACT
There is growing concern among scientists, regulatory
officials, and environmentalists about the potential escape of
transgenes and the resulting naturalization of transgenic
plants. The current thought is that if and when genes are
introgressed into wild relatives, the resultant plants could
become more weedy and/or alter natural communities and
ecosystems by their increased competitiveness. For many
plant/transgene combinations that are commercialized or in the
process of commercialization in the U.S. and in other
countries, this scenario is very plausible. It is plausible
because of the nature of the host plants' breeding systems,
the ecological importance of nearby wild relatives, and
properties of transgenes that may confer an increment of
fitness to the host plants. Therefore, the availability of an
easy and cost-efficient system to track genetically engineered
plants containing potentially ecologically important
transgenes would be beneficial for use in basic and applied
research and for monitoring commercial releases. I introduce
such a system, which consists of linking one or more
ecologically important transgenes, such as those conferring
herbicide-, disease-, or insect-resistance, to a transgene
coding an in vivo marker, such as a green fluorescent
protein (GFP) gene. In situations where, say, transgenic
insect resistant canola plants are mixed with non-transgenic
canola and/or wild mustard, the fate of transgenes may be
traced by visual observation of canola or canola-mustard
hybrids under an ultraviolet or blue light. Such a system
would be very useful in evaluating ecological hazards inherent
in many crop/transgene combinations.
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