- Pollen from a genetically modified grass has been shown
to travel up to 21km away from the site where it was orginally planted.
-
- This may be the longest recorded distance travelled by
any GM pollen, US researchers have claimed.
-
- They tracked the spread of genes from creeping bentgrass
engineered to resist popular herbicides and which could be used on golf-course
putting greens.
-
- Details appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences.
-
- Lidia Watrud and colleagues at the US Environmental Protection
Agency tracked the flow of creeping bentgrass ( Agrostis stolonifera L
) pollen from an area containing an experimental crop in central Oregon,
US.
-
- After the pollination season, they gathered and raised
seeds from wild and potted "sentinel" plants growing several
km around the test plot.
-
- Seedlings that had survived exposure to the herbicide
Roundup were then checked to determine their genetic signatures.
-
- The researchers found that plants growing within about
2km of the test plot were extensively contaminated with genes from the
GM grasses.
-
- But the team also found evidence of transgenic seed formation
up to 21km downwind in potted sentinels and up to 14km away in wild plants.
-
- The results are likely to heighten concerns about the
unintentional spread of genes from GM crops.
-
- © BBC MMIV http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3675706.stm
|
