Excerpt:
While the problem looms large in North Dakota, Sagers says the message is
a global one. The world recently hit a milestone, where more than 50
percent of the earth is covered in crops used for food or forage. Domesticated
plants have wild cousins that often are considered weeds, and sometimes these
plants can still crossbreed, creating a high potential for herbicide and
pesticide resistance to show up where it isn't wanted.
In a message dated 8/9/2011 7:11:42 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
The following, which I’ve taken from GMWatch, shows that not only does
glyphosate (Roundup) resistant canola or glufosinate resistant (Liberty
Link) canola grow along highways and in cracks in the pavement, but that some
of these roadside plants are resistant to both types of herbicide. This
must have happened naturally as these weeds crossbred (since, as the article
points out, no double-resistant canola has ever been commercialized).
- Jim Diamond
-=-=-=-=-
First Wild Canola Plants With Modified Genes Found in United States
University of Arkansas, August 6 2010
_http://newswire.uark.edu/article.aspx?id=14453_
(http://newswire.uark.edu/article.aspx?id=14453)
*Wild canola populations contain genes for herbicide tolerance
"Scientists at the University of Arkansas and their colleagues have found
populations of wild plants with genes from genetically modified canola in
the United States.
Globally, canola can interbreed with 40 different weed species, and 25
percent of those weeds can be found in the United States. These findings raise
questions about the regulation of herbicide resistant weeds and about how
these plants might compete with others in the wild.
Graduate student Meredith Schafer will present the group's findings
Friday, Aug. 6, at the Ecological Society of America meeting in Pittsburgh, Pa.
"We really don't know what the consequences of the gene escape " said
Schafer. "We don't know what these plants are going to do."
The research originated when Schafer and Cynthia Sagers, professor of
biological sciences at the University of Arkansas, spotted some pretty yellow
flowers in a ditch near Warehouse Foods in Langdon, N.D. As part of another
research project, they had some portable strips that test for genetically
modified proteins found in canola, proteins that convey herbicide
resistance to crop plants. The strips work much like those in a pregnancy test;
Schafer and Sagers crushed plant leaves in water and added the test strip,
which would develop one line if it tested negative for the modified gene and
two lines if it tested positive for a modified protein. Their test strips
could detect the protein that conveys Roundup resistance; they also could
detect the protein that conveys resistance to Liberty Link, another herbicide
used on canola.
Schafer and Sagers determined at once that the parking lot weeds contained
transgenic genes.
"Immediately we knew we needed to investigate it further," Sagers said.
They filled a car with test strips and set out on a road trip in a red
Ford Explorer, traveling on highways east and west across North Dakota,
stopping every five miles on the highways to look for roadside weeds. They
counted canola plants in a 50-meter transect, photographed the locations, took
GPS statistics, took a plant sample, and tested the samples in the front
seat. They then collected and pressed the sampled plant and drove to the next
location.
"We traveled over 3,000 miles to complete the sampling," Schafer said.
Some of the sites had densely packed plants, with 1,000 specimens in a
50-meter space. They spray these roadsides with herbicides, and canola is the only
thing still growing.
They found wild canola in about 46 percent of the sites along the highway,
either growing on the side of the road or in cracks in the highway. About
83 percent of the weedy canola they tested contained transgenic material,
that is, they contained herbicide resistance genes from genetically modified
canola. Further, some of the plants contained resistance to both
herbicides, a combination of transgenic traits that had not been developed in canola
crops.
"That's not commercially available. That has to be happening in the wild,"
Schafer said. "That leads us to believe that these wild populations have
become established populations. Technically, these plants are not supposed
to be able to compete in the wild."
Current farming practices may quickly make the problem worse. Each year
tens of thousands of acres of canola go un-harvested in the field. As a
consequence, an enormous reservoir of seed is created, which can then spread
into wild populations.
"Once this happens, it would be difficult to get rid of these weeds using
current herbicides," Sagers said.
While the problem looms large in North Dakota, Sagers says the message is
a global one. The world recently hit a milestone, where more than 50
percent of the earth is covered in crops used for food or forage. Domesticated
plants have wild cousins that often are considered weeds, and sometimes these
plants can still cross breed, creating a high potential for herbicide and
pesticide resistance to show up where it isn't wanted.
"Things can escape from cultivation, and we need to be careful about what
we stick into plants," Sagers said.
In addition to Schafer and Sagers, researchers on the project included
postdoctoral researchers Jason P. Londo at the University of Arkansas; Andrew
X. Ross and Steven E. Travers from North Dakota State University; Peter K.
van de Water of California State University in Fresno, Calif.; and Connie
A. Burdick and E. Henry Lee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Keywords: Research & Innovation Science Sustainability & Environment
Contacts:
Meredith G. Schafer, biological sciences
J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences
_501-952-3643_ (tel:501-952-3643) , [log in to unmask]
(mailto:[log in to unmask])
Cynthia L. Sagers, professor, biological sciences
J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences
_703-292-8712_ (tel:703-292-8712) , [log in to unmask]
(mailto:[log in to unmask])
Barbara Jaquish, science and research communications officer
University Relations
_479-575-2683_ (tel:479-575-2683) , [log in to unmask]
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