It's certain that Henry A. Wallace, founder of Pioneer Hi-Bred, would be appalled at what his company is doing with genetic engineering. Tom -------------------------------------- Subj: Seed companies block critical research on GM pollen spread Date: 02-10-16 18:43:06 EDT From: [log in to unmask] (Laurel Hopwood) Sender: [log in to unmask] (Biotech Forum) Reply-to: [log in to unmask] (Biotech Forum) To: [log in to unmask] Norfolk Genetic Information Network (ngin), http://www.ngin.org.uk Seed companies block critical research on GM pollen spread Nature 419, 655 (2002);doi:10.1038/419655a Superweed study falters as seed firms deny access to transgene REX DALTON AND SAN DIEGO edited According to this article, two major seed companies this week stand accused of hindering attempts to assess whether genetically modified sunflowers can turn their wild counterparts into 'superweeds'. Cold shoulder: Allison Snow has been left unable to follow up her experiments to test whether transgenes can cause wild sunflowers to proliferate as weeds. A team led by Allison Snow, a plant ecologist at Ohio State University, has uncovered preliminary evidence that a transgene that confers insect resistance can increase the number of seeds produced by wild sunflowers. This could allow the wild plants to proliferate as weeds. But Pioneer Hi-Bred International of Des Moines, Iowa, and Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences have now blocked a follow-up study by refusing to allow the team access to either the transgene or the seeds from the earlier study. Snow revealed the problem on 13 October during a lecture on transgene research at the Seventh International Symposium on the Biosafety of Genetically Modified Organisms in Beijing. The transgenic sunflowers contain a gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which allows them to produce a natural insecticide. The results of Snow's initial study were revealed this August at the Ecological Society of America's annual meeting in Tucson, Arizona, and have been accepted for publication in Ecological Applications. They suggest that if the Bt transgene were to migrate into wild sunflowers, the plants' resistance to insects would increase the number of seeds produced. Both seed companies confirm that they have refused to make the necessary materials available to Snow. Mark Tepfer, a plant virologist at the French national agricultural agency's laboratory in Versailles, France, says that Snow's work is "one of the first really good experiments" to examine transgene flow to the wild. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the CONS-SPST-BIOTECH-FORUM list, send any message to: [log in to unmask] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask]