轉基因植物'立足於野外'

轉基因植物'立足於野外'
GM plants 'established in the wild'
6 August 2010 Last updated at 04:01 GMT
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News
Canola, a modification of rape, is widely grown across North America for its oil
油菜籽，一強姦的改變，為它的油被廣泛種植在全北美

Researchers in the US have found new evidence that genetically modified crop plants can survive and thrive in the wild, possibly for decades.
在美國的研究人員已發現新證據表明，轉基因作物能在野外生存和茁壯成長，可能數十年。
A University of Arkansas team surveyed countryside in North Dakota for canola. Transgenes were present in 80% of the wild canola plants they found.
一阿肯色大學隊伍調查在北達科他州農村的油菜籽。轉基因出現在他們發現的80％的野生油菜籽植物。
They suggest GM traits may help the plants survive weedkillers in the wild.
他們提出即使在除草劑下，轉基因性狀可幫助植物在野外生存。
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Pittsburgh.
研究結果發表在匹茲堡美國生態學會的年度會議。
"We just drew 11 lines that crossed the state [of North Dakota] - highways and other roads," related research team leader Cindy Sagers.
“我們只畫 11行線越過州 [北達科他州的] - 公路和其它道路，”相關研究小組的領導人辛迪薩格斯。
"We drove along them, we made 604 stops in a total distance of over 3,000 miles (5,000km). We found canola in 46% of the locations; and 80% of them contained at least one transgene."
“我們沿著它們駕駛，我們在全程3000英里（5000公里）做了604 個站， 我們發現油菜籽在46％的地點;和它們的80％包含至少有一個轉基因。”
In some places, the plants were packed as closely together as they are in farmers' fields.

"We found herbicide resistant canola in roadsides, waste places, ball parks, grocery stores, gas stations and cemeteries," they related in their Ecological Society presentation.

The majority of canola grown in North Dakota has been genetically modified to make it resistant to proprietary herbicides, with Monsanto's RoundUp Ready and Bayer's LibertyLink the favoured varieties. These accounted for most of the plants found in the wild.

Two of the plants analysed contained both transgenes, indicating that they had cross-pollinated.

This is thought to be the first time that communities of GM plants have been identified growing in the wild in the US.

Similar findings have been made in Canada, while in Japan, a study in 2008 found substantial amounts of transgenic rape - a close relative of canola - around port areas where GM varieties had been imported.

州際性
State-wide
What surprised the Arkansas team was how ubiquitous the GM varieties were in the wild.

"We found the highest densities of plants near agricultural fields and along major freeways," Professor Sagers told BBC News.

"But we were also finding plants in the middle of nowhere - and there's a lot of nowhere in North Dakota."

The GM seeds seem to be competitive, allowing a plant community to survive
轉基因種子似乎具競爭力，容許一植物社區生存

Canola seeds are especially prone to dispersal, through blowing in the wind or through falling from trucks, as the seeds weigh just a few thousandths of a gram.

Professor Alison Snow, an authority on gene flow from Ohio State University who was not involved in the research, said that authorities had anticipated the existence of GM "volunteers" - plants growing in the wild outside fields - but did not consider it a problem.

"Regulatory agencies in the US have acknowledged that volunteer populations of GM, herbicide-resistant canola are expected to occur, as well as populations of inter-specific hybrids," she told BBC News.

"Over time, however, the build-up of different types of herbicide resistance in feral canola and closely related weeds, like field mustard, could make it more difficult to manage these plants using herbicides."

US policy is not to place a GM crop under any special regulatory regime unless there is a demonstrable difference between it and its conventional equivalent. The varieties in use here were deregulated in 1988 and 1989.

This is very different from the regime that has existed for a decade in the European Union.

But the European Commission recently recommended that nations should now be allowed to make their own decisions on whether to allow the crops or not, once they have passed health and environmental impact assessments at EU level.

Authorisations at EU level have been issued for GM potatoes, sugar beet, soya bean, oilseed rape, cotton and maize products.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10859264