First Genetically Modified 'Superweed' Confirmed by UK Govt.

While biotechnology focused on medical applications garners most of the attention, agricultural biotechnology is a high priority for a number of states. But ag biotech has generated significant concerns in some regions because of its emphasis on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). While three counties in California have banned the use of GMOs, three others rejected a ban in last November's elections; Sonoma County voters will decide whether to enact a moratorium in November.

Those concerns were sure to be heightened when the government of the United Kingdom confirmed earlier this week the existence of the first genetically modified (GM) superweed. The superweed is a result of GM oilseed rape crossbreeding with a common weed in a farm scale trial.

According to the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), the study monitored gene flow from Bayer's herbicide-resistant GM oilseed rape to related wild plants during government-sponsored farm scale evaluations of GM crops. Researchers found a GM version of the common weed charlock (Sinapis arvenis) growing in the field the year after the GM trial, IEMA said.

Results indicated that the plant was resistant to the weed killer used in the GM trial and contained the gene inserted into the GM oilseed rape, the first known case of such an occurrence in the UK. The finding also overturned previous scientific assumptions that charlock was unlikely to crossbreed with GM oilseed rape, according to IEMA. Although the study identified hybridization between oil seed rape and charlock, the frequency of such an event in the field is said to be very low, the study indicates.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) funded the three-year project to examine the extent to which transfer of herbicide tolerance from the oilseed rape crops to wild relatives in the vicinity occurred. A 'split-field' design was used with one-half of the field sown with the GM crop and the other half sown with the conventional equivalent crop.

One of the concerns of GM crop plants is that the gene construct may move from the modified crop into wild relatives of that crop, the study says. Once within wild populations, a selective advantage could be conferred on the recipients, thus altering their biology and influencing their ecological relationship with native genotypes and other species. Also, if GM oilseed were to be grown commercially, herbicide resistant weeds could become more prevalent requiring the use of more damaging weed killers, resulting in increased environmental impacts. Because of such concerns, a ban on growing GM oilseed rape in the UK and surrounding countries was put into place in 1998.

Bayer and UK Environmental Minister Elliot Morley have since tried to have the ban lifted. Bayer has submitted two applications with the European Commission for approval to grow GM oilseed rape in the UK, and earlier this year, Minister Morley tried to persuade other European countries to lift their own bans on growing the crop.

Growing opposition from the environmental campaign group Friends of Earth has mounted in response to the study. In a press release, campaign manager Emily Diamand said, "The government's trials have already shown that growing GM crops can harm wildlife...The government must stop acting as a cheerleader for GM crops, and start paying attention to its own research."

In response, Minister Morley said that no one can state conclusively that GM technology is either wholly good or wholly bad and that the government does not promote GMs. He added that there are no current trials of GM oilseed rape in the UK and no consents for commercial cultivation in the EU have been issued.

The report is available through DEFRA at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/gm/research/epg-1-5-151.htm