HANOVER, Germany â Scientists have found evidence that genes used to modify crops can jump the species barrier and cause bacteria and even fungi to mutate.
One aim of Expo 2000 in Hanover last month was to popularise GM (genetic manipulation) technology. But a young scientist from the University of Jena declared at a media conference at the university's Hanover campus during Expo 2000: Our findings ... provide the first real evidence of what many of us have feared. A lobby of trusts is keen to exploit GM technology, but only a small minority of scientists is looking at the risk of horizontal gene transfer.
A four-year study led by Professor Hans-Hinrich Kaatz found that the alien gene used to modify rape seed oil had transferred to bacteria living in the guts of bees. The research poses serious questions for the biotech industry, which pretends that the chances of gene transfer between species are limited.
The results of the study, which has yet to be published, suggests that all types of bacteria may become contaminated by genes used in genetically modified organisms, including bacteria that live inside the human digestive system. If this happened, it could affect the bacteria's role in helping the human body fight disease, aid digestion and clot blood.
Colleagues of Kaatz at the Institute for Bee Research at the University of Jena have been experimenting with honey bees in a field sown with GM rape seed oil engineered to resist the herbicide glufosinate. They built nets in the field with the transgenic rape seed and let the bees fly freely within the net. At the beehives, they installed traps to remove the pollen loads from the bees' hind legs and fed this pollen to young bees in the laboratory.
The scientists then spread the contents of the bees' intestines onto a growth medium. In some bacteria and in yeast from the gut they found the pat-gene that confers resistance to the herbicide glufosinate. This happened rarely, but it did happen, Kaatz told German TV ZDF on May 21.
The researchers at the campus media conference were afraid: Prof Kaatz is under pressure ... Our biggest concern is that the antibiotic-resistant gene used in some genetically modified crops crosses over to bacteria. If this happened it would leave our hospitals unable to treat major illnesses, for example, meningitis and Escheria coli infections.
These researchers said there is widespread contamination of all conventional seeds in the US as well as in Europe. But it's never too late to stop more sinister catastrophes, they said.
BY DR EKKEHARD JAENICKE