Scientists find ‘new method’ to prevent accidental spread of GM crops

Chinese scientists claim they have developed a simple strategy to kill unwanted GM plants which are accidentally spread to conventional fields by pollination and seed dispersal.

The unintended spread of GM crops is a major concern for environmental and food safety reasons. This is the main motivation for the introduction by several EU member states of national moratoriums on the marketing and growth of commercial GM crops that have EU-wide authorisation. Now, Chinese scientists claim that they have invented a strategy to contain the problem. 

The researchers modified a strain of rice so that the rice became highly sensitive to bentazon, which is a herbicide used for rice and other crop control and to which conventional rice and other crops have a natural resistance. 

Field trials showed that transgenic rice plants “can be selectively killed at 100% by one spray of bentazon at a regular dose used for conventional rice weed control”. 

The results of the study, published in the open-access, international scientific and medical journal PLoS ONE in March 2008, describe the method as “simple, reliable and inexpensive for implementation” but acknowledge that increased use of bentazon could become a concern for environmental safety and weed resistance development reasons. 

The researchers say that this method could also be used to create transgenic rice with genes that are currently regarded as safe. They argue that as the safety of GM crops may be subject to change as understanding improves over time and some of the GMOs currently authorised become undesirable in the future, the new containment strategy “could make any recall of a released transgene much easier if ever needed”. 

According to the study, the strategy “may be applicable to other grain crops, especially corn”. The same group of researchers is currently working on field trials for corn. 

Several EU countries have, over recent years, invoked an EU safeguard clause allowing the suspension of the marketing and growth on their territory of GM crops which have undergone positive safety assessments by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). 

Most recently, in early January 2008, France suspended a GM maize strain, citing new scientific evidence on cross-pollination of GM and conventional fields at local level and a negative effect on insects. 

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