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Environmental Safety

Which Crops Could Spread Their Genes?

Maize, rapeseed, sugar beets, and potatoes: Which of these crops could spread their genes?

A 2002 study by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) documented the likelihood of out-crossing for Europe’s most important crops:

Rapeseed (above) und turnip (below): Related species

Sugar beets: Out-crossing to wild relatives is possible.

Maize has no wild relatives in Europe.

Wheat is a self-pollinator and is unlikely to out-cross.

Potatoes reproduce by tubers, not seed.

Rapeseed

The interbreeding of rapeseed with wild species: The pollen of rapeseed comes into contact with several related wild species that are compatible breeding partners. A wild plant known as turnip rape is likely to produce viable hybrid offspring with rapeseed. Wild cabbage and various species of wild mustard are compatible with rapeseed, but viable hybrids are less likely.

Herbicide resistant weeds: The appearance of herbicide resistant weeds due to the movement of genes from transgenic rapeseed is considered possible. Whether or not herbicide resistancegenes become established in wild relatives depends on whether or not these genes offer an advantage to the plant within a certain ecosystem.

The study also revealed that the wild relatives of rapeseed are all very closely related, and it is not yet clear exactly where the limits to breeding compatibility lie. To shed more light on this issue, the EEA study suggests that gene movement (not of GM origin) between different species and populations of rapeseed relatives be investigated. Projects addressing this question are currently underway in several European countries.

Sugar beet and maize. Maize has no wild relatives in Europe at all, making out-crossing with naturally occurring plants little cause for concern. With sugar beets, on the other hand, out-crossing to wild relatives has already been observed. Genes from cultivated sugar beets were found in the gene pool of a wild, coastal beet population in northeast Italy. The region is home to many sugar beet breeding facilities.

Wheat and barley, being primarily self-pollinated, are not likely to out-cross. Furthermore, no wild relatives have been identified in Europe that could produce reproductively viable hybrid offspring.

The movement of genes between potato plants or from potatoes to wild species is extremely unlikely. Potatoes reproduce by tubers. Any pollen that makes its way to another plant does not affect the makeup of the plant’s tubers and therefore is not passed on to future generations. It is theoretically possible that some transgenic seeds could be produced from cross pollination events, but potato seeds, as a general rule, do not survive under field conditions. Although wild relatives of potatoes do exist in Europe, none of them are known to be sexually compatible.

Out-crossing not necessarily a problem

Whether or not an out-crossing event with a transgenic plant has environmental or economic consequences does not just depend on the respective crop. It also has a lot to do with the specific trait associated with the transferred gene. Genes that could confer some kind of fitness advantage need to be looked at more critically than genes that appear to be neutral in this respect.

Prospective ecological consequences of an out-crossing event need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The out-crossing of an herbicide resistance gene to a wild relative should not be considered particularly important, because herbicide is rarely used outside of the field or the farm. Therefore, an herbicide resistance gene is of no real advantage to a wild plant. In fact, herbicide resistant weeds are already quite common on European farms. This has nothing to do with genetic engineering. These weeds spread their genes when they reproduce, which does not seem to have ecological consequences.

Insect resistant rapeseed would be an entirely different question. Wild plants that are spared attack from insects could conceivably be more productive, possibly giving them a competitive edge. Whether crops with improved insect resistance are transgenic or bred traditionally should not necessarily be the decisive factor for determining if they merit an environmental impact assessment.

Consensus documents for standardised safety assessment

The OECD (The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) has issued “consensus documents” for the world’s most important crops. The documents describe the crops’ biology and the location of naturally existing wild relatives that constitute compatible breeding partners. The purpose of these documents is to provide a degree of uniformity and standardisation on an international level for the safety evaluation of transgenic crops.

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