Transgene flow and persistence may be monitored by using in vivo markers such as GFP

BioSafety, Volume 2, Paper 3 (BY96003), August 29th 1996.
Online Journal, URL - http://www.bdt.org/bioline/by

Transgene flow and persistence may be monitored by using in vivo markers such as GFP

C. Neal Stewart, Jr.

Code Number: BY96003 Size of files: Text: 30.6K Graphics: photographs (jpg) - 85.1K

ABSTRACT

There is growing concern among scientists, regulatory officials, and environmentalists about the potential escape of transgenes and the resulting naturalization of transgenic plants. The current thought is that if and when genes are introgressed into wild relatives, the resultant plants could become more weedy and/or alter natural communities and ecosystems by their increased competitiveness. For many plant/transgene combinations that are commercialized or in the process of commercialization in the U.S. and in other countries, this scenario is very plausible. It is plausible because of the nature of the host plants' breeding systems, the ecological importance of nearby wild relatives, and properties of transgenes that may confer an increment of fitness to the host plants. Therefore, the availability of an easy and cost-efficient system to track genetically engineered plants containing potentially ecologically important transgenes would be beneficial for use in basic and applied research and for monitoring commercial releases. I introduce such a system, which consists of linking one or more ecologically important transgenes, such as those conferring herbicide-, disease-, or insect-resistance, to a transgene coding an in vivo marker, such as a green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene. In situations where, say, transgenic insect resistant canola plants are mixed with non-transgenic canola and/or wild mustard, the fate of transgenes may be traced by visual observation of canola or canola-mustard hybrids under an ultraviolet or blue light. Such a system would be very useful in evaluating ecological hazards inherent in many crop/transgene combinations.

Published by Bioline Publications.