GMO Testing Facility: Department of Haematology and Cell Biology

GMO Testing Facility: Department of Haematology and Cell Biology UNIVERSITYOFTHEFREESTATE•UNIVERSITEITVANDIEVRYSTAAT•YUNIVESITHIYAFREISTATA Tel (051) 405 3656 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.ufs.ac.za



●  BtMaize(MON810)introducedin1997

●  OnlycountryinAfricagrowingGMcropsonalargecommercialscale



● MovementofGenesfromGMcroptonon‐GMCropviapollen

●  ResultsincominglingofGMandnon‐GMcrop

●  Unwantedwhenithaslegal,regulatory,environmentalorhealthimplications


●  Legal●  Genepatenting

●  Environment●  Contaminationofwildspeciesorlandraces

●  Economic● Unwantedcontaminationofnon‐GMororganicproducts

●  HumanHealth●  Contaminationoffoodcropsbyexperimental,industrialorpharmaceuticalGMcrop


●  Environment

● Mexico(2001):Maizelandraces

●  Health/Trade●  StarLinkmaize(2000):Approvedforanimalfeed

●  LL601rice(2006):Notapprovedforenvironmentalrelease


●  Geneescape●  Fieldtrialsofexperimentalmaizeevents

●  Geneflowtotraditionallandraces●  Lowcommercialvalue,highculturalvalue

●  Effectsontheenvironment?●  Effectsonnon‐targetandtargetspecies

●  Effectsonfoodsecurity●  Infringementsofpatentrights


●  11publicationsongeneflowinmaize●  NotspecificforenvironmentalconditionsinSouthAfrica●  DifficulttoextrapolatefindingstofarmingconditionsinSA

●  VaryingFindings●  Geneflowrecordedfrom34to650m(PaternianiandStort

1974;Henryetal.2003)

●  RegulatoryImplications?


ToDeterminetheextentandimpact

ofGMmaizecrosspollinationunderSouthAfricanconditions

inthecontext

ofcommercialfarmingpractice


● Maizetrials:2005/2006and2006/2007●  Seed

● MON810GMconvertedyellowmaize● Non‐GMwhitemaize

●  Pollencapturing●  Geneflowatseedmaturity

● Weatherdata


GM

Non-GM


GMNon‐GM


●  Sampling●  Bainsvlei:800cobs/field/season●  Waterbron:1280cobs/field/season

Wind

Crosspollination

Pollenload

BV06 BV07 WB07




%GeneflowCombinedaverage(m)

Combinedhigh(m)

P

1.0 14 36 0.006

0.1 45 135 0.0002

0.01 146 503 0.00002

0.001 474 1869 0.0008



●  Fieldtrials/Non‐GMseedproduction

● Minimizegeneflowtoundetectable:1.87km

●  Combinea2weektemporalisolationwithin1.87kmwitha503

mdistanceisolation


●  Usingaverage%geneflowmayunderestimatethepotentialextentofgeneflow

●  Highvaluesofgeneflowaresignificantlyhigherthanpreviouslyreported

●  Acombinationofisolationdistanceandtemporalisolationshouldbebasedonthemaximumdistancerequiredtoachievetheminimumthresholdlevelofcomingling


●  ThereisvariationintheBtexpressionwithinandbetweendifferentmaizetissues

●  Out‐crossingcanresultinloweredexpressionlevelsofBttoxin

●  Wehypothesizethatsub‐lethaldosesofBttoxinduetovariationinBtexpressionmayhavecontributedtothedevelopmentoftargetinsectresistance



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GMO Testing Facility: Department of Haematology and Cell Biology