NewsMakers: Research

Genetically Modified Crops May Pass Helpful Traits to Weeds, Study Finds

For the first time, researchers have shown that a gene artificially inserted into crop plants to fend off pests can migrate to weeds in a natural environment and make the weeds stronger.

Allison Snow and colleagues studied genetically engineered sunflowers-those modified with a gene that produces a chemical toxic to certain insects-to see what happened when these foreign genes, called transgenes, were inadvertently passed along to weedy relatives.

"This is the first example of what might happen if a beneficial transgene accidentally spread to a wild population and then proliferated in subsequent generations," Snow said.

"Many crops can exchange genes with nearby wild relatives," she said. "But few commercially grown crops in this country are genetically engineered. Of those that are, only canola and squash could cross with weeds."

The resulting hybrid sunflowers that contained the transgene had 50 percent more seeds than control hybrids without the gene. These plants also had far less insect damage, suggesting that that the insecticidal gene was working by preventing insects from eating the plant.

"We were surprised that a single transgene could have such a big effect on seed production," Snow said. The researchers also found that the addition of this gene didn't harm the weeds' physical fitness, even when the sunflowers were deprived of water and nutrients.

"A plant with a transgene may have to divert more energy to handle this new compound it's making," Snow said. "Doing so could reduce the plant's ability to reproduce. But that certainly wasn't the case here."

The scientists focused on the second generation of wild sunflowers that contained the transgene.

If a wild relative grows near a crop plant, chances are good that the two will crossbreed. Such unions happen in more than 20 species in the United States, including sunflowers, sorghum, carrots, radishes, rice and turf grasses. But these crops don't yet contain insect-fighting transgenes in their DNA.

It's the plants that do contain transgenes that concern researchers.

"Many genetically-modified cultivated crops could potentially crossbreed with weeds," Snow said. "Weeds are already hardy plants; the addition of transgenes could just make them tougher.

"While it's obvious that a single gene can have a huge impact on plant reproduction in a natural setting, there are still a lot of unknown effects, like whether or not the weed could spread at a faster rate."