Reviewing the controversial reports of ecological safety of transgenic corn published in 《Nature》

Abstract

Abstract: Two controversial events, pubulished in《Nature》, on the ecological safety of transgenic corn, had raised extensive controversies around the world in recent years. One was the controversy of monarch butterfly Danaus plexippus caused by Losey's et al. in 1999, and the other was transgenic DNA introgressed into traditional corn landraces in Mexico caused by Quist et al. in 2001.Also, more meticulous and rigorous studies done by different researchers on the two events were comprehensively reviewed. The results showed that there were no proper control, specific dosage of tested pollen and concentration of toxin in Losey's et al., while for Quist et al., they confused the amplifications of reverse PCR of landraces K1, A3 in Mexico with adh1 gene in commercial transgenic corn caused by their incorrect reverse PCRprimers. As a result, there were some faults in experiment designs of the two controversial events.

Key words: Stow net, Generalized additive model, Environmental factor, Catch per unit effort (CPUE)

CLC Number:

CHEN Mao, YE Gongyin, HU Cui. Reviewing the controversial reports of ecological safety of transgenic corn published in 《Nature》[J]. cje, 2004, (2): 80-85.

References

[1]波谱尔(傅季重等译).1986.猜想与反驳:科学知识的增长[M].上海:译文出版社.
[2]张启发.2002.转基因技术[A].In:http://www.agri.ac.cn/agri-net/02/2 - 05/be24js. htm.
[3]Foster JE. 1999. Butterflies Bearing Grenades [ N]. Washington Times, September 20.
[4]Gatehouse AMR, Ferry N, Reamaekers RJM. 2002. The case of the monarch butterfly:a verdict is returned [J]. Trends in Genetics, 18(5) :249～251.
[5]Gatehouse JA, Gatehouse AMR. 1999. Genetic engineering of plants of insect resistance [A]. In: Rechcigl J K. (eds). Biological and Biotechnological Control of Insect Pests [C]. New York:CRC Press, 211 ～241.
[6]Hansen LC, Obrycki JJ. 1999. Non-target effects of Bt corn pollen on the Monarch butterfly (Lepidoptera: Danaidae) [A].In: http://www. ent. iastate. edu/entsoc/ncb99/prog/abs/D81.html.
[7]Hansen LC, Obrycki JJ. 2000. Field deposition of Bt transgenic corn pollen: lethal effects on the monarch butterfly [J]. Oecologia, 125:241～248.
[8]Hellmich RL, Siegfried BD, Sears MK, et al. 2001. Monarch larvae sensitivity to Bacillus thuringiensis purified proteins and pollen [J]. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 98:11925～ 11930.
[9]Hodgson J. 1999. Monarch Bt corn paper questioned [J]. NatureBiotechnol., 17: 627.
[10]Hodgson J. 2000. Critics slam new monarch Bt-corn data criticized [J]. Nat. Biotechnol., 18: 1030.
[11]Kaplinshy N, Braum D. 2002. Maize transgene results in Mexico are artefacts [J]. Nature, 416:601.
[12]Losey JE, Rayor LS, Carter ME. 1999. Transgenic pollen harms monarch larvae [J]. Nature, 399: 214.
[13]Merton RK. 1993.Science, Technology ( Society in Seventeenth Century England [M]. New York: Howard Fertig Press.
[14]Metz M, Futterer J. 2002. Suspect evidence of transgenic contamination [J]. Nature, 416: 600～ 601.
[15]Pawlowski WP, Somers DA. 1998. Transgenic DNA integrated into the oat genome is frequently interspersed by host DNA [J].Proc. Natl. Acad . Sci. USA, 95:12106～ 12110.
[16]Pleasants JM, Hellmich RL, Dively GP, et al. 2001. Corn pollen deposition on milkweeds in and near cornfields [J]. Proc. Natl.Acad. Sci. USA, 98:11919～ 11924.
[17]Quist D, Chapela IH. 2001. Transgenice DNA introgressed into traditional maize landraces in Oaxaca, Mexico [J]. Nature, 414:541 ～543.
[18]Quist D, Chapela IH. 2002. Quist and Chapela reply [J]. Nature, 416:602.
[19]Sears MK, Hellmich TL, Stanley-Horn DE, et al. 2001. Impact of Bt corn pollen on monarch butterfly populations:a risk assessment [J]. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 98:11937～11942.
[20]Shelton AM, Roush RT. 2000. Pest control, rumor control [J].Forum Appl. Res. Public Policy, 15: 36～ 39.
[21]Shelton AM, Sears MK. 2001. The monarch butterfly controversy: scientific interpretations of a phenomenon [J]. Plant J., 27(6) :483～488.
[22]Wraight CL, Zangeri AR, Carroll MJ, et al. 2000. Absence of toxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis pollen to black swallowtails under field conditions [J]. Proc. Natl. Acad . Sci. USA, 97:7700～ 7703.