Poster: Biotech risk assessment
Abs #
923: Assessment of Measures to Limit Gene Flow from Genetically Engineered Crops
Various measures can mitigate gene flow that leads to expression of transgenes in areas and plants in which expression is undesirable. Indeed, as there are many cases in which introduced non-engineered plants have had negative ecological consequences there may be instances in which it would be beneficial to restrict gene flow from "conventional" plants. We briefly describe several methods for confinement of gene flow from pollen, seed, and vegetative propagules that have been discussed in the scientific literature and patents. Included are methods that are physical, such as spatial isolation; genetic, such as, chloroplast transformation and seed sterility; and genetic requiring a change in management, such as, induced expression systems. We present a semi-quantitative evaluation of the efficacy and feasibility of the confinement measures from the perspectives of regulation, production, and product development. From our analysis, effective gene expression confinement is roughly anti-correlated with feasibility, with more effective measures being more difficult to achieve. However, feasibility and effectiveness scores vary depending on the crop and situation, so that under certain scenarios highly effective gene confinement is also relatively feasible. This highlights the need for a flexible decision-making environment, which is one of the challenges of integrating genetic confinement measures into a regulatory system. As all efforts to reduce gene flow require effort on the part of the developer and/or the grower, increasing the costs to benefits for biotechnology, it is important to require gene confinement only for specific risks.
