Sunday, February 10, 2008

Mutant Mustard Plants in Canada

A recent study found that Canola plants in Quebec, Canada that were genetically engineered for herbicide resistance have interbred with a weed called wild mustard, producing hybrid plants that are resistant to the herbicide glyphosate.

The event echoes the escape of a gene for glyphosate resistance from field trials of bentgrass into wild relatives (see previous story). Inadequate confinement of engineered crops may harm ecosystems in some circumstances and may hasten the development of herbicide-resistant weeds. Read the abstract describing the study in the scientific journal Molecular Ecology.

1 comment:

Jackie said...

I get the seedsofdeception.com newsletters and the news is very scary. Not only do we have too little cereals to feed people due to most going to factory farming but with GMO eventually our crops could be totally destroyed by GMO one crop seeds or plant mutations.