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The Senate Thursday defeated an amendment, 45-50, by Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to require comprehensive environmental study of what she called a “test tube” salmon before the government approves it for the food supply.

California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats, voted for the amendment. The split was not along the usual ideological lines.

The salmon would be the first transgenic animal crop to be approved. So-callled GMO crops, limited mostly to corn, cotton and soybeans, have become commonplace in the food supply and have had unintended collateral environmental effects, such as killing the Midwestern habitat of Monarch butterflies.

Californians will vote on a ballot measure in November to require labeling of all genetically modified foods.