Marker Assisted Breeding Will Replace Risky Gene Splicing of GMOs

Posted 9/7/04

."Campaigning for organic food and farming and sustainable forestry --
Marker Assisted Plant Breeding"
Policy Paper, The Soil Association (United Kingdom)
http://www.biotech-info.net/marker_assisted_breeding.html

Summary

The Soil Association welcomes publicly funded research to map the genetic
sequence and structure of plants, offering an opportunity to gain a better
understanding of the molecular biology of crops.

We support the use of this data in natural plant breeding programmes such as
marker assisted breeding (MAB.) By 'natural plant breeding' the Soil
Association refers to methods which do not by-pass the sexual breeding
process.

Scientists have developed the means to read the genetic sequencing of
plants. This genetic map can assist plant breeders to more reliably and
rapidly identify desirable traits when selecting plants for sexual breeding
programmes - a process which in the past has involved drawn out procedures.

Utilising this mapping information whilst maintaining the sexual breeding
process enables the more efficient development of new plant and animal
varieties but without the risks associated with genetic engineering (i.e.
the artificial transfer of genetic material between or within species using
recombinant DNA).

Marker Assisted breeding - Genomics

Marker assisted breeding (sometimes referred to as 'genomics') is a form of
biotechnology which uses genetic fingerprinting techniques to assists plant
breeders in matching molecular profile to the physical properties of the
variety. This allows plant breeders to significantly accelerate the speed of
natural plant breeding programmes, without exposure to the unpredictable
health and environmental risks associated with genetic engineering
techniques.

Maintaining local distinctiveness and genetic diversity. The Soil
Association would welcome publicly owned research using MAB, provided the
technology is not used to promote a narrowing of genetic diversity in plant
varieties. (There is a risk that seed companies may use this technology to
further reduce the genetic diversity of commercially available crop
varieties thereby increasing the plant health risks associated with a narrow
gene pool for the nation's agricultural crops and livestock.)

Organic systems traditionally stress the importance of local adaptation of
varieties and breeds through natural selection. Any marker assisted breeding
programme should therefore focus on the use of germplasm from locally
distinct traditional seed lines from a particular area or region that are
best suited for local weather patterns, soil type and other important
agronomic factors when developing new varieties.

Maintaining genetic diversity within agriculture is of fundamental
importance. It serves as a basic insurance against local crop disease
outbreaks becoming regional or national outbreaks. The less diversity in the
system the wider and faster new bacterial, viral or other pathogens can
spread throughout the national agricultural plant or animal base.

In recent years, plant breeding has become such a specialised and
centralised industry that this essential diversity has been eroded. This
represents a considerable threat not only to the economy of the farming
industry, but also to national food security, human health and the national
economy. The Irish potato famine of 1846 is an extreme example of a past
national crisis which followed low genetic diversity in cropping patterns.

Organic farming reverses this trend of genetic erosion by positively
encouraging genetic diversity. The use of locally adapted plants which are
more appropriate to local ecosystems are important in developing such
systems of plant protection based on genetic diversity.

Patent Protection Abuse

The Soil Association believes that although marker assisted breeding can
play a useful role in the development of new varieties, it must not become a
means to patent specific genes and access to genetic information provided by
the technique must be made available free of charge to all scientists
requiring it for research purposes.

Experience with the human genome project has already shown that the
biotechnology industry frequently seeks to patent the genes it discovers
through mapping research, particularly where genetic sequences are believed
to be linked to commercially exploitable traits. The Soil Association
believes that this is immoral. It contravenes the most basic of traditional
patenting principles , that patents on inventions made by humans are
allowable, but not discoveries in nature.

If novel traits identified by genomic discovery are allowed to be patented
this potentially sound technology will be abused, restricting access to
scientific knowledge of naturally occurring biological phenomena by others
for the benefit of the wider community.

Genetic Engineering - The dangers

Scientists have identified particular effects that some specific genes have
on the characteristics of an organism (e.g. the identification of a gene in
a plant which makes it resistant to a particular insect pest). Genetic
engineering involves the artificial insertion of such individual genes from
one organism into the genetic material of another (typically, but not
exclusively, from other unrelated species). This methodology is the cause of
much concern as numerous problems have been identified.

For example, geneticists have little or no control over where the inserted
gene in placed in the plants' genomes (total genetic material). Thus,
unpredictable side effects can occur through different genes interacting
with each other in the new combination. At present, these interactions are
not well understood by scientists or even understood at all in many cases.

A second problem is that the very process of genetic engineering increases
the level of risk by by-passing the integrated bio-regulatory systems
inherent and generally conserved in the natural sexual breeding process. In
nature genes are regulated by neighbouring (and sometimes distant) DNA
sequences which, for example, control when or where in the plant the gene
should operate. These processes have so far only been identified and
understood to a limited degree. As a result current agricultural genetic
engineering techniques are unable to take these fundamentally important
relationships into account when creating new organisms incorporating
recombinant DNA.

Because of the random positioning of inserted foreign genes and this lack of
knowledge of the natural regulatory functions within plant
genomes,unpredicted side effects occur routinely with genetic engineering
techniques. Many of these have been recorded even in already commercialised
varieties. This can lead to health dangers such as allergenicity or the
creation of new toxins, or poor agronomic performance. An example of an
unpredictable physical side effect was reported in the New Scientist
(20.11.99), whereby more lignin in GM soya than the non GM variety was
found, causing stunted, weak stems which had a tendancy to split open and
reduced yields. Given the depth of such knowledge deficits, the artificial
introduction of novel genetic material out of context using recombinant DNA
is thus fraught with difficulties.

By contrast, however, when Marker Assisted Breeding is used to assist
traditional sexually-mediated breeding programmes, natural processes of gene
regulation and placement are not by-passed. This avoids exposure to the
novel health and environmental risks inherent in genetic engineering plant
breeding methods .

Organic farming

It should be noted that the major issues facing the future sustainability of
global food production are management rather than genetics related. The
principles of organic farming revolves essentially around the constructive
use of natural processes, animal and plant husbandry and good resource
management, rather than merely the attributes of a specific variety.
However, suitable breeding methods can enhance progress through organic
methods.

Soil Association 40-56 Victoria Street, Bristol BS1 6BY E:
info@soilassociation.org
http://www.soilassociation.org

****************************************************************************
*****************************
This GMO news service is underwritten by a generous grant from the Newman's
Own Foundation and is a production of the Ecological Farming Association
www.eco-farm.org <http://www.eco-farm.org/>
****************************************************************************
*****************************