Does DNA transfer from plant to bacteria?
So, is there evidence that genes can transfer from plants to bacteria? Yes, plenty of evidence in the laboratory, for all kinds of transgenes, as noted by EFSA [1], as well as evidence that GM DNA can persist in debris and residues in the soil long after the GM crops have been cultivated. But EFSA insists that horizontal gene transfer can only be demonstrated under optimised conditions in the laboratory, and there is no evidence it can happen in the field. This is not strictly true. Circumstantial evidence of horizontal transfer of GM DNA from plants to bacteria came from the very first field monitoring study carried out on GM sugar beet [4] (Horizontal Gene Transfer Happens, ISIS News 5). It is notoriously difficult to detect horizontal transfer of plant DNA to bacteria resident in the soil, as more than 90 percent of the bacteria species cannot be cultured; and the soil is a very complex, spatially structured environment. We have reviewed horizontal gene transfer from GMOs on numerou
